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CBS sports says, “The Cardinals headed into the offseason ready to deal third baseman Nolan Arenado and had reportedly agreed on a deal to Houston, but Arenado vetoed that with his no-trade clause rights. Things on the Arenado trade front right now are “quiet,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak admitted on the radio last week. Per The Athletic, “multiple league sources indicate the Red Sox represent Arenado’s last chance to get dealt before the 2025 season.”
“As things stand, it doesn’t seem like a strong possibility. Even if the Red Sox want to move Rafael Devers to first base, a better acquisition at third would likely be signing free agent Alex Bregman instead of trading even mid-level prospects for Arenado. ”
‘Ouch’, says me. lolSubtract Helsleys saves alone, and tickets could TANK, early in 25′. Everyone follows the W/L column.
Agreed. Blown saves have a devastating effect on club morale. This is particularly true for starting pitchers, but really the team can go in funk with only a couple blown saves.
It is also tough on fans. Who wants to sit in stands, getting your hopes up for 8 innings, only to have your hopes dashed at the finish?Subtract Helsleys saves alone, and tickets could TANK, early in 25′. Everyone follows the W/L column.
Yeah, I don’t get the ‘get rid of Helsley’ chatter. He is projected to get LESS than Finnegan in arbitration, probably due to length of career, despite having a much better season. The dude is a bargain if there ever was one.
I guess they weren’t expecting a rebuild when they signed (or acquired) all those no-trade contracts, but that’s the cards they have to play at the present time.
They could save a little salary expense by getting rid of Mo and replacing him with a 12 pack of Michelob lite, lol.
Since the entire focus of management is on $$, I’d be surprised if they got rid of Helsley, unless they think the club will be awful. with or without him. If they think this will be a repeat of last year, you definitely want Helsley around, because a .500 ballclub is going to generate a lot more revenue than a 90 (or worse) loss club.
If they think there won’t be that many save situations anyway, I guess getting rid of Helsley makes sense, since he is at peak value, career wise.
How horrible of a catcher is Contraras? Could he play the role of one starting pitcher’s ‘personal’ catcher, kinda like Tim McCarver and Steve Carlton? Obviously, we don’t have a Steve Carlton on the roster, but if Contrares could learn one starting pitcher, inside out, I don’t see why this wouldn’t work to get more lumber in the lineup thirty games per season.
According to espn, “He launched 297 home runs, including a major league-record 81 to lead off a game…”
I saw him a play a couple of times, in Oakland, and with the Pads toward the end of his great career.
Adam Dunn averaged .854 ops over his career, but that includes some lower seasons near the end of his career.
He had a good 10 or 11 year run averaging over .900 ops. That is the kind of hitter we need to contend. Not guys between .500 and .735 ops….…he hits about .290 with 35 homeruns and 117 runs batted in
He’s 5 or 6 years past the prime portion of his career, so those numers are unlikely. In particular, the 117 RBI’s would require both a return to top Arenado form (2015 to 2019) AND some guys getting on base in front of him.
Out of 30 big league clubs in 2024, we were 22 in runs scored /game, but only two clubs (Angels and chi sox) were significantly lower. We just don’t have guys that can get on base. Ever see the movie Money Ball, with Brad Pitt? (spoiler alert–it’s all about men on base, lol)
Since our only hope for a decent season is for some this plethora of 4A guys to turn into big leaguers, I hope you’re right about Saggese.
Unfortunately, I think scouting is a lot better than it was 15 years ago, and any offensive weakness will be known, league wide in an instant. Look what happened to Jordan Walker a couple of seasons ago.
You could argue that a top notch batting could turn him up a notch or two, but if followed the Cards last season you would know that such a coach is no where in sightI see your point, ATM. However, Yepez and Burley only have to improve a modest amount to become serviceable players.
Some of our other guys need a reawakening to do so.
Some of the posters on here were saying if a guy plays gold glove centerfield it is ok if he hits .190!!!! Where, on a club with five Ohtani’s in the starting rotation?’Why not keep Arenado?
I think the argument is that management isn’t going to try to compete in 2025, so why not shed some salary.
So a better question would be’why doesn’t management want to try to compete’?
They dodged a bullet by not extending Goldy a year ago. Why not at least make a token effort a fielding a 85 to 90 win ball club. If it doesn’t work, you shed salary at the trade deadline and regroup.I was in Washington DC in September and caught a Nats game. Juan Yepez was in the lineup, and I he had an extra base hit.
I’m not sure why he appeared in so few games, but his OPS was .764.
That’s not a world beater, but better than the 4A lineup we fielded all season long.Remember when we traded a serviceable 3rd sacker, Placido Polanco, for a star hot corner guy, Scott Rolen?
Why not do the same, only in reverse, from the Cardinals perspective?These deals almost never work out for the club. The player has to stay healthy and stay at mvp level performance for a decade for it to work.
Also, you need 20 out of the 26 guys on your roster to play well to win a championship. One guy won’t carry youIt’s not all doom and gloom. What if they had extended Goldy last Spring for three seasons, at $20 million per season? That is a lot of do ray mi collecting interest.
They declined Lance Lynn’s option, saving $10 or $11 million.
They have a bunch of young players under control, and with relatively low salaries.
Matz and Mikolas (combined 2025 $30.5 million) both go off the books after 2025.
If they can somehow avoid any big financial blunders they will be sitting pretty, ……….
Shildt had the highest (or close to it) winning percentage of any Cardinal manager in the 125 plus year history of the club. Also, look what he did when he took over a .500 ball club in 2018: Managers: Mike Matheny (47-46) and Mike Shildt (41-28)
Yeah, he was annoying, but not as much as TLR. He was fired due to one horrible pitching change at the end of 2021 Wild Card game. Game was tied and he brought in Reyes to throw a gopher ball. That was inexcusable. This was an elimination game. He had a dozen guys in the pen to choose from, and he picked the worst one. Everyone in the stadium knew what was going to happen before the batter got into the batter’s box.
He should have been fired right there in Dodger Stadium that day, not two months later.
All teams start the new season tied for middle of the pack, at 0 – 0, lol. But yeah, we know that a lot of our guys are going to be at least a little worse next year, and it is unclear who will be a lot better (certainly not Helsley). I guess the question is ‘was that Helsley’s breakout year, or the top’?
They could make all this chatter a moot point by signing Juan Soto, and then we’re instantly a contender for at least a wildcard spot. Unfortunately, that’s not too likely.I would view the chances of Mo trading Gorman this trade deadline at less than 10%. The chances of trading Arenado less than 1%.
Theu shouldn’t be trading any way, since they almost always get their pocket picked. OTOH, they are average of better at free agent signings, so that is what they should persue. This strategy is not in play, mid season, with the trade deadline looming.
One thing they could do, that would mitigate risk, is try to acquire a rental type guy at the trade deadline. They wouldn’t have to give up near as much as with a player under control. Especially if a club is basically dumping salary. The question is whether the Cards want to bloat their payroll for the 2nd half run. It gets back to the same question as to whether the front office is satisfied with being slightly better than average.
I just looked at a bunch of team hitting stats, and the Cards are at, or slightly below, mlb average on many offensive stats.
However, where they are way below average is runs and lob (obviously, higher is worse).
They should acquire a hitter with a high BA with runners in scoring position
I checked Cepeda’s stats at baseball reference, and was surprised to see he only played for three seasons with the Cards. Growing up in the 60’s, and rooting for the ‘El Birdos’, as Harry Caray said, was 7th heaven.
I read a few stories about Cepeda’s life today, and they completely glossed over his Cardinal career. Dumb!!
Different organizations have different strengths. The Orioles have a great farm system, the Dodgers are good at signing big fat checks, and the Cards have lately had some success with the free agent market.
We should stick with what we do well, and quit making trades, at which we suck
Here’s a baseball oddity. Tyler O’Neill, Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman, Paul Goldschmidt, Alec Burleson, Nolan Arenado, and Masyn Winn are all within a couple of total bases of each other, around 100 each. In the case of O’Neill it is far more impressive as he has done it in far fewer at-bats and he has more walks, and therefore a far higher OPS.
It still boggles my mind that the Cards basically gave away a .900 OPS hitter. But, they don’t have do overs in MLB trades. I’d say a couple of those guys mentioned above need to pick it up a notch or two for us to to climb over the stubborn .500 win/loss level.
As players age, they lose a half step at some point, and they no longer get cheap infield singles to pad the average.
Also, their bat speed drops, and they lose their power.
Is it possible that both these things happened to Goldy in the same offseason?
