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I appreciate your effort LA, enjoyable read, good questions too. I will pass on Stroman straight up. I prefer to wait because the “reset” doesn’t depend on moving Nado at all. It’s just Bills best case.
They could shed more payroll even if they are stuck with Nado but it would stymie Gorman’s chances of getting reps at 3B.
With Arenado onboard, I view Gorman as the super utility, with Donny at 2B, GS.
The OF corners would then have often injured, and demoted, as the starters; with outfield D as a secondary concern to finding your bat (RF), Gormans bat included.
Usually a utility guy plays several positions. I am not sure that describes Gorman. In the majors has he played anywhere but 2B? He needs some reps at 3B. 2025 is supposed to be the year of finding out what we have in several youngsters.
Donny was a minors 2Bman until we challenged him with a utility role at mlb. Edman was a minors SS until he was challenged with an OF/CF utility role. Its the fallout plan for having Nado onboard, and I have zero concern with Gormans defensive flexibility. Today, I’d expect Gorman to be the best 1B on the roster. RF? Pfffft! Stick him out there like we did Donny and Edman. Arenado $ will be at 3B, and needs to play for future trade purposes.
Donovan played a lot of 3B and 1B in the minors as well as 2B and some corner outfield.
For Edman, he was a CFer in HS I believe. So it’s not like he was foreign to it.
If Arenado stays, I think it’s possible Gorman starts the year in Memphis. I know the team doesn’t want to do that, but at least he would be getting everyday reps. I believe Donovan starts the year at 2B unless Noot or Walker is injured. He would be their backup. Normally, I’d expect Saggese to backup Donovan at 2B, but if Arenado is still around, then maybe Gorman gets that role. Arenado is really blocking Gorman (and to some extent Saggese) so the team needs to trade one of them and Arenado costs a whole lot more for probably only 1-2 wins more of value.
I don’t agree with jerking Donny to an outfield corner to sub for someone, or backfill, etc. He’s at 2B for me.
Shuffle the auditions around as much as possible, while they try to earn their positions as a starter. Gorman, Walker, Sagesse better be flexible, if on the active roster, their PA’s depend on it.
Walker is the starting right fielder. There will be no flexibility there.
To the best of my knowledge, neither Gorman or Saggese has ever played in the outfield in a professional game.
Koperniak or Vilade might be the backup in the corner outfield (or Burleson, but let’s hope not), but longer term, the better answer is Donovan because we have a good backup at 2B in Saggese or Gorman.
The Cardinals have made it clear that Walker will get every opportunity to play everyday in RF and I have not heard any names mentioned at 1B other than Contreras and Burly thus Gorman will be blocked if Nado is still around. He can share 2B with Donnie and can DH but that is suboptimal for a variety of reasons.
They could just let Nado be the everyday DH if they want to boost his trade value for July. Other teams already know he is good defensively. What they are worried about is if his bat is going to turn around or not.
The shuffle group of Walker, Gorman, Sagesse are bench players trying to earn an mlb job, if they are active.
Winn / Donovan up the middle for me. I like everyday players there. The infield is transparent and hopefully Gorman is at 3B, but outfield PA’s are wide open. We can gift anyone LF, CF & RF, whomever can survive a demotion and injury, wins.
The bench player discussion has Pages and a backup SS as roster needs, leaving two shuffle spots. It takes a dozen outfielders anyway 🤞
If Nado is still here, could he play backup SS next season, as well as Brandon Crawford did for his 16 GS? That concession literally opens another roster spot for the season.
Winn missed 8 starts by last seasons deadline and frequently in game threads we wondered why he was sat regularly.
Maybe Mo could sign a vet like DeJong on the cheap, but why? If the pipeline has a player ready, sure, but shuffle spots this season should be optimized for exposure. Three spots plz!
If Nado slides to SS for a handful that’s Gormans benefit too.
Saggese will likely be the backup SS. He’s probably not real good. Range is solid and his arm is ok, but he’s still not real well practiced there. But he’s the next best option.
Maybe Mo could sign a vet like DeJong on the cheap, but why?
Because Saggesse only had a .751 OPS in AAA and a .556 OPS in MLB last year.
Maybe the Cardinals should start making sure guys can hit at the AAA level before putting them on the big league roster.
I think it’s possible Gorman starts the year in Memphis.
People seem to forget he put up an .806 OPS in 2023…
I am curious why people think Saggesse will make the opening day roster over Gorman.
And when did the Cardinals announce Donovan will be the opening day 2B?
The shuffle group of Walker, Gorman, Sagesse are bench players trying to earn an mlb job, if they are active.
That is true for a team trying to win the division but I think the Cardinals want Walker and Gorman to play everyday in 2025 regardless.
Its not hard to find shuttle players a starting role on our roster, just sell off another arb player in Donovan (see Edman) and plug in your favorite demotion candidate at 2B. Wallah! We can do the same with Noot, and the outfield is wide open for any bat you want to audition, by simply calling them an outfielder.
There are competing interests at play here.
The Cardinals have stated that 2025 will be a year of playing the youngsters. They also have a history of playing the contracts so something will have to give if Nado stays.
Let’s say this happens: Gray, Mikolas, Matz and Fedde all answer the bell every 5 days all season, as does Pallante. So, all any ‘youth’ can do is squabble over some innings out of the pen. This time next year we, and Bloom, will know nothing more than we know now.
blingboy said:
Let’s say this happens: Gray, Mikolas, Matz and Fedde all answer the bell every 5 days all season, as does Pallante.
The odds of that happening are probably less than 1%. My greater concern is that they are all healthy opening day, so the Cards move the depth starters to the pen and they can’t get built back up later when needed.
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