photo: Masyn Winn (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
Shortstop Masyn Winn won the first Gold Glove of his career. Miles Mikolas became a free agent as the offseason officially began. This week’s history feature looks at notable Cardinals World Series moments, awards, and other key events this past week.
Cardinals hire new staffers for scouting department.
Two hires for the Cardinals scouting department were announced on Friday, October 31. The two new staffers are Joe Douglas, formerly employed by the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Jacob Buffa, a St. Louis native and former Houston Astros player development director.
Douglas has spent the past eight years working in the Pirates’ front office and will be brought aboard as the Director of Pro Acquisition. Douglas will work under current scouting director Randy Flores. He will oversee the Cardinals’ pro scouts and the pro acquisition team.
Buffa, a Chesterfield, MO, native and Missouri State University graduate, came over from the Astros organization. He was their Senior Director of Player Development and Performance for the past two seasons and has been with the Astros for almost seven years. Buffa’s role with the Cardinals will be as the Senior Director of International Scouting and will report to Assistant GM Moisés Rodríguez.
The two new hires will be part of the team that attempts to turn around an outdated player development system that has not produced the players the Cardinals have needed to get back into World Series contention. The Cardinals have not won a postseason game since 2019 and have missed the postseason entirely for the past three years.
In other staffing news, the Cardinals will reassign a couple of members of Manager Oli Marmol’s staff. According to Katie Woo of the Athletic, Assistant pitching coach Dean Kiekhefer and game-planning coach Packy Elkins will be reassigned to strategic roles. Woo also reports that the Cardinals intend to hire an assistant pitching coach and an assistant hitting coach later this offseason.
Woo further reports that head athletic trainer Adam Olsen will be reassigned to a front office position. Olsen’s new role will be to oversee the training staff but not be in the dugout. The Cardinals will seek to hire a new head athletic trainer for on-field purposes.
Cardinal shortstop Masyn Winn picks up his first Gold Glove
The Gold Glove winners were announced on Sunday night on ESPN. Cardinal shortstop Masyn Winn was the NL recipient at the shortstop position.
He is the first Cardinal shortstop to win the award since Edgar Renteria won in 2002 and 2003.
Winn was one of three finalists that included Nick Allen of the Atlanta Braves and Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Winn was the favorite to win the award, as he led the NL in Outs Above Average (OAA) among all shortstops with 21.
Winn was a finalist in 2024 but lost out to Ezequiel Tovar of the Rockies.
This is Winn’s first Gold Glove of his young career, with hopefully many more to come. Winn won the Fielding Bible award at shortstop in 2024 but did not win in 2025. The award this season went to Mookie Betts.
Center fielder Victor Scott II was the Cardinals’ only other Gold Glove finalist.
News and Notes for the Offseason
This section in the coming months will contain information and snippets of news that don’t require extensive coverage but are of interest to Cardinal fans.
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Yadier Molina (Criollos de Caguas) Former Cardinals’ catcher Yadier Molina will not be offered a coaching position for the upcoming season, reports Katie Woo of the Athletic, in the same piece in which she announces the changes to the on-field roles of Manager Oli Marmol’s coaching staff. Woo states that the Cardinals remain open to finding a role for Molina within the organization.
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Albert Pujols (USA TODAY Sports) We reported last week that former Cardinal Albert Pujols will not be the new manager for the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels have hired former catcher Kurt Suzuki for the role, which they announced this past week.
Pujols is rumored to be the favorite for the San Diego Padres managerial position. However, according to multiple sources, the Padres are also considering their pitching coach, Ruben Niebla, and former catcher Nick Hundley for the position.
For those fans who are eager to continue to see Cardinals players play baseball for an extended time, the Arizona Fall League is for you. Eight Cardinal minor league players, five pitchers and three position players, are currently playing in the AFL for the Glendale Desert Dogs. This league will play through November 12. Most games are available to stream on the AFL website here. It should be noted that it appears Glendale home games are not available to stream but most, if not all, road games can be streamed.
- “Banana Ball” will return to Busch Stadium in 2026. The Savannah Bananas are scheduled to return to St. Louis next year for two games. The popular entertainment baseball team will come to Busch Stadium on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22 as part of their world tour.
More information about the event and how to get tickets can be found here.
Big Picture.
The offseason is officially here, as the World Series has ended. As of 8:00 am CT Sunday, November 2, all eligible free agents have become official free agents. The Cardinals have one free agent, Miles Mikolas, who although he has expressed interest in returning, isn’t likely to be a Cardinal pitcher in 2026. The next five days will be the time when teams have an exclusive negotiating window with their free agents, so if the Cardinals intend to offer a contract to Mikolas, they will be talking to him between now and 4 pm CT Thursday, November 6.
During the coming week, teams will be making the Qualifying Offer to those free agents to whom they wish to make the offer. They can make that offer between now and 4 pm CT on Thursday, November 6. Those players who are made the QO have until 3 pm CT on November 18 to accept or reject the offer. The monetary value of the Qualifying Offer in 2025 is $22.025 million. It is unlikely the Cardinals will make the QO to Miles Mikolas.
Teams are free to make trades as of Sunday, November 2, though trades generally don’t take place this early.
Any player who ended the season on the 60-day injured list must be added back to the 40-man roster by November 6. LHP Zack Thompson was the only player on the 60-day injured list.
Also happening on November 18 is the filing of Reserve Lists to the Commissioner’s Office. The Reserve List is what most fans know as the 40-man roster. Last week, we talked about this being for the purpose of protecting eligible minor league players from the Rule 5 draft. Cardinals’ players likely to be added to the 40-man roster for this purpose include C Leonardo Bernal, OF Joshua Baez, and LHP Brycen Mautz. Other players may be added as well.
While teams will be adding eligible minor league players to the 40-man roster, they will also be removing players currently on it. The Cardinals 40-man roster currently has 39 players. At least two more spots will need to be open for the above-mentioned minor-league players. The teams will be planning for the next season, and spots may be opened up for possible trades or free agent signings.
This leads to the next date on the offseason calendar, which is November 21. This is the tender deadline (or alternatively the non-tender deadline). On this date, teams must tender contracts to all their players who do not have guaranteed contracts for next season. This includes arbitration eligible players as well as pre-arb players.
If the team does not plan on retaining certain players on the 40-man roster for the upcoming season, they will not be tendering a contract to those players (we may know who some of these players are on November 18).
Last week we discussed whether players who may be in this position could be leaked before the deadline. John Denton of MLB.com has written who he believes may be non-tender candidates for the Cardinals, and he mentions LHP John King, RHP Jorge Alcalá, LHP Zack Thompson (who spent the entire season on the IL) and C Yohel Pozo. Players who are non-tendered become free agents without having to go through waivers (as opposed to those who may be removed when Reserve Lists are filed). In Thompson’s case, he could be added back to the 40-man on November 6 only to be removed again.
Stay tuned for more happenings as the offseason continues.
Trade and Acquisition Rumors
There are no new trade rumors to report.
Transactions
- 11/2 RHP Miles Mikolas elects free agency.
Injury Report
- There are no new injuries to report. However, stay tuned to this space for updates on the recovery from surgery of Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar, and Iván Herrera.
Looking Ahead
The postseason has ended. Miles Mikolas has officially become a free agent. From now until 4 pm CT on Thursday, the Cardinals have an exclusive window to talk to Mikolas about returning to the Cardinals on a new contract. There has been no indication that the team is interested in bringing Mikolas back.
Also, between now and 4 pm CT on Thursday, the Cardinals can make the Qualifying Offer to Miles Mikolas. It is unlikely the Cardinals will make the offer to Mikolas.
The Arizona Fall League is underway and will continue through Wednesday, November 12. The Cardinals have eight players assigned to the Glendale Desert Dogs. Those 8 players are RHP Chen-Wei Lin, RHP Darlin Saladin, RHP Tyler Bradt, RHP Randel Clemente, RHP D.J. Carpenter, C Graysen Tarlow, OF Miguel Ugueto, and OF Travis Honeyman.
November is awards month. The Gold Glove awards have already been announced, with Masyn Winn winning the award in the shortstop category in the National League. The Cardinals have two finalists for the Silver Slugger Award for the Utility position. They are Brendan Donovan and Alec Burleson. Those winners will be announced on November 6.
Other awards to be given out this month are:
Rookie of the Year: November 10.
Manager of the Year: November 11.
Cy Young Award: November 12.
Most Valuable Player: November 13.
Reliever of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, and Hank Aaron Award: November 13.
The General Manager Meetings will take place on November 10-13 in Las Vegas Nevada.
Blast from the Past
This week’s Blast from the Past will continue with the series highlighting some notable events that occurred in the history of the franchise for a relevant period of time. This time of year is postseason time and some past events chronicled here will be postseason events, and others will not be postseason related.
For this installment, we look at events that occurred during the period October 27 through November 2 and focus on such things as records set or broken or other notable events, transactions, and any other unique event that may have occurred during the period.
The following is a list of events that occurred during the period October 27 through November 2 at some point during the history of the Cardinals franchise. Each event will include the date of the event, the individual(s) involved, a description of the event, and any other relevant details.
October 27, 2011 – Cardinals’ 3B David Freese saves the Cardinals from elimination not once, but twice, in Game 6 of the World Series. Freese hits a game-tying triple in the ninth inning and a game winning HR in the 11th inning, to send the Cardinals and the Texas Rangers to Game 7.
October 27, 2013 – Cardinals rookie Kolten Wong, pinch running for Allen Craig in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the World Series, is picked off first base to end the game and give the Red Sox the 4-2 win. This is the first time in World Series history a game ended on a pickoff.
October 28, 1968 – Cardinal pitcher Bob Gibson wins his first Cy Young Award. Gibson won the award on a unanimous vote. Gibson set the single season ERA record of 1.12 that season, a record that has not yet been broken.
October 28, 2011 – The Cardinals win their 11th World Series title with a 6-2 victory over the Texas Rangers in Game 7 of the World Series.
October 29, 1942 – Cardinals’ Vice -President Branch Rickey resigns to become the President of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was Rickey, who while with the Dodgers, signed Jackie Robinson and broke the MLB color barrier.
October 31, 2007 – John Mozeliak is named General Manager of the Cardinals following the termination of GM Walt Jocketty.
October 31, 2011 – The Cardinals announce the retirement of long-time manager Tony La Russa. La Russa managed the Cardinals for 16 seasons and was only 35 games behind John McGraw on the all-time list for games won.
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