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Fedde took the L for the brewers tonight….was released by Braves few days ago….may go down as one of MO’s best trades got Cash for some new rosin bags from the Braves for Fedde….Cards won that trade
i would just hope Hjerpe can be a quality lefty out of the pen at this point with his injury history.
From what it sounds like on the few podcasts I listened to about this…. Expansion is mainly being sought so the owners can get money from the Expansion Fees that new teams will pay to increase revenues for the existing teams as some are still hamstrung by the Bally’s Bankruptcy and reduced local TV revenue…they will need 23 teams to approve the new expansion team(s)…they also will need 23 to approve any new divisions….2030 seems to be the target date with the new expansion teams. It sounds like the 4 contenders right now are Charlotte, Nashville, Salt Lake and Portland.
Him settling at 3rd may be a good way for Arrenado to waive his No trade, unless he wants to be a backup the rest of his contract
Over/under was 76.5 wins for the year….looked like they would definitely go over at end of May
Now I think it will be real close, I’d project 78 wins right now looking at the schedule, but the pitching is starting to take on a lot of water
2026 could be a real ruff year if they don’t put any money into the MLB team, but they will still be ahead of where they have been the last 3 years with Mozeliak and hopefully Marmol sacked at the end of the year.
Rockies starters must light up like a Christmas tree when they see the Cardinals….rest of MLB they give up moonshots that have fans wearing hard hats in the bleachers for protection.
What is the Cardinals rotation for next year?
Pallante definitely can’t be counted on for the rotation as he is close to a 5 ERA and is way too inconsistent.
I would think the locks as of now are….Gray, Liberatore and McGreevy and there are some concerns for all of those 3
The Internal options are few, maybe Matthews if he finishes strong at Memphis…. Doyle, kind of a big jump…. Hence and Z. Thompson cannot stay healthy to be counted on.
I don’t see DeWitt spending any money on free agents unless they are cheap.
They at least have some Organizational depth at Catcher with Crooks, Bernal and Rodriguez….they don’t have much MLB depth right now as Pages is more of a backup. The good thing with Crooks is he is a left-handed hitter.
They have some serious holes in the rotation and the corner OF spots that really need to be addressed or they need to get real creative in how they use Herrera and Burleson for 1 spot and maybe a platoon of Walker/Nootbar for the other spot if they are claiming they are broke… bullpen is a mystery as well.
I also wonder if Arrenado would be more flexible in his no trade stance if say Donovan beats him out next year for 3rd base….you would not get much and would have to probably eat a good portion of his salary but I assume he still wants to start and that would clear a spot.
The top free agent for 2026 though has to be a new Manager.
2022 was probably their best lineup, but it was also Goldschmidt’s best year as a Cardinal and probably Arenado’s best year….they still had holes in the lineup when Gorman played 2nd, DeJong when he played SS he hit .157, and O’Neil, Nootbar and Carlson all struggled to make contact in the OF….Bader was hitting probably close to a career high .256 before he was traded.
That team also had pretty good starting pitching, which has really dropped off in recent years for a variety of reasons…Just this year Liberatore is their only pitcher with a sub 4 ERA at 3.96
2022 rotation
Mikolas …….12 wins 13 losses 3.29 ERA
Wainwright..11 wins 12 losses 3.71 ERA
Montgomery..6 wins 3 losses 3.11 ERA
Quintana……..3 wins 2 losses…2.01 ERAThey have had a problem for about the last 5 years or so of having 3 or 4 easy outs in the lineup, until they address this they are not going anywhere…only way that would work is if you had lights out starting pitching which I don’t see.
Also the Cardinals are 21st in MLB in stolen bases w/ 62, which is pretty hard to believe b/c they have 3 or 4 guys that can run fairly well….they just don’t for some reason don’t run or put runners in motion, I am putting that on the Manager’s philosophy. Hopefully that will change when he is shown the door at the end of the year.
Potential nicknames for the Cardinals (lack of) offense;
The Big Dead Machine
The Smush Brothers
Oil’s Wallflowers
The Gassed Out Gang
In the Cardinals last 25 losses they have scored 2 or fewer runs in 19 of those games. They have been shutout in 10 of those 25 losses.
Cardinals need more guys that can consistently hit in the lineup to provide some lineup depth and protection
The knock on Jordan seems to be he has no real position b/c of range so he may just be a DH… he does appear to be able to hit wherever he has been…. he is hitting .298 with 6 HR’s at AAA this year, he hit .320 with 6 HR’s at AA before being promoted
If anything this gives them some more depth in the Orginization to hopefully make some future moves…they are definitely going to need some starting pitching next year
If I were the Cardinals I may have tried to get Joe Ryan from the Twins fire sale …could have helped for next year and beyond
With Matz, Fedde, Mikolas, Maton and Helsley…..that’s $48.7 million in Salary off the books from 2025 into 2026
They save roughly 7 million for 2025 with these trades
There MLB 2025 payroll will be around $129 Million…..that is a $50 million cut from 2024 roughly
In 2024 there MLB Payroll was $179.5 Million
2026 Payroll could be real interesting if they don’t do anything in free agency, though Gray will be an Extra $10 Million b/c of the contract structure.
Cardinals grade: A-
The St. Louis Cardinals were 8-15 in July entering Wednesday, no doubt changing their thinking from playoff contender to playoff pretender and leading to this trade. Baez is the headline prospect, No. 5 on Kiley McDaniel’s list of the top 10 prospects in a deep Mets system. The 20-year-old has played all over the infield — he’s probably headed to third base in the long run — and is hitting .244/.334/.406 in High-A.
He has plus bat speed and some high-end exit velocity readings, and despite being young for his league, he has kept his strikeout rate in check at just 16%. Though the numbers don’t necessarily jump out, his .740 OPS is well above the South Atlantic League average of .672. He’s hardly a sure thing, but the upside here makes Baez a nice return for a reliever with an expiring contract.
Dohm is the better of the two pitching prospects, a third-round pick last year out of Mississippi State who has a 2.87 ERA as a starter across two levels of A-ball. He has been handled carefully after his junior season in college was cut short because of a forearm strain, but he’s a fastball-heavy pitcher with a good slider. He was up to 99 mph as a reliever for the Bulldogs, so that could be his ultimate destination.
Pretty difficult to evaluate A ball players, but if you look at the draft from a few weeks ago and this trade there seems to be a pattern of what they are looking for:
Plate discipline and exit velocity are part of the formula it seems on hitters
And velocity for pitchers
