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Cijinte with a decent 2 innings, 2K’s 1 hit 1 walk
Yellow Ledbetter with 2 hits
Gastelum has looked pretty good in his 2 appearancesI hope the Offense isn’t in mid-season form, I have the possible starters at something like 3-26 in the first 4 games with 1 extra base hit by Church. it is still early and all that but pretty anemic start to spring.
Pretty lackluster game to open spring with the Nats
Liberatore a decent 2 innings with 4 K’s
Church with the HR was about the only offense to speak ofSkylar Hales striking out the side in his inning was a bit surprising
May mean Gorman has some competition at 3rd…Urias can actually hit and had 78 games at 3rd last year
Rumblings Cardinals are close to signing Ramon Urias to a deal…right handed bat…utility infielder
2025 stats on urias hit .241. 11 HR 44 RBI. 384 SLG. 675 OPS. 2.1 war
Can play 2nd/3rd and SS
Winn, Weatherholt, Burleson, Herrera could develop into a pretty good foursome in the batting order….it is a little murky after that.
I don’t have much hope in Gorman developing into more than what he has been, I would think a good start to gain some confidence is critical for him.
Nootbar I don’t see him ever staying healthy enough to be counted on, he can do some things you like to see if he can stay healthy….he should be living in a yoga room and a hyperbaric chamber.
Still have some fading hope for Walker being that he is 23 and a taller player can develop more slowly.
Scott needs to get on base more (Bunt/Walks) and steal more bases, as does the whole team on stealing more bases.
Catcher….I see Herrera as the DH, can Crooks take Pages spot, or are they waiting on Bernal or Rodriguez.
There is some potential, but not a lot of power….they have guys that can steal bases but to me Marmol seems more like a station to station type manager….89 team stolen bases in 2025 was way under what it should be. You cannot be 29th in Home runs and 20th in stolen bases.
More focusing on Player development this year at Major and Minor league level, as I expect them to win around 70 games.
I also think this is a big year for Marmol …he needs to do a better job with the younger players on the roster….I don’t think that has been one of his better areas for several years.
I think they MLBPA/MLNPA leadership has been under federal investigation since 2024 for financial improprieties
Players need to get a strong leader that probably is not in the current union leadership as there seem to be some shady things going on.
I could see that w/ Arenado he seem to hit a lot better with some protection in the lineup, I would not hit him in the 4 spot like Marmol did.
I think what you look for is development more than wins as they will be lucky to win 75 this year
Can Herrera stay healthy and can he take another offensive step to say 25-30 HR’s with a high average
Can Burleson adjust to first and improve off of last years offensive #’s
Can Crooks beat out Pages
What type of offense will Weatherholt produce, where does he bat…he was leadoff in AAA
Can anybody in the Outfield develop into an offensive threat and stay healthy
Can Walker and Gorman get on track or are they just bench players or on another team come 2027
Can Winn improve his offense with a healthy knee more to or better than his 2024 #’s
Liberatore and McGreevy can they become mid rotation or better type starters
Does a healthy Dustin May have anything left
Can Leahy and O’Brien repeat last year
It will come down to if they develop them can they retain them when they are close to hitting free agency….A $100 million payroll is not going to cut it for very long.
The pros on castellanos would be:
Best available free agent right-handed OF bat, which is a apparently something they want.
The Cardinals don’t have much OF production and Nootbar is most likely on the shelf again to start the year
CheapThe Cons on signing Castellanos
Declining hitter @ 34
Not much of a fielder, but I am not sure this team needs a Dwight Evans in a corner OF spot
Clubhouse Character would probably not fit wellDon’t really see it happening, but pickings are pretty slim on the RH free agent OF market, if they get an OF it probably is going to be thru a trade.
They could get Castellanos on a cheap deal as he was released by the Phillies
Hit .250 with 17 HR’s and 72 RBI….those #’s would be better hitting #’s than any current Cardinal Outfielder
While Dewitt seems to be very dollar conscious, other owners could be a lot worse especially an owner who has multiple professional teams and is highly leveraged, or some situation like the Twins have.
Their regional tv revenue has dropped from $75 million with Bally to b/w $57-60 million with MainStreet/FanDuel to now $20 million with MLB.tv; that is a pretty drastic decline of around 73% I think in 3 years or so.
I doubt they were caught off guard by this, as the possibility had to be high after Bally could not get it to work in 2024 and they had to renegotiate at a lower rate. I don’t think it is a coincidence that they also started slashing payroll around that time and focused on draft and development.
They probably need a plan to keep in market older viewers, b/c just from my experience w/ my parents older viewers have a hard time with sports streaming Apps.
Maybe with the new CBA there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
Cardinals desperately need Joshua Baez to develop into a solid major league OF, I assume he will be at AAA most of the year, they are really short on OF talent at AA and AAA
Hopefully Chase Davis has a similar breakout year in development at AA like Baez did last year
Peete just b/c of his age may be a decent prospect for the future, but his strikeouts/contact is a concern 162 strikeouts in 125 games ….but this is somewhat similar to what Baez did when he started in the Cardinals minor league system and now Baez is a top Cardinals prospect and there best OF prospect.
Cijntje not a fan of switch pitchers at all, have a lot of doubts it will work out, but this year should be the year to find out assuming he goes righty the whole year.
Ledbetter had better power #s at high A in 2024 than his first year at AA in 2025, needs to cut down on his strikeouts as he averages about 1 a game for the last 2 years, but a .265 avg actually makes him one of there better OF hitters in the minors….Cardinals are pretty shallow in the OF at AA and AAA.
The 2 competitive picks probably make the deal as that gives them a # of picks in the top 100.
I would say the so called money Dewitt has allegedly put into player development better pay off with some of these guys they have acquired or it’s going to be a long next 4-6 years, because they obviously are not bringing in any free agents that make much money.
