Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - 3 Spots For Arenado BUT What Happens If He Doesn't Get Traded?

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

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With the offseason coming to an end here really soon, the rumors continue to swirl about the Cardinals making trades that involved Nolan Aronado. Do you think he regrets not taking that trade to the Astros? We've got the latest gossip for you on today's episode of Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals fans.

I'm Jady Halford. and I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, covering your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter, X at JD Sports Radio as well as the podcast at L0-1 underscore Cardinals. I want to thank those of you

who make Locked-on Cardinals your first listen every day. We are free and available, wherever you get your podcast. You can find us on YouTube as well, like, subscribe and comment and hit that notification button so you don't miss a single episode

because this is a show serving Cardinal Nation, giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode being brought to you by Fandul. Super Bowl 59 is here, and there is no better way to make every play. More exciting than with Fandall Sportsbook. New customers can bet just $5.

And if you win, you'll score $200 in bonus bets, $200 and bonus bets. Download the app or head to fandle.com to get started. We know it's been an incredibly dull offseason for the Cardinals, right? Something that none of us are used to. And frankly, just being honest, it has not been a whole lot of fun as it. I mean, it's been as boring as it can possibly be. You know, for this year, at least the Cardinals have not been a part of free agency at all, at all. And I'm not going to count minor league free agents or, you know, waiver claims.

They have done nothing. They've done nothing. The only thing that is consistently brought up is trading away star third baseman Nolan Aronado, which, you know, we've been stuck in a standstill with this. ever since he turned down the trade to the Houston Astros, a move that I wonder if he regrets when going back and thinking about it now. You know, the Astros have made some significant changes to their roster. They picked up Esauk Parades to play first base,

and they had agreed to that deal to acquire Nolan Aronado when he vetoed it, and they immediately pivot from that to signing Christian Walker to play first base. They're going to move Parades over to third base and. Instead, they keep trading guys to the Cubs. Kyle Tucker and Ryan Presley, both will be wearing Cubby Blue this summer, which are some significant upgrades for Chicago. The Astros are expected to be a better team than the Cardinals. Point and simple.

Most places have them at around 86 to 88 wins where the Cardinals are 76 to 70-ish. So if winning was the most important thing to Nolan Aronado, really missed a chance there to go someplace that will probably be doing a lot more winning than they will be in St. Louis. Now, he never had, as far as we know, had the Houston Astros on his list of places that he would like to play. Why? I'm not entirely sure. We haven't really heard. I mean, he would have been surrounded by a lot of established veterans, which we know was something that he's more comfortable with.

Jose Altuva is there, Josh Hader, Your Don't know, maybe he just didn't like the fit there. Perhaps he's still mad at Houston for the cheating scandal when they won the World Series. You know, maybe that's what it is. I mean, I could see someone like Aeronado who puts the blood, sweat, and tears into his craft and into the game of baseball and loves it dearly,

holding a grudge like that going, you know what, y'all are cheaters, I will not play for you. But whatever the reason is, he said no. He said no. And now here we are at the end of January and we are no closer to a trade than we were when he shot down that opportunity. We had Daniel Guerrero from the post dispatch on the show yesterday. And he brought up the uncertainty with Alex Breggman's free agency has held this process up. We've stated that many, many times here.

The latest on that situation has some people believing that the Detroit Tigers have the best office. offer on the table are willing to give Alex Bregman either of the most years, the most money, whatever it may be, but that he in his heart may not want to play for the Detroit Tigers. So many are starting to think that he might just go back to Houston, which is where, you know, these trades with the Cubs have kind of opened up some space, specifically that Presley trade. Six years, 156, I think is what the Astros were reportedly offering Bregman. and it doesn't appear they want to budge from that. So if he wants to go back to Houston,

it appears there is a path for that to happen. The latest rumblings, as far as where Aronado goes, have him going to Boston, which we've talked about. But one writer for him on dot com suggested three different destinations. Will Leach says Boston. He picks us of the Royals, and then the New York Mets as potential spots. Now, here's what he said about them.

The Cardinals still want to make a trade happen. But for right now, with Alonzo and Bregman still available, they're stuck. Neither Arnado nor his team imagined really at any point this offseason that they'd still be together when spring training starts, but they're both starting to run out of time. The Cardinals want to drop some payroll and clear third base for young sluggard, Nolan Gorman. Arnato wants to play for a team that's aggressively trying to win. But right now, neither is getting what they want. Kind of stating the obvious, you know, Boston as a destination, we've talked about it a lot. Trevor Story is there.

But Boston's got Rafael Devers over at third base, but he isn't very good defensively. Mashes the hell out of the ball. We know that. But defensively, it's been a struggle for him. So they've talked about and discussed, possibly moving him to first base and trading one of their other young sluggers in Tristan Kossis,

which I still find it unbelievable that you would want to get rid of him. But hey, they know their players better than I do. The Kansas City Royals. currently have Michael Garcia and Brayden Shoemaker listed as their depth chart or listed on their depth chart at third base. Garcia is 24 years old, 231 header, seven home runs, 58 RBAs and 157 games. That's an OPS plus of 72 last season. Braden Shoemake is a former first round pick of the Braves back in 2019, traded to the White Sox for Aaron Bummer back in 2023.

The Royals claimed him off waivers from Chicago. from the White Sox earlier this month, had 64 bats for the Sox last year, who we know were dreadful and hit just 125 with one home run and four RBIs. OPS plus minus five. Negative five. Clearly, the Royals who planned to contend this year could use an upgrade over at third base, over at that hot corner to go along with their superstar shortstop, Bobby Witt Jr. They've still got their veteran catchers, Salvador Perez, Jonathan India.

They picked him up from the Reds. Thank you, Royals, for getting him out of the division. They've got a solid pitching staff, and it's a team that won 86 games last year. They made the wild card. They knocked off the Baltimore Orioles before falling to the Yankees in the ALDS. So they're on the up and up. They're probably going to win some games this year. Then you've got the Mets, unlimited money, although they can't seem to come to an agreement

with first baseman Pete Alonzo. they go out and get Juan Soto this year. To go along with their already superstar shortstop, Francisco Lindor. If Alonzo doesn't return, the plan appears to be that they'll move Mark Bientos over to first base. And that opens up the third base spot. It's got veteran staff, Shamanaya, Kodai Senga, Frankie Montas, Clay Holmes. I'm still baffled that they haven't brought Alonzo back. I don't know what the hiccup is there, whether it's years,

I don't know. I don't know. Because it seems like it would just make sense to bring it back. And then you would have the Entos over a third base, but so far nothing has been done. So that's why the Mets are a spot where, hey, you know, if Alonzo doesn't come back, clearly he's going to be more years and more money than what Nolan Arnado is making right now. We would be interested in maybe having a little chit chat. Although I don't know if Nolan Arnada wants to live in a city like New York. I don't know if that's his thing.

And there's been this talk that Alonzo could go to the Angels now. So I saw something where the Reds checked in on Pete Alonzo. I still think he goes back to New York. But those are the three spots that Leach brings up. They make sense in their own ways. The Royals, just going off of what they've got makes the most sense. You know, St. Louis, Midwesttown, obviously Kansas City is. not a whole lot of difference there for the family and stuff.

So that seems like it would be a nice spot for Aronado if he were willing to go there. Again, the Royals weren't on his list of places that he wanted to go either. So if anything changes, obviously we've got you covered, but the clock is ticking. And spring training starts in about two weeks. And I posted a question on X about this. And, you know, if time does run out, what happens with Nolan Aronado? You know, does he show up the spring training?

How is it affecting the team and what the plan was supposed to be coming into this year? We'll drop into all of that nonsense next on Locked on Cardinals. I love going to live events. This is nothing new. Every dayers know this and going to a playoff game. That's just, you know, next level type of fun that brings fans together, whether it's, you know, the NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL, I mean, how many of you have been to a Cardinals playoff game or a blues playoff game when they were making their run to the cup or the ramps when they were in St. Louis?

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Let's get back to Nolan Aronado in. What happens to be isn't traded? All right? What if the clock, the sands of time run out and there is no deal in place? Do you think he'll show up for spring training? Do you think he'll show up on time for spring training? That was the question that I kind of posted on X. And it got some reaction from people because I don't know if a lot of people have thought

about this situation and how awkward it really is. because, you know, neither side, neither the Cardinals or Nolan Aronado's camp or himself, as far as we know, had any ill will towards each other. Like nobody is mad at the other side about anything. They get it. This is business. You want this. We want this.

Let's move on. They both agreed that exploring a trade is what was best for both sides. Nobody fought this. Nobody was like, oh, I don't know about what. No. Now Nolan Arnado again, never demanded a trade, never said, get me the hell out of this place. This is awful. None of that has ever been reported.

But when they came to them and said, hey, look, this is the direction we're going in. We'd like to do this. What are your thoughts? And would you be willing to accept the trade somewhere? And that's where he said, yeah, you know, I want to not. Check it out. Explore. Explore.

Do what you do. See what you can find. Here are some places I would prefer to come. go because he holds the power with the new trade clause. And then you get Mo at the winter warmup where, you know, what's the rest of the off season going to look like? Priority number one, two, and three are trading Nolan are anato. We're trying to get them out of here. How does that make somebody feel, right? If your boss comes to you, let's just put you in the in the shoes and make it more, you know,

like what we do each and every day. Your boss comes to you. And you've agreed that, working somewhere else was a good idea for both of you and that all you want to do is they want to do is try to get rid of you out of anything else going on with the company you that's the top priority is transferring you somewhere else so you don't have to work underneath these people anymore would you be excited to have to walk through those doors again and be a member of that team now it was brought up from a few people who responded that they believe Aranaado would be a professional about things and show up on time. And I honestly did not mean it to come off that I think he's being unprofessional if he didn't. I didn't think, I don't think that Aranada would do that.

I think he would show up on time. He's never shown any character floss to suggest that he wouldn't. But I'm trying to put myself and you guys in his shoes. about how weird this is going to be for him if he has to show up in Jupiter for the Cargels. Having already mentally checked out from this organization, going, you know what, my future's not going to be in St. Louis anymore. He's probably made peace with that and was probably a little excited to see what was on the horizon, where he could end up.

Oh, who am I going to get to play with now? not expecting to have to come back to this younger reset, rebuild, whatever the hell it is, situation where they're not expecting to compete for the division, a playoff spot, much less a championship, which is what Nolan Aronado's ultimate goal appears to be. And how do you feel excited or positive about anything? when spring training begins, when you've already accepted the fact that you weren't going to be here anymore.

And now you've got to reverse all of that and be like, oh, man, now I've got to go back. Are you sure? You know, Nolan has never been somebody to stir the pot in St. Louis. He's worked pretty well with the media, but he's not like this outspoken guy who always talks to the media after every game. he's not somebody that has or ever seeks the limelight. But you know that if he's still wearing the birds on the bat and has to report to Jupiter come spring training time,

all of the attention will be on him in that clubhouse. There's nothing else to divert it. There is no new free agent to draw attention away from Nolan Aronado still being a member of the San Luis Carpers. there is no prospect who is coming up that everybody's going to be like, no, no, no, we'll get to you, you, Nolan, we got to go talk to this guy. There's nobody like that. Sure, there's going to be Quinn Matthews and JJ Weatherhole. These guys are going to be there at the beginning as non-raster invitees,

but all of the attention is going to be on Nolan R or not. And he's not a guy that seems all that comfortable with that type of stuff. They're going to be asking him, why are you still here? Why didn't you go to Houston? Wouldn't you rather be in Houston? Where else would you rather be than with the Cardinals? If you're going to be here, are you going to embrace this situation? Like Contreras and Sunny Grahap, where they've been kind of like,

no, we want to be a part of us. We want to be a part of getting things right in St. Louis. There's the thought of mediocrity and not having expectations to win this year, dampen your mood and love for the game so much that you'll be miserable. and almost pouty the whole time while you're here. Not that I'm saying he's going to do that, but I'm just saying these are some of the questions that people might come up with and ask him,

will he be willing to sit more this year so that younger guys can play more so that Thomas H.J.C. can get a crack of things. And Gorman and Alec Berlison and all these guys are going to have more chances to get a bet. Will he be willing to sit down to do that? Does any of this sound fun to you if you're Nolan Aronado? Does this sound like an environment in a situation you want to be a part of? No. Doesn't to me, which is why I wondered if he'd be like, hey, guys,

are you sure you don't want me to just stay away until a deal gets done, fingers crossed? And if nothing happens, then yeah, I mean, you got to come to work. but I genuinely feel bad for this situation for Nolan Aronado, who has done nothing to put himself in this spot other than saying no to that Houston Astros trade. And I know he makes a ton of money because people are like, well, whatever, he's a ball player, he's playing a game for a living, he's rich,

blah, blah, blah, blah. But if you ever worked in an environment where you're not happy, but you have to continue to punch that clock at that particular place anyways. If you've ever had to go through it, you know what I'm talking about. It is miserable. It is a miserable way to live. You were genuinely watching the clock to like when you can get the hell out of dodge and just leave and not be there anymore. It's brutal. It's brutal. I think Nolan is very professional. I think he'd do his best not to make it look like he's unhappy, but deep down, you know, this is the last thing he or the Cardinals wanted. And it's hard to

blame the Cardinals because you had a deal in place with the Houston Astros to move things along. He thought it was over. And Otto shot it down. He wasn't comfortable with it. Didn't want to do it yet. And now that window of opportunity has gone by. And now we're all sitting here like, uh, what kind of screwed? I just think he might sincerely regret that if something else doesn't come through soon,

he's going to regret that he didn't take that trade to Houston. Probably the same way he probably regrets going back and not taking the opt-out clause in his contract when he had chance to do that. But at the time, he thought the Cardinals were going to be trying to win championships and not do what they're going to do, at least what they say they're going to do here in 2025. And for the Cardinals, you know, if Nato's back, that means Gorman goes back to like second. second base most of the time, which means Donnie goes to left field, which puts Newton center field. It just moves people around Walker and rights. I mean, Siani will be on your bench, which I don't think is a bad thing.

I think Siani's a bench guy anyway. You got Burleson and Contreras switching off at DH in first base. But I think most people would tell you that Brennan Donovan's best position, the best place he's suited for is second base. Like he gets the job done in left field. don't get me wrong, but you love them at second base, don't you? Newt should be in a corner spot, not in center field. With Siani and, you know, or Victor Scott, Manning's center field.

Jordan Walker should be in right field, which means Gorman and Burleson are both at the DH spot. Both are left-handed, but they don't have lefties very well. So you got kind of two of the same type of dudes. Burleson had this great year. Gorman was down in the minor leagues. But you want him to get the abats at the major leagues, so you don't want him sitting on the bench. So who gets the abats now? Now you're going to bench Burleson, who proved himself quite worthy of being a major league hitter.

Does that mean you got to trade somebody? And why does this keep happening to the Cardinals where it always appears they have too many good players in their eyes? And it seems like every time they do trade someone because of this. And to make room for another guy to get more abats, they choose the wrong guy. They make the wrong choice, and it always comes back to burn them. The guy they get rid of ends up having a lot of success, the guy that they keep ends up not being what they wanted. And we just keep going around and around and around.

It's annoying. I know. I feel it as well, guys. We're going to get into some fan feedback. That's next on lockdown cardons. Super Bowl 59 is here, one game, two teams, endless possibilities, and there's no better way to make every play more exciting than with Fandle's sportsbook, even if you aren't a fan of the Eagles or the Chiefs.

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you'll score 200 bucks in bonus bets. That's fandle.com. Bet with fandle, official partner of Super Bowl, 59. Thank you again for making Lockton Cardinals. Your first listen today for your second list. and I encourage you to go find Lockdown MLB. Our baseball guru, Sully, brings you a daily blend of baseball and humor, keeping you updated on all the teams this off season. You can find Locked on MLB on your YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. All right, so we got some comments and responses to some of the recent shows we've done. So I want to go through a couple.

Let's see what we got. Alpine fan says, we need to play the young guys plain and simple. Move Aranato, as much as I never thought I'd say that. We need to let the young guys go. out there and show us what they got. Yeah, we get that. And if you believe ownership and Mo, that was the plan all along. Trade off the high price veterans, guys like Aronado and Contreras, Gray, Michaelis, Matt, Fetty, maybe even Halsley, cut some of these guys who, you know, you had options on, like Gibson and Len, you're letting Goldschmidt walk. You're letting Kittridge walk.

and you're going to let, you know, the guys that we've talked about, Gorman, Herrera, Pahas, McGreevy, Palante, and others fill all those spots instead. The problem is, Wilson Contreras said, I don't want to go anywhere else. I don't want to get traded. Sonny Gray said, I came to St. Louis for a reason. This is where I wanted to be. It's why I just signed with you guys last year. I'm not trying to get traded.

I don't want to leave. And I'm assuming that Michael has also said no because of his no trade clause. I honestly don't remember hearing anything about Michaelis actually being approached about being traded or asked if he'd be willing to move. But either way, it appears that he's going to be back in the fold. We've obviously covered the Aronado stuff. We've heard rumors that there have been some interest in Matts and Thetty, but they've been more like whispers than anything really substantial. Like, oh, this team really wants to get their hands on Eric Thetty or is really trying to get Stephen Matt's to be that fifth guy or a bullpen guy or whatever. it's really been an offseason of nothing.

Like when we got into this, and I remember doing the episode, and I was like, I'm really excited that the Cardinals are finally going to pick a lane and go that way and say, all right, here's what we're going to do. We're shaving all this old stuff off. We're getting rid of it. We're moving on, and we're going to start this reset,

and we're not going to tear it down. We're not just going to trade everybody away, but we're going to get rid of some of these high-priced guys. We want to make some room for these other kids to we think have futures with our organization to get the playing time and get the abats and throw the innings. And it never happened. It never happened.

And it started with Contreras and Gray saying no. When they started, when they said no, and we're like, well, we're not going to leave. We're like, well, what do we do? How are we supposed to trade and, you know, open things up? Then none of you guys get the hell out of here. They won't do it. So granted, they have begun the minor league. and player development upgrades, which they're way, way, way, way far behind on.

They finally are doing that, which is great. They're getting the instructors and they're getting the right scouting and they, you know, Hyme Bloom's hiring people and I'm all for that. Obviously, patience is something that fans are tired of hearing that word, but it's something we're going to have to have because you got to let Hein bloom and his people get in and, you know, start, you know, churning this thing and changing it. And then it's going to take, it just is going to take time. It's just the way it is.

But the Major League team has lost. As I mentioned, Goldie Gibson, Lynn, who, by the way, being talked about, teams are interested in him as a closer. Lance Lynn? Wow. Didn't think that was going to happen, but that's been reported. Kittridge, Orioles. But it hasn't created the shuffle that some anticipated. So not much has changed, really, you know?

And it's really. I mean, sucked. Let's just be honest about it. It has sucked. Q Jinks says, I'd much rather have Kyle Gibson at the four in mats in the bullpen. That already makes the team better with minimal effort. You messed up with mats. He's paid like a starter, but put him in the bullpen to help you win, get him a good run so you can trade them. mats to the bullpen makes so much sense to me that it's sickening. And not everybody agrees with me on this, but mats to the bullpen, I think is what's best for the Cardinals. You know, if you look at the rotation real quick, you've got Sunny Gregg, you've got Eric Fetty, Miles Michaelis, Andre Palante, and then Stephen Matt's. Now, out of those names, the only one that I think anybody considers a younger player and having something to prove is Andre Palante, who had a half a season last year as a starter, successful. But in a year where the Cardinals are saying they want to see younger players do more, give more, give you. from chances to like, hey, let's see what you got. Only one of your starting rotation guys is somebody that there's some question marks about

of what they are or what they could be. Everybody else, you know what the hell they are. We know how good Sunny Gray is. We saw how good Eric Fetty can be. Miles Michaelis, you know what he is at this point in your career. You know what Stephen Matts is at this point in his career? It seems counterproductive. You're not really learning anything new with all of those guys in the rotation.

injuries happen. Injuries happen. And I've brought this up before where trading away from the starting rotation, not always a great idea because people tend to go down. Obviously, Stephen Mats or somebody gets hurt every single year, every year, like clockwork. Probably going to happen again. But I'd rather have another young arm in that rotation than Stephen Mats. I also believe that Stephen Mats has shown that he can stay healthier when he's just a bullpen guy and he's not gearing up for five, six innings. just in the time he's been in St. Louis. You know, I want to see Michael McGreevy as a part of this rotation. And not just spot starting, but every fifth day.

I want to see it. I like what I saw last year. I was shocked of how good it was. I want to see him, I want to see him duplicate. I want to see if we got something good there. I definitely want to see Quinn Matthews at some point this year, unless injuries or he just gets crushed at AAA Memphis. for whatever reason, I want to see him at the major league level this year.

Like there's no point in holding him back. You know, he's not a young kid when it comes to prospects. Like he's not 19 or 20. You know, he's pushing his mid-20s here. So, no, I want to see him at the major league level. I want to know what we got. Is Gordon Grispo, who is one of your top pitching prospects just a year or two ago? Is he a starter?

Is he a reliever? What are you doing with him? I want to know. is Zach Thompson going to get a chance to start ever again? What are you doing with them? Former first round pick. What are we doing with them? Then we giving up on him?

Is it over? Drew Rom's coming back from injury this year. What's his ceiling these days? It's Koerobi, if healthy. Can't be too far off from the Major League roster canning. There are people I want to see instead of Miles, Michaelis, and Stephen Matt's. I don't care what they can do anymore. There's just so many other guys.

And part of me wishes that, you know, they just eat the Michaelis money and move on. But it's the Cardinals. Well, you know, that's probably not going to happen. And I've said before pitching death, not easy to come by. So I kind of get it while you keep them around. There's been suggestions about moving Michaelis to the bullpen along with Matt's.

But again, it's the Cardinals. I don't see them doing that. just don't. And I always try to stay optimistic about things on this podcast. I really do, but this roster, it just has got a stale feel to it, doesn't it? And I hope that guys like Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman and Ivan Herrera and Lars Newpar, Victor Scott at some point, you know, guys that have some exciting talent, Thomas and J.C. I hope they're around and can help pick up this offense because that was the real problem last year, is not being able to score enough runs. I want to see if they can jumpstart this offense, become better players at the major

league level. That's what I want to see. And I want to see if they can take this off into the next level. Because right now, it just feels like a wash, rinse, repeat situation in 2025 rather than this reset that they said it was going to be. That's just how I feel about it. and I think a lot of you agree with me. So anyhow, we got to wrap things up. Thoughts, comments, questions, leave them down below. We'll put them in our next fan feedback. Thank you again for making Lockdown Cardinals.

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