Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - 5 Free Agent Position Players The Cardinals Should Think About

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

- Winter Warm Up - Nolan Arenado - Free Agents - Outfielders - Infielder/Utility Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTube Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLB Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rocket Money Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com/lockedon today. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel From big upsets to game-winning drives, the NFL Playoffs are better with FanDuel new customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED - Win or Lose. Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. Make this playoff season unforgettable with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every team could use more depth. And today we've got Thomas Gauvain joining us to look at five free agent position players that the Cardinals could sign for 2025. You are Locked on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Lockedon Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals. I'm J.D. Hapford and I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day.

You can follow me on Twitter acts at JD Sports Radio. You can also follow the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals. I do want to thank those of you who make Locked on Cardinals your first list in every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. We're also available on YouTube, like, subscribe, and comment. Don't forget to hit that notification button so you know when the new episodes are posted. This is a show serving Cardinal nation and giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat.

Today's episode brought to by Fandul for big upsets to game winning drives. The NFL playoffs are better with Fandul. New customers can bet $5 and get $2. 200 bucks and bonus bets guaranteed. Win or lose? Visit fandal.com to get started. All right. I hope everyone had a solid weekend.

We get back to the grind that is Cardinal baseball today and help us get through all of the massive amounts of transactions and news. Is our friend Thomas Govain from Redwood Rants.com. Happy Monday, man. How are you? Good. Good to be back with you, J.D. Good to have you back.

The St. Louis Cardinals, I don't know if you've noticed, Thomas, but they have been a whirlwind of activity and excitement this offseason, probably the most exciting team in Major League Baseball at the moment. It's been really tough to keep up. Obviously, we're joking a little bit here because the Cardinals have done almost nothing, almost nothing. There's been a couple of things here and there thus far. But here we are a week out from the annual Cardinals winter warmup,

which is taking place at Bush Stadium and at Ballpark Village coming up on the 18th through the 20th. I'm kind of curious. I don't know about you, but I'm curious what the attendance is going to be like. We saw what attendance was just at the stadium in general for actual games last year and what it might be like for the winter warm up this year, considering the lack of movement on the roster, the direction the team is going into heading into 2025, lack of star power that the team possesses in general. I mean, obviously you're going to have your diehards that are going to show up and come out and support. I would be there if I didn't have any prior engagements, but I've already committed to. to some things so I can't go. But for the average fan, Thomas, there's no Yacht, there's no Albert, there's no Wayno. Where's the excitement that would entice people to come down to be a part of winter warm up this year? They just added a whole bunch of free autographs and John Moseilac is

on there. They're all sold out. I just checked the website, so you can't get any of the free ones anymore. I don't know. For me, I just like being in the stadium and around it. I won't be there either. I'm out of town. But I think it's cool just to have the opportunity to get that with professional athletes and coaches and people within your organization. You get to go to the stadium and get tours of it. It's a pretty cool event for fans. I know it's not free, but there's still some stuff that you can do that are included just by showing up. Getting to the clubhouse is a pretty cool thing to do.

You get to go down there and take a tour in there and walk around inside. And last year when I was there, Ali was actually down there and taking pictures with people. So, I mean, you have a chance. If you want a picture with Holly, maybe that's something you can get. Winter warm up this year is going to be, it's more geared about the young guys. I mean, you do have some of the, some of the, you know, the famous guys from the Cardinals, Tony LaRoucis is supposed to be there. Ozzie Smith, Vince Coleman.

But it's more about the young guys, Jordan Walker, Mason, Wend, Thomas and Jacey, Quinn Matthews, T.K.K.K.K. You mentioned some of these autograph sessions. Those are already sold out already. You're going to have guys like Sunny Gray and Ryan Halsley and other veterans who will be there outside of Nolan Aranato, who continues. to be the subject of trade rumors. Now, the latest that we've heard on Nato is that Boston still remains in play. It seems like the best fit for everybody involved. But we've also heard the names of the Mariners and the Tigers have been brought up to.

But, you know, with Alex Bregman still out there as a free agent, we're kind of at an impasse of sorts because they're trying to figure out where he's going to go first to decide who needs a third basement still. So, and in the same way, we feel like that's kind of what Bregman's camp might be doing, is they're like waiting to find out who's going to go get Nato, and that way they can, you know, put the pressure on those other teams. But we've got pitchers and catchers reporting in about a month. So it's kind of a crappy position to be in.

What are your thoughts on everything that's transpired with the Nolan Aronado situation thus far? It's bizarre. And it feels like every single day that passes when Nato isn't traded, he's just going to be on the team. And he's going to start spring training with the Cardinals, he'll at least be there for the first half of the year. It's just weird that it seemed like there's been so many speed bumps and stops, but then it's accelerated here. And then we've stepped back.

It's just a wild history. And I really wouldn't be surprised. I think it was Katie Wu talked about this recently. He's such a driven player, and he's going to find a chip for his shoulder, regardless of where it comes from. I could totally see him starting the year with the Cardinals, being red hot for four or five months, and then we can ship them out at the trade deadline.

if we're not in contention. I think that's probably the most possible route at this point. Gosh, that's such a bummer too, because I sincerely was hoping that they were going to get something done with Nato, not because I just want to get rid of him. That's not really the reason why. But if the team and the franchise really does want to turn the page and move on with things and actually do something during this reset, a trade really needs to happen because right now they're basically running things back with the majority of the same guys. who got them 83 wins last year outside of, you know, Goldie moving on, Gibson, Len. But for the most part, there just hasn't been much movement on the roster, Kittridge signed. But it's just like, for the most part, it's the same dudes.

And it seems like we haven't been able to. It's weird because nobody wants to leave. Like, you know, Contreras and Gray, these guys that they were thinking like, okay, you guys probably want to move on. No, they all wanted to stick around. and it kind of screwed this whole thing up a little bit. I saw a graphic yesterday. I want to throw this up on the screen for you guys who are watching on YouTube and for you, Thomas. I don't know if you saw this from Brooksgate that showed which teams

had cut the most payroll since last year. And the Cardinals, there we go. Boop. Take a look of that. Cardinals are the fourth most overall so far behind the Mets, Braves, White Sox, and Marlins. Mets are the lowest right now. at almost 78 million despite signing one Soto, if you can believe that.

It shows you how much money they were spending last year. I mean, they were like 350 million. Verlinder and Scherzer, yeah. Yeah, Braves at 71. White Sox are at about 68. Marlins around 64. It's kind of funny to see those four names together because you got the Mets and Braves who were clearly trying to win World Series.

And then you got the other two teams who are nowhere near winning a championship. And then you got the Cardinals coming in at 61 million. majority of that being their choice to move on from Paul Goldschmidt and Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn. Shetting money from Nato's deal would obviously help continue that trend. And if they do a do get a deal done, then they can move on and start putting money and time and effort into adding depth pieces for the team in 2025, which is where you come in, Thomas, because you put together a list of five position players that you think would be, a good fit for this team next year. So before we get into the names, give them an idea of what

kind of free agents you were looking at and thinking about that this team might be able to use next year. Yeah, there's still guys like Alex Bregman and Pete Alonzo out there who would be wonderful right-handed Betz Chad. They're not realistic. My goal here was to find people who could play basically a utility role or center field to platoon with Michael Ciani. I think that's what John Moseilac was hinting at and Derek Gould was hinting at when they talked about these things. And so those are the types of guys I tried to find. All right. So we're going to start with a familiar name to Cardinals fans.

And it's a guy that obviously was a big fan favorite when he was in town. It was traded at the deadline back in 2022 and has bounced around a bit ever since. And that would be outfielder Harrison Bader. Tell me why Harrison might be a good fit for this team. There's the nostalgia factor that everybody loves for somebody. I love to see Harrison made her back. He was one of my favorite players in the late teens, early 2020s. He's got the speed still.

His defense is still very much supreme. He had 10 outs above average last year in center field. And to be honest, his offense wasn't terrible. He was below average. His WRC plus was 85. He still hit 12 home runs. He had 17 stolen bases. He hit 236.

For a platoon center fielder, who's familiar with the organization, that's pretty important, especially someone who was a part of an era where he was supposed to be the next core for the team. And to have him come back and help this next core develop, I think that could be huge for everybody involved. Yeah, and in the same way that Matt Carpenter was brought back last year. It's a guy that they're very familiar with, as you mentioned. So it makes a lot of sense. He can grow his hair back out and be all Harrison Baderie the way he was when he was having a whole lot of fun in the Cardinals outfield.

and winning gold gloves. And yeah, it was a good time when Bader was a part of this team. And it certainly caught me off guard that day when that deal was made like right at the deadline. I remember we're doing the whole MLB trade deadline coverage that day. And when they the trade went down, I'm like, Bader. I was like, oh my gosh, Bader for who the hell is Jordan Montgomery? And then obviously it ended up being a really good trade for the Cardinals. One of the ones that people forget about that actually was a decent one by John.

moseilock and you know people kind of brush over that and pay attention to the negative ones more than that but ended up being a good trade for the Redbird so we're going to continue with this list because the next guy on Thomas is right up here which you can find at Redbirdbrance.com had three straight years of hitting 15 or more home runs driving in 60 or more runs he's now a free agent we will talk about him next on Locked on Cardinals from big upsets to game winning drives the NFL playoffs are better with Fandul because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets. Guaranteed that's $200 in bonus bets, winner lose. The Fandual app gives you everything you need for live bets, same game parles and so much more.

We've got the wrap up of the wild card weekend in the NFL happening tonight, Vikings and Rams in Arizona due to the catastrophic fires that are going on in California, which has just been awful to see. Vikings favored by two and a half tonight. next week in the divisional round matchups, the Texans will be at the Chiefs, KC, seven and a half point favorites right now, commanders at Lions, Detroit, eight and a half point favorites. Ravens at Bills,

this one caught me off guard a little bit. Ravens at Bills, Ravens, one and a half point favorites in Buffalo, a little bit surprising. And then whomever wins tonight's game between the Vikings and the Rams will play the Eagles, who sadly bounced my Packers yesterday.

That was a brutal game. But you can make it more fun by visiting fandal.com. joined today, get started with $200 in bonus bets. That's fandal.com. Make this playoff season unforgettable with Vandall, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Thank you again for making lots on Cardinals, your first listed every day.

You can leave your comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X anytime you want your feedback. He's always welcome and encouraged. Our guy, Thomas Govain, joining us from Redbird Rance.com. Make sure you give him a follow on TwitterX as well at Thomas Govain. Right-handed hitting depth pieces that, the Cardinals should look at, in your opinion, is what we're talking about today. That's our topic of discussion.

We already talked about Harrison Bader, as we like to call him, Darth Bader. Next on your list, though, Thomas is a guy who, I mentioned three strong years between 2021 and 2021 and 2023. Last year, things plummeted for him. He's a free agent, outfielder Austin Hayes. What can you tell us about Austin and why he would fit with what the Cardinals are doing? Yeah, so the downside to Hayes is that. that his walk rate got much worse last year,

and his strikeout rate escalated a little bit. He was not tender to contract by the Phillies at the deadline in November, so he became a free agent. He was one of the names, like everybody who came out with top 10 non-tendered guys. Austin Hayes was probably near the top of most of those lists. He's only 29. I can't imagine he'll get a three, four-year, multi-year deal just because of his struggles last year.

However, like you said, 2021 through 2023, He had no PS plus of 109, and he hit 15 home runs each of those years. Like, there's a legitimate profile in there for a real outfielder. I think he'd be a great fourth outfielder. He could feasibly play center, but he's primarily in the corners. I think the idea is that if he's playing in the corner outfield, Dupar would then move over to center. That seems to be the team's preference.

Michael Siani would be relegated to the bench. The issue with this is that Austin Hayes would probably block Alec Berluson. I know they bat different-handed and Burley can play first base in DH, but this would take 100 outpats away from Burleson in the outfield if they do sign Austin-A's. But he's a great fourth outfielder, I think. Yeah, Alec Burleson's a curious case because, you know, you see a guy who, you know, why the team at home runs last year and was obviously in his second full year in the big leagues kind of a breakout star for the Cardinals.

but at the same time, his struggles against left-handers was evident. I mean, he crushed Rites. That was something that he did the entire season, but the lefties really had a lot of trouble with him. And, you know, when you got a guy, they can hit 20, 25 home runs and something, you don't really want to use him in a role where, you know, he's rotating with people. But at the same time, if you can't hit lefties, what are you going to do?

Like, what's the point in having you in the lineup? And he's also. of a guy like you mentioned that is kind of a guy without a real position because you can stick him in the outfield, but not that good. First base, we still are not sure what him and Contreras can do together at first base. D.H. seems like a nice spot for him. But again, if you can't hit lefties, you've got to be on the bench for that stuff. So as weird as it is, it makes sense to kind of take those abats away from him if he's going to be as dreadful against lefties as he was last year. So, um, Makes sense. That one makes sense. How about another outfielder? We'll stick with the theme here.

Another name here is a guy that I personally, I remember mostly from his time with the Oakland A's. Seemed like a guy that was going to be one of those, you know, like the A's, they always seem to turn out some young up-and-comers and eventually they get shipped off to somebody else. But he had a really strong 2019 season where he hit 24 home runs. He drove in 67 RBIs. He had a really good. And I always talk about this. Like he looked like a good ball player, just like his build and everything. 123 games that year in 2019 has never played more than that. Since that point, he did have a suspension in 2021 for the PEDs where he missed 80 games, but he's been with the A's, he's been with the Guardians, he's been with the Braves, obviously Guardians and Braves, some pretty good franchises right there,

and had some decent numbers last year with Atlanta. Tell me about Ramon Luriano. I'm glad you mentioned that bit about him being with the A's, because that's what I think of too, and I think of Luriano. In fact, I really didn't have much of a clue that he played Cleveland and Atlanta until I did some deeper research on him. But I do remember he was a centerfielder for the A's and he had that great year in 2019. So you put it all together there. Last year, he struggled with the Guardian so much so that they released him after just 31 games.

He went over to the Braves. And he really went off there. He had a 296, 327-505 line with them. He hit 10 home runs and just 225 plate appearances. So he did really well in the limited time that he was there. I don't know if that's enough to propel him to a multi-year deal. We could come in and snag him. He's only 30, 31, I think.

So he could come in and snag him on a one-year prove-it type deal, and then he could turn that into something two or three years next off-season. I wouldn't expect amazing results on either end of the ball, offensive or defensive, but he fits the bill. He can come in. He'll be serviceable. and it'll get you some good at-bats, especially against lefties. Now, when we talk about the outfielder's because I've mentioned multiple times this off-season

where, you know, there's not a lot of room on the roster to add these pieces. And you think about, you know, whether if a trade finally goes down with Arnado, then Donovan would probably be your second baseman. But if it doesn't happen, then I guess we're starting Donnie in left and Lars in center and then Walker and right, which means you still got Siani. You mentioned Burleson, Victor Scott. I guess he begins down at AAA is what we're talking about. So when we talk about these guys,

and you'll keep mentioning like, you know, hey, this isn't like some superstar. That's the idea, though, is that we're not trying to find somebody who's a superstar. You're in fact doing something that is very odd for Cardinals fans this year. And that's where we're finding guys that could fill a role and maybe flip them at the trade deadline this year, guys that might be useful to other players, which is why when you see, you know, know, the Austin Hayes and the Luriano's where that's what happened to them last year.

You know, they went from Baltimore to the Phillies. And then, of course, Luriano going from Cleveland over to Atlanta. These are guys that they have something to offer, but they don't have to be everyday players. So it's kind of where we're fitting these guys in because what, the 40-man roster for the Cardinals, I think it's at 39 right now. So not a ton of wiggle room to go around. Matt Coperniac is a guy that, you know, that could be a bench bat as well. So there's not a ton of wiggle room here.

So when we go through these names and you're going to have fans who are like, who are these guys? Like, what are you kidding me? Well, these are the kind of guys you need on a team and on your bench. They can help you out in different situations down the road. They're not going to be superstars, which is not what the Cardinals are interested in right now. So keep that in mind as we move forward on this list.

We're going to go into an infielder and a utility guy. We'll continue this list of names with top. Thomas Govane from Redbirdrance.com next on Lockdown Cardinals. Thank you again for making Lockdown Cardinals. Your first listen today for your second list. And we encourage you to find Lockdown MLB, our baseball guru, Sully, brings you a daily blend of humor in baseball, keeping you updated on all of the teams during this offseason,

including the Cardinals and the rest of the NL Central. You can find Lockton Immobile on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Again, Reddardrance.com is where you can find Thomas Govain's work. You can follow him at Thomas Govain on Twitter. next on your list, an infielder. This is something where, you know, again, the Cardinals got a lot of guys who can play infield, but, you know, there's going to be situations where you need a guy like,

you know how the team had a Matt Carpenter and a Brandon Crawford the last year. There's a spot for people like that. This is a guy that the Cardinals actually had a little bit of interest in last year. We brought him up sometimes during the off season. He ended up basically doing a tour in the NL West last year, which has basically been his career. But last year, he went with the Giants. He was with the Dodgers.

He ended up with the Padres. He spent 10 years in Arizona. Nick Ahmed, how does he fit into what the Cardinals might need in 2025, Thomas? Yeah, and you talked about it. I think it's important to mention, like, these people are the 26th man on the roster. They're not taking spots away from Thomas to JC. They're not taking spots seriously away from Alec Berlus. Those guys are going to get their reps.

They'll be fine. There's 26 men. We need them to come in. for a pinch. We need their veteran leadership. That's what these guys would be. And that's what Ahmed would be as well. And injuries happen, guys. I know we're always in the offseason thinking, everybody's going to play

162 straight games and everybody's going to be fine and it doesn't happen. It never happens. I mean, you've seen it with Lars Neupar over the years. You know, the things happened. You know, we had the elbow injury with Donovan and how big, like all of a sudden you're like, all right, who's going to play left, second, third?

Like, who's going to do all this stuff? You need these type of guys. Nick Ahmed makes some sense. Yeah, and so he'd be the backup infielder, primarily at shortstop. I know the club is comfortable with the JC. They gave him a lot of run at shortstop last year in the minors, but Ahmed is a proven, legitimate defensive shortstop. He is not going to blow anybody away offensively. He's never even been league average, according to weighted ones created plus,

but he's been exceptional defensively. He has 118 outs above average, 79 defensive runs saved at shortstop alone. He would just come in, get Mason win five to 10 games off a year. he can spell it second base or third base if injuries pop up or if no one Mormon's striking out too much or if C. J.C.'s going through a rough stretch. He can fill in for those guys for 200 plate appearances in a year. Like that's all he would be. And his defense gives him a very nice solid floor. Yeah. Kind of think of him in a way of how Siani was supposed to be last year when you came into the season where Siani, like if he had made the roster, which, you know, he was kind of on the bubble when

season when spring training was going on, but ended up being his real role for Michael Ciani should be a defensive outfielder coming off the bench. He really doesn't need to be starting because of his issues with the offense. Cardinals needed him to be that guy last year. And yeah, he flashed the glove. But obviously people had some issues with him offensively. But you think about late inning games when you start moving people around to close things out. Maybe you got a two-run lead. and I mean, do you want, you know, Gorman out there and Alex Burleson still out there in the field and stuff? Or would you rather? Yeah.

Would you rather bring in somebody who's like a, like a non-med or a Siani and stuff like that to kind of close things out? So these are the types of situations where he would be useful. Another guy in your list, we know the Cardinals like their flexibility. They like guys who can play in different positions, which is never a bad thing. It's actually smart to do that. It's a guy who spent a lot of his time out in the NL West. I remember him mostly as a Rocky, but he was also in Miami in 23 with the Royals last year. Utility guy, Garrett Hampson.

What can you tell us about Garrett and his fit with the Cardinals if they were to go out and sign? Yeah, I'm in the Kansas City area, so I saw Hampson play quite a bit last year. And once again, you're signing him for defensive purposes. He had a 230, 275, 300 line line line. last year, he only had 14 extra base hits. It was very limited time. He just barely hit 200 played appearances. But you're signing him for defense.

He's a plus defender, literally everywhere. And like eight of the nine positions on the field, you can play in a positive way. He's a poor man's Brendan Donovan, Tommy Edvin, that's what he would be. So while Donovan, if Arnottos traded, Donovan becomes full-time starter at one spot. Hampson can then fill in behind him as a full utility guy.

wherever we might need him. You can play center, he can play shortstop, second base, third base, corner outfield, wherever it is, you can trust him

to have a good glove out there. And that's why we bring him on. And if memory serves, I feel like he's a decent, like base runner, too. Like, I feel like he's got some speed. Am I wrong there?

I feel like I remember him being like a decent stolen bass guy in fantasy a couple of years ago. He, 17 stolen bases in 21, 12, and 22. I don't know what his sprint speed would be. I can look that up really quickly, see where he is.

Yeah, that's where I remember his name for when he was in Colorado. I was like, ooh, because obviously you're always trying to pick up Colorado guys for all offensive purposes. I remember I'm stealing some bases back then. I was like, oh, Hampson was on a run there for a little bit. Yeah, he's in the 99th percentile in sprint speed. So that'd be nice too. We need to steal more bases.

We have not been doing that since these new rules. And Mason Wood needs to hit 15 stolen bases. Garrett Hampson needs to like, just run. please we have nothing else to do this year just run yeah yeah i i'm always about that like creating stuff creating chances for run like you know you see if everybody does it against the cardinals when we get out there they're running all over us and it's like why don't we do that they've actually made this sport easier to do this you should be doing more of it and taking more chances and pushing the envelope a little bit so uh yeah that's a guy hampson was a guy that i just remembered

him being quick and, you know, that's something this team could use, you know, you can never have enough speed. And if there's a situation where if you're not going to hit the home runs that you think you're going to hit playing in a ballpark like Bush Stadium, how else are you creating offense and stealing bases obviously a way that the league wants you to do that? And it's something that fans love and, you know, you still get Cardinals fans talking about the 80s and how wonderful it was to watch these guys running around and stealing second and third and bunting and do it.

They would go crazy over the. that. If you want them to embrace some of these young guys, if you started playing ball like that again, the old school whitey ball, I feel like the St. Louis Cardinal fan base would be all over it. I feel like they'd rather watch that than watch, you know, the McGuire years where it was just home run after home run. I feel like, you know, there was more winning when they were still in. Yeah, a lot more success. Yeah, more pitching, more defense, more speed, you know, power schmower, you know, whatever way you got to do it to create the runs, we're in for it. And that's what the Cardals fans want to see. So you can find that whole list once again at redbird rants.com. What are some other

stories that you've been working on? I know you had something about Lars Nupar recently. What else you got going on? Yeah, so the Lars Nupar piece started. Brandon Kiley tweeted out that he has been almost as valuable as Rosarina and Elise Garcia in the last three years. But people won't give him the credit the way they do those other two guys. I really want the Gorto to stay in the bullpen. So I read something up about that. And I've got, I'm starting. I've started started to dabble in like Cardinals history stuff. So I'm getting for more pieces out about that. Give me something on Terry Pendleton.

I feel like people forget he was a Cardinal and how good he was over at third base before he going up and had all that success with the Braves and when an MVP started with the Cardinals. That was one hell of a deal they had back then. But anyway, check out all of Thomas's work. He's continuously writing daily. We don't have any transactions to tell you about with the Cardinals. So this is what we do. We discuss options that maybe, maybe they could look into down the road as we get closer and closer to spring training.

Again, we're only a month out, you guys. It's going to be really, really fast. And then we're right back at it with a full schedule here at Locked on Cardinals. So, Thomas, appreciate you as always. And we'll talk to you real, real soon. Okay, ma'am. All right. Stay warm out there.

Thank you again for making Lockton Cardinals. Your first listen every day if you haven't already. Give us a follow on TwitterX at L0 underscore Cardinals. and a JD Sports Radio. You can like and subscribe on YouTube and help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball

for a reason. We will see you next time on Locked on Cardinals.