Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - 3 Things The Cardinals Got Right In 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's easy to be negative about the Cardinals these days. So today, we're going to point out some of the good things that went right for this team in 2024. 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 Haffern and I'm a National Radio Sports anchor, born and raised in the Lou and a lifetime Cardinals. I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. We're covering your team every day. Follow me on Twitter, exit JD Sports Radio.

Starting point is 00:00:39 You can also follow the podcast at L.O. underscore Cardinals. I want to thank those of you who make Locked on Cardinals your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. You can also find us on YouTube, making that push for 11,000 subscribers. So if you enjoy the content and stuff that you hear and you're a big Cardinals fan, go ahead, hit that like button, subscribe. Be sure to comment and interact with us and hit the notification button so you know when new episodes are posted.

Starting point is 00:01:04 This is a show serving. Cardal Nation and giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by Fandall. You can start the season with a big return on Fandall. Place your first $5 bet and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets. Guaranteed, visit fandle.com to get started. First off, apologies. I was sick last week so I wasn't able to get out an episode each and every day for you guys and missed a couple of days there.

Starting point is 00:01:31 I'm still kind of recovering from whatever the heck I get. I don't even get sick very often. It doesn't happen very much. But when I do, man, it takes me out big time. So apologies for that, but we're back and ready to go on this Monday. The 2024 Cardinals finished with 83 wins last year, which was 12 more than where they were in 20203. So despite not making the playoffs, you can view this past season as an improvement at least. I wouldn't say it was like a grand success at all, obviously.

Starting point is 00:02:02 our aspirations are to make the playoffs and make a run for a world championship. But, you know, it was still an improvement and that the team was a much better product day in and day out than it was in 2023. I think you can admit that, right? Of course, we as fans wanted more to be better than that. But when the season began, I predicted 84 wins. So it's not like they were all that far off from what I thought this team was going to be because the roster as a whole just it just wasn't good enough. in my eyes from the get-go to push for 90 wins and be a playoff team. I just didn't see that happening.

Starting point is 00:02:41 It doesn't mean that this team was complete garbage by any means, despite what the attendance dropped down to each home game, which made you think that maybe they were playing like the Chicago Wide Sox, which they really weren't. The team won more games than they lost this year. They were much more entertaining in my eyes to watch this year than last year. and there were a few reasons why. And I want to point those out. I want to highlight some of those good things here today,

Starting point is 00:03:06 things that actually went right for the team in 2024. And I want to start it off with the decision to trust Mason Wynn to be your everyday shortstop. Now, Wynn got a taste of the show at the end of 2023. And it was a real struggle for him offensively, as it normally is for a young player. I think we take for granted that these guys are, you know, if they've been pretty good at AA and AAA,

Starting point is 00:03:30 that they're just automatically going to be really good at the major league level. That's really just not the case. It is night and day almost between what the pitching and what the players are like at the major league level and what you're seeing at AAA. Not saying that AAA doesn't have its good players and all, but I mean, this is the best in the world that are playing at this level. And kids get up there and it's tough. It's a tough adjustment not only for the game itself, but just lifestyle-wise, going through. to another new city and then getting used to what hotel life is and everything that they got to go through at the major league level. So it can be tough for guys when they first come up.

Starting point is 00:04:12 Not everybody just comes out smashing the ball. It just doesn't happen. He appeared in 37 games, made 137 plate appearances, and hit just 172 in 2023. He had a 230 on base percentage, 238 slugging percentage, 467 OPS. The OPS plus was 28. 28, man. Defensively, I think most of us came away pretty impressed with what we saw for Mason when when he first came up. His demeanor, his range, obviously the arm is he's got a cannon. The maturity that he showed at the position where, you know, he had chances where he could try to

Starting point is 00:04:48 rub that arm up and gun somebody if he could really go for it. But it would put the ball in his pocket and be like, no, it's not worth it because if I'm making an error, the guy's moving wrong. So offensively, some were very skeptical about what they saw. And some even made up their minds that he'd never be able to hit at the major league level. They thought that was that was it. Mason Wend is not a terrible hitter. And we're screwed at the shortstop position. So I don't know where those people are now.

Starting point is 00:05:15 I wonder about them. I wonder if they're safe. If they've, you know, gone into their little caves and are hiding because my everydayers will remember that I was appalled and scolded people like that who felt that over 37 games that this guy's future was already a foregone conclusion. I pointed out that he had similar struggles at every single level of pro ball that he had been in so far. He would start off a little bit cold, figures things out, and then his numbers would even out. He'd become the guy that we've known throughout his career. It's why getting guys like Mason Winton last year, Thomas Jacey this year,

Starting point is 00:05:53 by getting them at bats at the major league level, you can even say Luke and Baker, who looked way more comfortable this year when he finally came up, why getting them at bats at the big leagues at the end of the year is important. Let them get used to things, you know, see what it's like to be a big leaguer. That way you kind of have a jump on things for the next season, because when was a rock star from the get-go this year?

Starting point is 00:06:19 This dude was outstanding. You know, he hit 304 in that first month, hit 309 in May. First half of the season, he hits 284, 332 OBP, 406 slugging at a 739 OPS. The OPS plus was 109. The Cardinals were winning, you know, as they crept up in the first half of the season. Things were going pretty well after the early months where they struggled. And if you remember early on in those months, Ali had him down in the order, often batting him at number nine. but eventually as he progressed, they started to realize that, okay, he's actually more deserving to be higher in this lineup

Starting point is 00:06:59 and ended up taking over that leadoff spot. If there was a complaint, it was that he only hit five home runs in the first half of the season. People were wondering, okay, does he have any power whatsoever? And he does. He proved that the second half. He discovered that power stroke a bit. Smacks 10 home runs. So the slugging went up to 427, but the batting average did dip a little bit,

Starting point is 00:07:19 which often happens when, you know, the power goes up. A lot of times the batting average come down a bit. It drops to 247. Much of that can probably be attributed to the wear and tear of his first big league season, though, because the final 23 games were very bad. Okay. Worst numbers, he hit 196. The OBP dropped to 234.

Starting point is 00:07:41 Remember how early on in the season they were giving him days off, trying to keep him, you know, well rested, and people complained about that. Then later on in the season, and he's playing every day with something like 50 straight games, I think is what was brought up to us. And, you know, he just wore down. He just wore down, which often happens to guys when they take on their first major league season

Starting point is 00:08:03 because it's so long and growing. Defensively, fan graphs had him at 14 defensive runs saved, which is tied for six best in all of baseball, and not at shortstop in all positions. Like, he was tops at shortstop, finished three better than the angel Zach Nito, or is a Netto. I forget which one he is. Now he did make 18 errors. I'll be honest there, 18 errors, which you hope he improves on the fielding percentage. 971, which is eighth in the league

Starting point is 00:08:31 at shortstop. But overall, I think you had to be impressed with what Mason Wynn did for the team. And he quite possibly could be the face of this franchise moving forward. I kind of pointed that out that we all kind of thought Jordan Walker was going to be that guy and he was going to be your face. And he was going to be the Batman. Mason Wynn was going to be the Robin. And that didn't happen in 2024. Mason Wynn took on that top role. And he was, you know, the guy whose picture was plastered all over things. And Jordan Walker spent a lot of time in the minor leagues instead.

Starting point is 00:09:02 Now, can they come together, hopefully, in the next couple of years? Yeah, I sure hope so. I sure hope so. But right now, Mason Wynn is the guy. So that was one thing they did get right. Trusting Mason Wynn. They obviously got Brandon Crawford just in case. And we don't really know how much Brandon Crawford helped Mason win behind the scenes.

Starting point is 00:09:24 I would assume he did a good job helping them learn things about the position and whatnot. I never heard any complaints about it. But they trusted Mason went from the get-go. And that was a smart move. They got that right. Next up, we're going to talk about the pitching side of things that they got right. That's next on Lockdown Cardinals. The fall season is upon us.

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Starting point is 00:11:43 X anytime you want. Your feedback is always welcome and encouraged. So coming out of 2023, one thing that needed some major attention was the Cardinals starting pitching, right? A lot of turnover there. Gone were Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, who just pitched excellent for the Dodgers. Adam Wainwright was gone. Dakota Hudson. Yeah, he was on the roster and he was gone. There was some high-priced talent that was available in free agency. Remember, we talked about, you know, Syong winner Blake's now, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, think about, ooh, you can get him. But realistically, we knew the Cardinals weren't going to fork over the dough. It would take the sign of any of those big guys, right? It just isn't something

Starting point is 00:12:33 they were going to do. They wanted innings eaters. Remember? Remember that phrase innings eaters? You had one already in your rotation in Miles Michaelis, who may or may not do things all that well at this point in his career, but you certainly can't knock him for not taking the ball each and every day. I mean, that is one thing Miles Michaelis will do. He's been able to stay healthy over the last couple of seasons. And even though he's not all that great on the mound sometimes,

Starting point is 00:13:06 or a lot of the time when you go look at things, but it's a guy that you could always count on, that it was always going to be there. He's there. He'll take the ball. He's ready to roll. You still had Stephen Mats, who they were hoping could stay healthy.

Starting point is 00:13:19 Spoiler alert. Didn't happen. So they needed at least three guys to fill out the rotation, right? Three guys to fill out the rotation. So Mo went out and he signs three. He goes and gets Sunny Gray. He gets Kyle Gibson and he gets Lance Lynn. Gray was an obvious target because he just

Starting point is 00:13:38 fit. He just fit being a St. Louis Cardinal. And I hope he sticks around. I hope that we haven't seen the last of Sunny Gray and Cardinals uniform. But he was what they were looking for. They were looking for a guy who could take on that number one role on the staff and be somebody that they could count on to get strikeouts. He had a he has the swing and miss. And it was just coming off an AL-Sye Young award-worthy campaign where he finished second in the voting. Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn were interesting choices, considering the seasons they were coming off of. Gibson won 15 games with the Orioles, but had an ERA of 4.73, gave up the fourth most hits in the league. Lance Lynn was with the White Sox, then got traded to the Dodgers. He got dinged to the tune of a league leading 44 home runs and gave up the fifth most hits in the league. You add those two guys to the type of pitcher that Miles Michaelis was who led the league.

Starting point is 00:14:33 and hits giving up, and it left me scratching my head and a lot of people, scratching their head. But the target was innings, guys who would throw a lot of innings, and get quality starts. That's what they were looking for, and that goal was certainly met by Kyle Gibson because he was able to stay healthy. I'm not knocking Lance Lynn. Lance Lynn surprised me how decent he did pitch when he was available this year, but we know he went through some injuries, and it was a tough year for Len, although I think he panned out, but, you know, he missed a decent chunk of time. But Kyle Gibson, he was everything they wanted him to be.

Starting point is 00:15:15 Kyle Gibson gave them 30 starts. The league leaders of Major League Baseball made 33 starts. He threw 169 and 2 thirds innings, which gives you almost six innings per start. He had 13 quality starts, which was tied for second on the team with Sunny Gray. Number one, Miles Michaelis, by the way. Nobody would have seen that one coming. I sure didn't. Miles Michaelis had 15 quality starts this year, if you can believe it. Kyle Gibson did go through a rut where he didn't win a game for a while there, if you remember,

Starting point is 00:15:47 but finishes on the season at 8 and 8. We know that, you know, records can be a little misleading at a 4.24 ERA, a IRA plus of 99. I think, in my opinion, Kyle Gibson, did a really good job. job in the role he was given. And to be honest, I wouldn't hate to have him back again next year as part of the back end of this rotation if they can get him to take a pay cut. I don't want him at the, what is it, 12 million, I think is what he's supposed to make next year. I don't want him at that price. But maybe he takes a pay cut. It's not out of the realm of possibility is if he truly

Starting point is 00:16:23 wants to be in St. Louis and enjoy his time in St. Louis, which it seemed like he did. So I'd chalk the signing of Kyle Gibson as something they definitely got right. Okay. I would put Lance Lynn on the, on the list of something that they got right. I didn't, I didn't like the signing when it happened, but when you go back and look at it, Lance Lynn was better than I gave him credit for. And, you know, egg on my face for for not believing in Lance Lynn like some other people did. I know I had plenty of friends who were big fans of Lance Lynn and were always like, dude, Lance Lynn's not that bad. Why do you hate on him so much?

Starting point is 00:17:03 And I'm like, I don't feel like I hated on him that much. I just, you know, I wanted better. I just wanted better is I was hoping for a higher quality signing than Lance Lynn. I like the Gibson signing from the get-go, but I wanted somebody better than Lance Lynn. It didn't happen. But I think Lance Lynn did a fine job. But I was very much impressed for the most part of what we got from a Kyle Gibson last year. So I want to give credit to Mo, which is not something that we do a whole lot of,

Starting point is 00:17:34 but credit to Moe on the Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn signings. And I think they got those right for what those guys were supposed to be, which was back of the rotation guys. You got to admit they weren't that bad, right? Like not everybody can throw up a staff that's got a bunch of Cy Young Calibur guys, one through five. All right. And, you know,

Starting point is 00:17:58 should they have gotten somebody better than Lanselin and Kyle Gibson to go with one of Kyle Gibson or Lanslin? Yes, I still think that's something they should have done. But I can't say that those guys did anything wrong. And so we'll give them credit for that one. Last but not least, we're going to move to the bullpen. A bright spot for this team this season with Ryan Helsley

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Starting point is 00:19:50 all of the ups and downs of what's going on with the playoffs every single day. You can find the link to Lockdown MLB in the description so you don't have to go searching anywhere. We make it easy for you. if part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. So the rebuilding of the bullpen was also something that Mo had to deal with in the off season. Jordan Hicks gone. Chris Stratton, damn glad to meet you. Shipped out at the deadline in 2023.

Starting point is 00:20:17 And the Cardinals went about it by basically signing and trading for multiple people, including John King, who was coming back from the Montgomery deal. from the Rangers. They traded for Andrew Kittridge from the Tampa Bay Rays. They got Ryan Fernandez as a rule five pick from the Boston Red Sox. They brought back, who else did they get? They got a, you know, a couple guys in the Tyler O'Neill trade, which didn't work out so well. Riley O'Brien traded to get him out of Seattle. Sean Armstrong, obviously was a deal they made as well from Tampa Bay and the Dylan Carlson deal.

Starting point is 00:21:01 They signed free agent, Keenan Middleton. So the game plan was to attack this problem by getting as many arms as they possibly could, as many arms as they could get their hands on. Because fulping arms can be very volatile, as we've learned over the years. You usually need a bunch of them to get you through the year.

Starting point is 00:21:23 And that's exactly what happened, because not all of those names that we just mentioned, those deals didn't work out. You know, King, Kittridge, and Fernandez, they worked out great. They worked out great. The Tyler O'Neo deal did not work out so well. Sean Armstrong,

Starting point is 00:21:42 surprisingly to me, got DFAed for roster spots. O'Brien was hurt most of the year. Keena Middleton never pitched for them because he was hurt due to injury. But you have King, Kit, Fernandez,

Starting point is 00:22:01 with guys that you already had in the, in the bullpen in Jojo Romero, Matthew Libertor, and close Ryan Halsley. And that mix along with, you know, some of those other guys that got sprinkled in throughout the year, guys like Kyle Leahy, Chris Roycroft,

Starting point is 00:22:16 ended up being a pretty darn dependable bullpen. You know, they had hopes. And I get it. You want to, when you've had a guy that's been in your organization for a while, you want to give them as many chances as possible. By all accounts, Giovanni Gallegos was a really good guy. Everybody loved him in the clubhouse, but he just didn't have it anymore. And they kept giving him chances because, you know, over the years, they felt like,

Starting point is 00:22:45 hey, you know, he's been one of our guys. We owe it to him. And finally, they had to make a tough decision by cutting him loose because he just wasn't any good anymore. So that took a while to get through. Andre Palante ended up moving up into the rotation. He wasn't so great out of the bullpen. So then they go to the rotation and, you know,

Starting point is 00:23:01 he figures things out of AAA. That was good. But you saw Gordon Gristho come up and get some action as well. Stephen Matt's did some bullpen work again. I think overall, you've got to be impressed with how they put it together. Overall, they finished with a combined 3.64 ERA, which was the seventh lowest bullpen ERA and all. of baseball.

Starting point is 00:23:24 They combined to lead the league in saves with 55, obviously Ryan Healsley being the big guy there, accounting for 49 of those, a record-setting season for him with the Cardinals. And of the main bullpen pieces of, you know, Halsley, Libertoric, Hitchridge, Fernandez, Romero, and King, they didn't spend a lot of money to make this bullpen as good as it was, which is pretty good. Now, Helsley's eventual arbitration raise in possible trade is clearly going to be a big story during this off season. We'll keep an eye on that. Kittridge is also a free agent,

Starting point is 00:24:00 but everyone else will be back. So that's a good start for 2025 when I spoke with Jeff Jones last week. He mentioned that somebody that, you know, when we were talking about possible closers to take over for Ryan Housley if and when he does get traded. You know, he mentioned Matthew Libertor, which is somebody that, you know, he was pretty good last year. But he also mentioned Chris Roycroft. They like his kind of, you know, bulldog mentality. And he's a guy. He looks when he's out there, he looks nasty, right?

Starting point is 00:24:35 He's a big guy. He's got a lot of energy. And he looks like he's got the mindset to be a closer. Does he, is his stuff good enough to be a closer? They'll have to work on it, obviously, because, you know, there's moments where he came in. And you're like, oh, my gosh, he looks great. And then he'd say, oh, my gosh, you looks terrible. So obviously, you need them to be a little more consistent.

Starting point is 00:24:55 But overall this year, the way they put the bullpen together, and then you see the final numbers, I think you have to give the front office and the Cardinals credit that they got it right. They got it right with what they did to build this bullpen. And, you know, get some more arms to keep it going. when people would break down eventually because, you know, obviously we have injuries from time to time and these guys will fall off. You know, how big was not having Keenan Middleton this year, considering what kind of pitcher he was the previous year and how good he was like with the Yankees and had some decent moments with the White Sox, but particularly how good he was with the Yankees. Like losing that guy was huge.

Starting point is 00:25:44 That was huge. and you saw other guys have to pick up the slack for him not being there. I mean, Andrew Kittridge coming back from Tommy John surgery, like, you know, this was, that was a lot of work for him this past year. So that sucked. But we got to see some other guys step up in his place. And I thought the ballpin was good, you know. Again, this team wasn't perfect by any means.

Starting point is 00:26:12 It was just kind of a good team. but there were some positives that went on this year, you know, and some honorable mention guys that went well. How about Alec Burleson this year? Giving him more at bats and using him more, ended up showing that he became one of the more consistent hitters on the team, specifically against right-handed pitching. Now he's got some issues against lefties,

Starting point is 00:26:35 but you saw him step up with the Tyler O'Neill trade, where was production going to come from? He was great. so you got to give them some credit there. You know, keeping Michael Siani around. He was a guy in spring training that I thought

Starting point is 00:26:50 was going to get cut or certainly it was going to be down in Memphis. Injuries caused him to be on the road, on the, excuse me, opening day roster. I told you I'm sick. And they trusted him. And he was able to have a gold glove worthy season in center field.

Starting point is 00:27:09 So there were some things they got right. Now, there are certainly some things they got wrong, but we're going to save that for the next episode. So those are my three things that the team got right, trusting Mason win, signing Kyle Gibson, piecing together the bullpen. What are some other things that you feel that the Cardinals did right in 2024? Keep it positive. Keep it positive. We can talk about them in another upcoming episode as well. So leave your comments down below.

Starting point is 00:27:34 Hit me up on Twitter X. Thank you for making it locked on Cardinals your first listen every day. If you haven't already, please give us a follow on Twitter X at L1, squadinals and a JD Sports Radio, like, subscribe on YouTube. Help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. I'm going to go take some more medicine. I will see you next time on Locktown Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:27:54 Thanks for hanging out, guys.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - 3 Things The Cardinals Got Right In 2024

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