Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Cardinals Add New Flamethrower To The Bullpen!
Episode Date: January 12, 2026St. Louis Cardinals add World Series-winning reliever Ryan Stanek in a bold bullpen shakeup. Can the flamethrower's triple-digit fastball re-ignite the team's late-inning dominance? Trade rumors swirl... around Nolan Arenado, Brendan Donovan, and JoJo Romero, with major market implications and questions about future returns. Is a big move imminent, and will Cardinals fans see fresh faces or familiar names in key infield roles?JD Hafron breaks down Stanek's strengths and veteran appeal, while analyzing recent arbitration decisions involving Brendan Donovan, JoJo Romero, Alec Burleson, Lars Nootbaar, Nolan Gorman, Matthew Liberatore, and Andre Pallante locked in for another year. Key topics include the impact of Alex Bregman’s signing with the Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox’s shifting strategy, and ongoing TV broadcast issues affecting team revenue. Will the Cardinals’ patience in trade negotiations pay off or leave them on the outside looking in as rivals strengthen their rosters?0:00 – Cardinals Bullpen Addition10:00 – Trade Rumor Updates23:15 – Arbitration, TV NewsFollow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-st-louis-cardinals/Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonstlcardinals.supercast.com/Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIOFollow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_CardinalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDONFanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Every Friday night, before the games tip off, FanDuel gives fans a new way to kick off the weekend with NBA Happy Hour. Check the FanDuel app and see what’s dropping during NBA Happy Hour — every Friday from 6 to 7:30 PM Eastern. FanDuel — the Official Sportsbook Partner of the NBA.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 #stlouiscardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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The St. Louis Cardinals had a World Series winner to the bullpen plus the latest trade rumors surrounding Nolan Aronado,
Bernardino, and Jojo Romero. This is 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, other Cardinals fans. I'm Jody Hafer, a former national radio sports anchor, born and raised in St. Louis and a lifetime Cardinals fan.
And welcome to another episode of Lockedon Cardinals. Part of the Lockdown Podcast.
Network, now the number one sports podcast network.
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For those of you who are new, welcome in.
I hope you do enjoy the content that we have for you to for today.
This is a show that serves cardal nation gives you all the info about the birds on the bat.
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playoff game day. So on today's show, we've got arbitration cases to talk about that they were avoided.
actually, it was good news. We're going to talk about the trade rumors involving the Cardinals
trio of guys that are being talked about a lot so far this off season. But we're going to begin
with the addition over the weekend. And the Cardinals added another name to their stable of
relievers who also happens to be a St. Louis native, which is cool. In 34-year-old,
Ryan Stanick, who have reportedly agreed on a one-year deal, $3.5 million,
which includes a $6 million club option for 2027.
Now, St. Nick was born in St. Louis, which is great.
Actually grew up in Kansas and went to college at Arkansas.
I actually found a picture of him.
All right, check this out for my YouTube people.
There he is.
Looks a lot different.
But in this photo, it's of him playing with Arkansas against
Missouri State. How about that?
solid nine-year major league career,
which includes winning the World Series with the Houston Astros back in
2022. I'm not really sure if they still use the
term journeyman anymore when describing players who have been
on a lot of teams. But if they do, Stanick certainly has done that.
He would be what you call a journeyman reliever.
Let me get you another picture of them. There he is.
There he goes. This from last year with the Mets. Drafted by Seattle in the third round out of high school in 2010, decided to go to college instead, compiled the 22 and 8 record and a 2.55 ERA in three seasons before getting selected by, guess who? What of Highen Bloom's old teams? The Tampa Bay Rays took Stannick with a compensatory pick at number 29 overall in the 2013 draft right after the Cardinal selected left-handed Rob Kaminsky at number 28.
and just a couple of picks ahead of the Yankees who at number 32 took an outfielder from Fresno State.
I might have heard of him, Aaron Judge.
Yeah, that's a bad one.
And yes, Bloom was with the raise back then when this election was made.
So he was around when they chose Stannock.
In his career, he has pitched for the raise, the Marlins, the Astros,
Mariners and Mets.
Now the Cardinals will be added to that list.
The best year of his career was that 20-22 season with the Astros,
when he appeared in 59 games at a 1.15 ERA, which is phenomenal ERA plus of 333.
Insane numbers that particular season.
But since then, as regressed, has gone 14 and 10, 4.78 ERA, well below average ERA plus of 84.
More recently, last year and a half with the Mets went from Seattle to New York,
was especially rough in a Mets uniform, going five and six with a five.
5.47 ERA, ERA plus of just 74.
Now, there is one thing that he does do well.
They should interest fans and is exciting.
And that's the fact that this dude throws hard.
All right, fans dig the smoke, don't they?
Chicks used to dig the logging ball.
Now fans dig the smoke.
They want to see triple digits.
They want to see hard throwers.
Stanick is certainly one of those.
He averaged 98.5 miles per hour on his fastball last year.
year, which is in the 96th percentile of all major league pitchers.
The dude throws hard.
All right, he can spit the pill.
Also, there's a slider, got a splitter, got a sweeper.
And until last year, the strikeout percentage was pretty darn good.
27.8, opponents batted just 213 against him.
But last year in New York, the strikeout percentage, it dropped tremendously, 22.7.
Average against, bumped up to 253 batting average, which was the,
third highest against him in his career.
The only other two seasons where batters had more success against him were in his rookie year,
which, yeah, sometimes people struggle and they come up to big leagues.
And then the COVID year of 2020 when nobody knew what the hell was going on, right?
Like people are sick, people are dying.
We don't know what's going on.
There's no fans in the stands.
We got cutouts of people.
Like weird time, right?
The fastball last year got tagged for a 268 average against.
The splitter at a whopping 333.
The sweeper was at 250.
The slider was awesome.
The slider was great.
184 average against their 45.1% width percentage.
So hopefully Dusty Blake or Dusty Balake and the crew can get it back on track
because the arm clearly still has some heat in it,
still got some life in it,
and could provide some much needed swing and miss
in the bullpen because we know the Cardinals have struggled with that in recent years.
They just haven't had those guys.
And you can call it low-hanging fruit if you want.
It's fine because it is.
This is not a superstar.
It's another guy in the mold of Andrew Kittredge and Phil Maton,
a veteran who's had success in the past,
but is looking to rebound from some not-so-good numbers
and turn that into a better deal for himself moving on, like in 2027.
As they mentioned, it's a one-year contract, three and a half million dollars.
So it's not super cheap, but it's not an expensive one, right?
And then you got that option for the next year, which if he has a good year this year,
you flip him at the trade deadline unless you're in contention.
And you get stuff for him from there.
So, you know, it's one of those moves that makes sense.
It's more depth.
It's more major league experience.
It's a guy that throws triple digits that you just don't have a lot of those dudes in your arsenal in the minors or at the major league level as far as relievers go right now.
So I like that he throws hard.
I like that he is not follically challenged.
It has a big old mess of long hair to work with.
with probably a hell of a headbanger, you know, whipping that stuff around.
I like that he's not afraid to show emotion.
You know, a lot of these photos, like the one I showed you on YouTube there, like this one,
he is, you know, screaming like a madman on the mound.
I'm assuming in celebration after something good has happened.
I hope that's not after like a home runner or something or he's just like,
ah, not again.
I like that kind of energy and passion, you know, there are,
guys that go about their work quietly, very business-like.
But I like the guys that show emotion and are excited to be out there playing
baseball.
I also like that when he's out of uniform, like in this particular picture,
I like that he looks like a dude that you could go camping with.
That would crush a case of tall, cool Budweiser's with you, eat a pack of hot dogs,
raw or cooked doesn't care and then listen to john the you man eulet on casey 95 on full blast with you
until three o'clock in the morning hanging out in the back of a truck just going wild having a blasty
um i mean look at this guy you know this guy has a good time he knows how to this dude tailgates
this guy will stand in the front row at a leon skinner show with you and know every lyric and in no way
is this a bad thing.
I'm not making fun of them.
This is awesome.
We need colorful players
in this organization.
Guys with some flair.
Like, I like that kind of stuff.
I like those dudes.
Now this team's going to have to make a 40-man roster move
to Adam.
I'm looking at you, Chris Roycroft,
as the odd man out.
Multiple shots with the Cardinals at the big league level
just hasn't worked out.
Perhaps he clears waivers.
It goes back to Memphis or double A or whatever they want to do with Chris Roycroft,
but he wouldn't be on the 40 man anymore.
But he's the guy I'm choosing unless there's a trade coming down the pipeline that would open up a spot or two,
perhaps.
We're to talk rumors and those dang cubbies.
Big signing.
We'll talk about it next on Locked on Cardinals.
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All right.
So here we are closing in.
Today is the 12th of January.
And here we are closing in on the middle of it of January.
And there are a ton of big name free agents that are still out there, right?
Kyle Tucker, Bob Bichette, Cody Bellinger,
A. E. E.
Hanyo and Ranger Suarez, no relation.
Framber Valdez.
They're all still out there.
Molling over offers and money and years.
And, you know, it's been kind of boring recently.
The rest of the league just can't move on until at least a couple of these knuckleheads choose a team,
which means that moves for guys in the Cardinals, secondary players, like Brennan Donovan,
Nolan Aronado, Jojo Romero.
Everything's been on pause.
Now a name that is not on that list anymore.
They got crossed off this weekend is Alex Bragman.
The one fortunately has signed a deal with the Chicago Cups.
Somehow, some way the Boston Red Sox have allowed him to get away.
Because they signed him, they had to trade Raphael Devers because he got all upset,
didn't want to play first base.
And now Bregman's gone.
Like, what a mess.
What a mess that is.
and Bregman, I mean, it's not like he left for peanuts.
Five years, $175 million.
And as annoying as that was,
it also happened to go down like when the Chicago Bears were starting
their comeback against my Green Bay Packers.
For those of you who don't know, I am a huge Packers fan.
I am an owner of the Green Bay Packers.
And they completely choked on Saturday night.
So if you're a Chicago sports fan, what a night that was.
Oh my gosh, you get Bregman and you get this comeback to beat the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs.
Unreal.
And with that signing, though, perhaps the market will, maybe it'll give it a stiff kick in the pants and start moving forward a little bit more.
I hope that's the case because we kind of want to know where we are, right?
As Cardinals fans, we want to know who's going to be on this team.
And before that signing, John Denton, who covers Cardinals for MLB.com, recently,
used the P word in his article. Yes, that same P word, the one that was used so much by John Moseilic,
that we have it on a loop file here at Lockdown Cardinals. Prepare your...
Ask for, from our fan base right now is a little bit of patience.
Forever a little bit of patience plus as a little patience. So just be patient, being patient about
this and too patient. I really just ask for people's patience and all of this.
Yeah, yeah, PTSD, right? I know. I know. But sadly, that's a lot. That's
what's going on right now. We are stuck waiting and waiting. I was really getting upset with Alex
Bregman and was ready to unleash on him for today's show, but he signed. He just, he still made us mad
because he had a sign with the Chicago Cubs out of all teams. But let's start with, you know,
the trio of guys that we've been talking a lot about. Let's start with Nolan Aronado,
who John didn't talk about. He put out an article with some updates on what's going on. And I guess
we don't need this on there anymore.
Sorry about that.
Let's talk with Aronado.
Denton says the market for him could be described as tepid at best,
per a source close to negotiations that he simply doesn't have teams clamoring for him
after he has struggled to the plate for much of the past three seasons.
Denton points out the same stuff that, you know,
that I've been saying here that you've been saying in the comments section
and on X that beyond the offensive struggles,
there's also the no trade clause in his contract and that he is owed 36 million after the Rockies 5 million gets taken out.
Teams in need of a third baseman are going to wait on first.
It was going to be Alex Bregman, who is now in Chicago.
And then A. E. Hainio Suarez is the next big domino that needs to fall.
And then we'll see what shakes out after that.
Either way, if and when he is moved, the cartels aren't likely to get much in return.
Low level prospects at best.
And are probably going to have to eat.
a lot of money to move him. Again, I don't think the Cardinals or their fan days, I sure as hell
no, I never thought that we would be in this situation with Nolan Aronado, that things would get
so bad, that things would have deteriorated so much with his, with his bat that this is where we are,
where we're like begging other teams to take them and use them. And I'll still defend that
I think there is still something left at Nolan Aronado. Like, I don't think he's, I don't think
He's like some scrub, but the numbers are what they are.
And he was hurt last year, and he ain't getting younger.
So you can understand why their teams aren't lining up waiting to get their hands on.
Bernard Donovan, much better market, clearly, for a lot of different reasons.
But the Cardinals aren't going to just give him away to a team that wants them.
They want things in return.
He doesn't make much money in the baseball world scheme of things.
He's got two controllable years left, can play almost any one.
where you won. On top of that, he's a great freaking dude. We've heard that the asking price could be
two top 10 prospects. And personally, I'm all for Heim Bloom sticking to his guns to get that.
Because if they don't, then Donnie comes back and we try again at the trade deadline if things
aren't going well here in St. Louis. And with the news that the Diamondbacks aren't going to
be trading Cattel Marte, that should help boost Donnie's worth a little bit because that eliminates a huge,
huge bat. Bo Bichette still remains out there. It's starting to seem like things are going to
get figured out soon with Bichette and where he's going. We've heard the rumors that the Cubs
would listen on Nika Horner. So maybe teams are interested in getting their hands on Nika Horner.
I would if I was them. But there's still some names out there to sift through. So Donovan isn't
like the number one guy yet, but he's up there. He scooched up another slot now that could tell
Marte is not going to be moved from Arizona.
Our buddy Jeff Jones at the business news Democrat commented on a pick of Donnie,
who was out with the Royals Vinnie Pasquantino at the pass squatch himself at a Nashville
Predators game.
And here's what he had to say about it.
The Cardinals and Royals have not historically done a lot of business, but they have been
flirting for a couple years now.
Casey called on Nolan Arnado last winter, for instance.
Wouldn't be shocked if something came together eventually.
So there's that.
from Jeff Jones.
I still believe that the Mariners are still the best fit.
I think they're going to fold and come get Donovan if they don't talk to
A.U.
A.U. Haneos-Fer as first because they can easily just realign with him and bring
him back and be like, look, dude hit 40 plus some runs like.
year. He's probably not going to do that in Seattle because of where they play, but we're still
talking 30 plus home runs probably. Or they make other arrangements. They make a trade or something
like that. But it's just because the Mariners have the best prospects, they seem to line up with
the Cardinals well. And we're right there on the cusp of winning a championship to be there
over Toronto for the championship. And if Brennan Donovan is a piece that will get them there,
I don't know how you don't make that deal.
Like they're playing hardball with the Cardinals
and not probably wanting to give up what the Cardinals want,
but if we're just talking prospects,
how is that not worth it if that's going to get you a ring
or at least get you that much closer?
Maybe they don't believe Donovan is as good as maybe we see him in St. Louis.
That's a possibility too.
But you now have to wonder if the Red Sox are wanting to do a move now
that Bregman is out of the picture.
You know, we heard about this that the Red Sox were also interested in Brennan Donovan.
So could these two teams connect again on a third deal this offseason?
Is there a way to include Aranaata to play third base for Boston and Donnie go over to second base
and the Cardinals get some good stuff in return?
I just throw it out there.
Obviously, they like to work together.
So maybe something like that can happen.
But if nothing happens and they do start the year with Donnie,
on the on the roster still which i don't think has been eliminated like if they don't get what they want
this off season you don't have to get rid of them you could bring him back but that's not what
no one gorman or j j way weather hold want to hear because they want every day time at the big league
level and yeah j j j can stay at memphis it's true if need be you can keep them down there there's
no rush really but i know i would love to see him in st louis just because i want to watch the guy play
you know for my own selfish needs of wanting to be entertained
season. I would love to see JJ Weatherholt on the team starting at second base or third base
on opening day. Gorman just needs to take care of himself. He needs to make it so the Cardinals
can't bench him. He needs to be productive. He needs to take good at bats. He needs to show that
he's matured as a header, that he's going to cut down on the strikeouts. Some put the ball
and play a little bit more. Play some solid D. Earn the playing time. You know,
the shimmer on his star has dimmed quite a bit.
Like there's no handouts here anymore.
Like, you need to earn it.
Then when it comes to Jojo Romero,
it's really a matter of how bad does somebody want him?
Had a great season last year.
We'll be a free agent.
So he might be someone they just hang on to until the trade deadline,
similar to what they did with Ryan Helsley last year,
unless they get an offer that they just can't pass up.
And they're like, all right, that's enough.
We can move them there.
maybe Jojo gets packaged with Brendan Donovan or Nolan Aronado to go somewhere else.
Like there are a lot of possibilities here.
Denton wrote that St. Louis got great value out of veterans like Andrew Ketridge and Phil Maytown and they're both been the past two seasons.
And the Cardinals think the highly respected all business Romero could do the same for them in 26.
So even though Romero could command a Donovan like bounty, St. Louis is in no hurry to do deals for now.
There's no rush.
There's not.
If I had to rank them in order of the way I think things go down,
I'd say Donnie would get moved first, Nato, then Jojo.
Bottom line, when Bo Bichette decides what he wants to do,
I think Donovan and Arnato will finally get more attention again.
I think that's really the next thing that's standing in their way.
Now that Bregman is out and I think Swarales will end up signing pretty quickly,
it seems.
Bichette's right there and then I think maybe we'll see some stuff.
So anyway, up next, we're going to talk about the arbitration numbers, which was great.
And then we also, it's a bad news, though, with the unfortunate TV issues.
We'll talk about all that coming up next on Locked on Cardinals.
Once again, thank you for making Locked on Cardinals, your first listen of the day.
Thank you for making Locked on the number one sports podcast network.
Good news, bad news situation with the Cardinals right now.
So we'll start with the good news.
And that's that the Cardinals successfully avoided any arbitration hearings this year
with all seven of the players who are eligible.
That's great.
That's great news.
Arbitration hearings suck.
Nobody likes them.
Teams don't like them.
Players don't like them.
But they don't have to worry about it.
Don't have to worry about it, right?
Bridie Donovan, Jojo Romero, Alec Burleson,
Lars Newport, Nolan Gorman,
Matthew Libertzor, and Andre Palante have all agreed to one-year deals with the team.
Now that those numbers are set,
will that help get any deals involving Donovan or Romero done quicker?
perhaps perhaps i don't know doesn't hurt uh i'm going to go off spot rack's uh numbers here
is it spot rack or spot track either way i'm going to use their numbers here and some of them
don't match what the reports were when things first got released like you'll see these things
on x on that arbitration deadline day uh but they are close so according to i'm going to say spot track
i'm going to say that uh sounds good um
Donnie agreed to a deal for $5.8 million after making $2.86.
Last season in arbitration certainly deserves the raise.
Good for him.
Fantastic.
Jojo got bumped from 2.26 and 25 to 4.26.
That'll be before he hits free agency.
Denton said it was at 4.25.
See, it's close.
Burleson won a Silver Slugger.
Got a big race.
Went from $778,000 last season.
season to 3.3 million. That's that's a lot. Biscuits on him next time, right, boys?
A well-earned raise for the Cardinals new everyday first baseman, 3.3 for a silver slugger
is peanuts, right? Let's see if he can do it again. Let's see if he can play some good defense
over at first base, too. New Bar made 2.95 last season. He goes up to 5.25 this year,
although Feinzan said it went up to 5.35. Yeah, that's crazy.
He got a raise.
Andre Palante goes from 2.1 to 4 million,
despite not winning a game after July.
I want a job like this.
I want a job like this that almost doubles my salary
for not being very good when I'm working.
That's the dream, right?
My goodness.
But hey, it's the way things are situated when it comes to this stuff.
When you hit arbitration, your money's going up.
Matthew Libertory goes from $776,000.
to 2.26 million.
And then Nolan Gorman went from 783K to 2.65 million.
So I think it's great that in Heinblum's first year of running things in the situations
like this, that he was able to avoid arbitration hearings with these guys and not have
any of that kind of crap, slow things up in the future.
So good job all around everyone.
Welcome.
Welcome into your new contracts.
Good stuff.
everybody. Now let's talk about the TV stuff, real fast, before we wrap up. The Cardinals were among
nine teams that terminated their contracts with Main Street Sports. Now, I'm not going to pretend
to know everything that goes on with TV revenue, negotiations, contracts, stuff like that.
I only know what I read as well. I know the Cardinals make a lot of money off of it normally,
and because everything's been so screwed up the last couple years, those profits have been cut in a big
way because of the financial struggles of the company.
So I'll just defer to what Derek Gould and other media outlets have said about this situation.
Gould wrote that the move to terminate does not eliminate the possibility that the Cardinals
will return to Main Street Sports Group on a renegotiated deal as the club continues
to weigh options.
A source described.
No decision has been finalized.
The Cardinals are considering moving their broadcast to Major League Baseball's production,
which already houses and distribute six teams.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said that the league was ready to produce broadcast
for any teams as needed.
According to the Associated Press,
Cardinals did not receive a scheduled payment from Main Street Sports in December,
which is a big no-no.
Any of you adults out there who pay your bills and then you don't do it,
what happens?
Collections.
They come chase you down.
They turn off your power.
They turn off your water.
So not good that they missed that in December.
and that helped put in motion the uncertainty for 2026.
Officials with the team have been consistent in their pledge that fans will have access.
This is important.
We'll have access to all of the Cardinals regular season games in 2026 and that any change to their broadcast partner or distribution would not change the on-air personalities that the Cardinals expect to cover and call the games according to an official.
So the people we have, they will be there.
It's not like it's going to be a bunch of no names who don't follow the Cardinals on an everyday basis.
That'll just be filling in to call the games.
That's not how it's going to work.
We know this TV situation has affected a number of teams, including the Cardinals, and they're spending.
And it will certainly be a topic that will be brought up when the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations begin at the end of the 2026 season,
which many believe is going to lead to a lockout.
They're hoping it would be if it happens, which most people think it will, but it'll be one that
is similar to the one that happened in 2021, which lasted three months and it didn't affect
things as bad as they could have.
They ended up pushing opening day back a week from the end of March to the first week in
April, I believe it was, which I'm fine with because it's usually really cold.
So I didn't mind that whatsoever.
They still got all 162 games in that season.
And that was the negotiations that got things like the, you know, the universal D.
postseason expanded to 12 teams from 10 luxury tax thresholds were raised you had the draft lottery came into play
pre-arbitration bonus pool was like 50 million the advertising on the the uniforms and the helmets that was approved
163 game tiebreaker was eliminated a bunch of other stuff rule change there was a bunch of stuff that was involved there minimum salary increase
pieces, international draft stuff.
Like, there was a bunch of it that was added on to it.
Obviously, the big thing that's going to happen this time around that it was talked
about before and will continue to be brought up, but I still don't think it'll happen,
is the salary cap.
People are always saying, we need a salary cap.
Look what the Dodgers and these teams are doing.
And, you know, as one of the teams that doesn't spend like those teams, obviously, sure.
Yeah, that'd be great.
But the players are never going to agree with that, right?
They're just not.
They're going to find other ways to get these other teams to spend more money.
That's the player's goal.
Obviously, as an owner, you don't want to spend as much as all these guys are.
You're like, no, no, no, no.
So they're going to have their discussions about that.
But we don't have to worry about it until the end of the 2026 season, which is good.
Good trivia question here when it comes to that bow, by the way.
Who was the first free agent signed after the lock?
in 2021. The Cardinals signed pitcher Drew Verhagan. Cardinal legend. There you go.
Take that one to the bar. All right. Thanks for making Locked on Cardinals. Your first listen
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