Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Cardinals Head To The Bronx To Face The Yankees

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

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The St. Louis Cardinals head to the Bronx to take on the Yankees this weekend. And today we're going to cross things over with Locked on Yankees host Stacey Gatsulius to preview the series, talk about what's going on with our teams and what the future will look like for both franchises. 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 and Yankees fans. I'm J.D. Haffern and I'm a national radio sports anchor, born and raised. in the loo when a lifetime cardinals fan and I'm your host for locked on cardinals.

Part of the lockdown podcast network covering your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter, Ag to JD Sports Radio in the podcast at L.O underscore Cardinals. I want to think those of you who make Lockedong Cardinals and Locked on Yankees, your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast. Be sure to follow all of us on YouTube, like, subscribe and comment and interact with us.

Hit that notification button so you know when the new episodes of Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Yankees are posted. this particular version of the show is serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans of baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by Price Fix, the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. You can go to priespix.com slash locked on MLB. Use the code all lowercase, locked on MLB for a first deposit match up to $100. Stacey Gatsulis joining us here today, host of Locked on Yankees.

You can find her at Stacey Gott's on Twitter X. Do you still call it Twitter? I still haven't given up on that yet. I'm not ever calling it X. Make sure you guys give her a follow. They do a great job over at Locked-on Yankees. And, you know, it's fun to be able to do a crossover with you with a little interleague action between two of the most storied franchises in Major

League Baseball. I wish this series was set up to be a little more meaningful for both squads. The Cardinals are just kind of hanging on right now, just, you know, mathematically still in it, but realistically, probably out of it. Whereas the Yankees, first in the American League east, trying to get that number one seed in the American League for the playoffs, which are coming up in about a month. So good to talk some baseball with you. Tell me about the Yankee season so far. We know that Aaron Judge and Juan Soto have obviously been huge pieces. I want to talk about them because we're really jealous because the Cardinals had a somewhat similar situation just a couple years ago where we had a dynamic duo.

And it's not quite the same as you guys have. But we're going to get into that a little bit. But what's been going on with the Yankees? Because just coming off is the sky falling, Stacey, because the Washington Nationals out of nowhere, take a couple of games from you guys. And I know how fans get upset. I deal with it, too, on the Cardinals side when you're used to winning. and then you lose a couple of games to a team that clearly you're supposed to be better than people get very upset. How are you guys dealing with all of that right now?

I mean, you would think the Yankees were in last place after what happened in Washington. The problem with the Yankees this season, well, okay, this isn't really a problem. There's a good thing. They're good against teams above 500. They have one of the best records in baseball against teams who are over 500. But on the flip side, they're just over 500 against teams who are. we're under 500. It's as if they play down to the competition, you know,

and that's been a problem all season. And, you know, in those games, the Yankees have a tendency to lose games in embarrassing ways, in sloppy ways. They had four errors the other night against the nationals. Carlos Rodon allowed five stolen bases in the first, like three innings the other night. Just awful baseball.

And that's what bothers Yankee fans the most. It's not the losing. It's the way they lose. They don't look like a first place team. They don't look like a team that is going to win number 28 when they play like tee ballers occasionally. And it's just embarrassing. Now, when it comes to the stolen base, and Carls have been dealing with that too throughout this season.

And sometimes I don't know who to blame. I don't know if it's on the pitcher most of the time. I don't know if it's on the lack of throwing ability behind the plate. I mean, the Cardinals had so many years with Yadir Malina, there where it didn't matter what the pitcher was doing. People weren't going to run because Yadi was back there with that cannon and he was probably going to get you whether the guy had a big leg kick or not, whether he was doing a slight step. And the Cardinals this year and last year year have been learning the hard way how good Yadi was not only with calling a game and handling

the pitching staff in general, but throwing runners out. You know, they've got right now, we don't have Wilson Contreras behind the plate who's got the better on. of the catchers. He's out again, got an injury, so you won't see him in this series. But they got a couple of rookies back there, and Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pahas, and Paul has threw three into center field the other day. And it's just like, I'm like, what happened? Like, well, how did it? We all knew the stolen bases were going to start coming. I mean, the league told you that they were going to try to get things running a little bit more. And the cardals have not been able to figure it out. Has this been an issue for you guys all season

with the stolen bases or is that just an anomaly with what happened with Rodan? Well, I'm surprised because there was a game against the Red Sox where they stole like eight or nine bases and it was the most bases ever stolen against the Yankees ever. And I was surprised that more teams didn't start doing that against the Yankees. Because after that game, I figured, oh boy, they're really going to expose the pitch. It's more, I think in the Rodon game the other day, it was more him than Wells. I'm not going to blame Wells entirely for it because he just couldn't, he was having issues with pitchcom. And the thing with Carlos Rodan is if one thing goes wrong for him, it turns into a disaster.

The pitchcom balk was a situation. Yeah, like he reminds me of a child, like a toddler, that if one thing goes wrong, they just have a tantrum. And that's basically how his starts go. Like if one thing goes wrong, you just expect it to go spectacularly off the rails. and that's what happened the other night. But they're catching situation for the Yankees. We have Austin Wells has come up and done amazingly well, lack of a better word. Rookie, really good bat.

And he was having issues when he first came up. He was one of those guys where he kept hitting it two people and hitting the ball really hard. But it kept, and I kept saying in April and May, I'm like, it's going to correct itself. And he's going to start hitting really well. And that happened. His defense can use a little work, but he basically stole the starting job from Jose Trevino who got hurt. Because Trevino doesn't have the power that Wells has. Wells is also a lefty.

It's good to have lefty power. And defensively, would we like to have better catchers in that vein? Yes. But right now, I like having Austin Wells at the dish as a batter over Jose Trevino. I just wish they would work on their throwing ability. Yeah, yeah, it's strange that, like, it's, that catchers have not figured out how to throw it the second anymore. Where do the catchers of our youth go? I don't know.

All I remember is Yadi. I mean, I don't we've been really spoiled. It was like Yadi and then they had Mike Mathini, a lot of gold glovers along the way. And, you know, the cartels have been very spoiled in a lot of ways. And we're starting to learn that life was pretty good. And nowadays, things are a little more difficult than. we are hoping them to be. Like, it's a 500 team in St. Louis right now.

And normally you're like, all right, you know, you're still in it. You're 500. But you would think that they were 20 games back like they were last year, like 20 games under 500, the way the crowds are and stuff. Like, it's been kind of a national story, really. I'm going to throw this picture up real quick, Stacey, and you can check it out. This is what it looked like before first pitch yesterday. This is during the national anthem at Bush Stadium,

between a very good Padres team and then the Cardinals. And granted, it was a very hot day, 107, reportedly on the field, middle of the day, middle of the week, schools back in session. But weird stuff going on in St. Louis right now as far as how the fan base is reacting to what the Cardinals are, what the Cardinals have done over the last couple of years, and what this front office, what just the the staleness that has gone on. So it's not a horrible baseball team, but it's not a good team either. It's just kind of, nah.

They're just kind of, nah. And they had a couple of good series here recently, too, because they took two out of three against Milwaukee. They took two out of three against Minnesota. These are playoff teams. And they just split with the Padres, who are likely a playoff team. But nobody seems to care right now. It's tough. And I'm hoping that there'll be some interest because anytime you get the.

Cardinals and Yankees together. It just seems right. It seems fun. And obviously getting to see them play in New York, something we don't see a whole lot of over the years, is going to be fun to watch this weekend. And speaking of fun, you guys got a couple of guys on your roster by the name of Juan Soto

and Aaron Judge who are just incredible. And if for any reason to watch this weekend, that's two of them that you should. And I want to get your thoughts on. on what's going on with those guys. And what about one? So is he going to be around after this season? So we'll talk more with Stacey Gatsulius from Locked on Yankees here on Lockedon Cardinals next.

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Thank you for making Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Yankees. You're first listen today for your second listen. Enjoy the Lockdown MLB podcast hosted by our buddy Sully, who is here daily to provide national expertise with his trademark humor. You can prepare for the fall classic with our guy, Sully, who has it all covered every single day at Locked on MLB, which is available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. It's all part of the Locktown Podcast Network, your team.

team every day. All right, Stacey Gatsulius from Locktown Cardinals joining us here today and or from Lockedon Yankees. I'm JD from Locktown Cardinals. Juan Soto and the one and only Aaron Judge, two of the biggest names, two of the best hitters and all of baseball. And we're seeing the ridiculous numbers that they are putting up this year. It seems like a match made in heaven.

And how has the ride been so far in its first year in the fence, Stripes, Juan Soto has been, I would guess, everything you guys wanted, right? Oh, yeah. We knew Juan Soto was good, but as Yankee fans, you didn't really see him a lot because he played with the Nats and he played with the Padres. And, you know, you would see highlights and stuff, but you never really experienced him. And experiencing him, excuse me, experiencing him day in and day out is just amazing. I mean, within the first week, I was like, wow, this dude is for real. This is really, Like I knew how good he was, but watching him every day is totally different. And it's amazing, really.

And then, you know, judge doing what he's doing again. It's just absolutely bonkers. He's batting like 3.30 with over 50 home runs and over 120 RBIs. And it's August 30th. Hello? Like, that's an MVP year by itself. And he still has a month to go. It's just unbelievable.

The kind of play. he is. And he's good on defense, too. A lot of people leave that out. He's good on the bases. He's good at defense. He's 6-7-282. You know, he should be either in basketball or football. And he's doing all these things on a baseball field. And watching it day in and day out is just an absolute pleasure. Like, really, I'm so mad that my dad didn't live to see Aaron Judge because I think he would love him. And I think about that. Every time I watch, I'm like, man, Gus would love Aaron Judge. It would just be like, every night, like, oh my God, I can't believe this guy is doing what he's doing. And the combination of Soto and Judge, I don't, I actually don't know why anyone pitches to Aaron Judge at this point with the way the

lineup is constructed, although I shouldn't say that because Austin Wells and Giancarlo Stanton kind of flip-flop sometimes and they're behind him. And they've become better, I guess, protection for him. So they don't have to intentionally walk him. But there was a couple of weeks there where I thought to myself, why aren't they intentionally walking him every single time he comes up? Because it's like almost automatic now at this point. He didn't hit any home runs during the National Series, which was very strange because up to that point, it felt like he was hitting at least one or two every day. He seemed like it. Crazy. Yeah. But it's a pleasure. It's a pleasure. And hopefully this isn't the first and only year for Juan Soto as a Yankee. You know,

hopefully Hal will back up the Brinks truck and give him whatever the hell. he wants, give him buildings in New York. I don't care. I will, I'll give him money. I just pay him at this point. What, what do you think is too much? Like, I mean, I wouldn't suspect he's going to go for it. Nothing. Yeah. I would think he's going to get a show hey deal just because the, you know, the pitching side. Show hay is just a different thing. It's a uniform type of situation. But I'm curious what he'll get because, you know, you're still talking about, I know, I know, Juan Soda feels like he's been in the league for 15 years, but he hasn't. Yeah, he's, he's barely, he's like scratching the prime of his career. He's not even there yet. Right. He's not at the prime

of his career, which is frightening to think about, right? Like you, most guys hit their prime 27, 28, 29. Sometimes it takes till 30, but he's not even there yet. This is the one guy that would deserve like a 15 year contract at this point, or a 13 year contract, right? Because then by the end he'll be D-Hing and who cares. But yeah, this is the one dude that I wouldn't mind the Yankees being like, all right, let's just give him $750 million 12 years. It's not my money. I don't care.

Lock it up, whatever you got to do and make it happen and don't let him get away from you. He's the perfect Yankee. Like he's, I see him in pinstripes because there are some guys. Like I was so mad they didn't go after Bryce Harper. I was mad they didn't go after Manny Machado. Like there are some guys that should be in pinstripes. Juan Soto is showing why he. needs to be in pinstripes the rest of his career. And if they don't lock it up and they lose him,

I might burn off my tattoo. Where is the tattoo? Lower back. Lower back. Oh, that's going to sting if you burn that off. That's not going to be fun. It's this without the flowers. It's just the interlocking, N. I got it. It's 18. It can vote. It's old enough to vote. I got it 18 years ago. Excellent. Excellent. So on the cardinal side of things, it's funny because it was just a couple of years ago before Soto got shipped out to San Diego, where it was, from everything we got report wise, it was down to the Padres and the Cardinals of who was going to get one, Soto. And then there was this big controversy that the only reason the Cardinals didn't land them is because

they wouldn't trade Dylan Carlson, who they just gave away to the raise at the trade deadline this year, which was not the case. That's not what happened. The Nationals go, yeah, the Padres had better prospects than you, like all together. So we're just going to take that package. It wasn't anything the Cardinals didn't try to do. They just didn't have the guns to get it done. They didn't have the, they didn't have it.

So, which is sad because I remember talking about it on Locked on Cardinals. And I'm like, I'm like, this team needs another injection of a superstar, somebody they can build around. Because, you know, even though Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arnado at the time, we're in those, was when Goldie won the MVP. Pete. It was that year. And I was so excited to see why I imagine bringing Juan Soto end and to learn under poo holes for a year and how great this would be. And when that slipped away, I was like, oh, man, I don't know what we can do to, you know, how many times you're going to get a chance to get your hands on somebody like that at that point in his career still have him for a couple of years. And maybe if you worry about the contract later.

But for the first couple of years, the Padres were like, no, we see that. We see that vision. And they pulled the trigger. It didn't work out. for him. They didn't win a world series or anything like that, but I appreciated the Cajonis that it took to go after that. And boy, what do you think the fan base in New York would do if Soto does get away? Like how angry are they going to be about that, considering how well he's fit in with the team, with the city and most importantly, you know, with your best player, Aaron Judge, where they seem super tight. Yeah. I think there would be, I think we would see an instance of torches and pitchforks. I think we'd actually see a riot. I think it would

actually, that people would lose their minds, obviously. And we were talking about his age a little bit ago. And Aaron Judge is 32, right? Juan Soto's 25. In seven years, Wonsoto will be 32. Aaron Judge will be 39 at the end of his contract. And then you still probably would have maybe like, four or five productive years of Juan Soto, because if you can keep him as a DH, like he could be like one of those guys who lasts until they're like 42 as a DH and still hits like 30 home runs a year, or 25 home runs a year or something like that.

This would be the biggest fumble ever in Yankees history if they don't keep Juan Soto. Worse than the not pulling the trigger for Cliff Lee in 2010. I'm still not over that. It's almost 15 years ago, annoyed about that. We got a Cliff Lee drop. I like it. I mean, my God, there were some moves that they made where you're just like, and you think about the prospects that they were holding on to. I think it was like David Adams or something. And who? Yeah. For Cliff Lee? Come on. So, yeah, this would be the biggest

fumble. Yankee fans would be, actually, I think Yankee fans would actually boycott at that point. Because Yankee fans always threaten, they threatened to boycott. Uh-oh. Are you going to have one of these crowds at Yankee Stadium stays? I find that hard to believe. but I never thought I'd see it in St. Louis either. Yeah. The Cardinals, I wish they had had more of the prime years because we had two years, really, where Goldschmidt and Arnaudor were together, and they were still kind of the peak of their powers, that 21, season, with them both finishing in the top three in the NLNBP.

And now it's almost as like, you can't wait for Goldie to just be gone. the way that things have deteriorated so fast. And it's been sad to see because Goldie, obviously one of the good guys in the sport and everybody roots for him. And Father's time caught up with him, man. It happens to people who don't take PEDs. That's just life.

And it's sad to see. It is very sad to see the demise of Paul Goldschmidt. And it's not like he's just like pure garbage. Like we make it sound like he's hitting 115 with like eight home runs or something. No, he's 20 bombs. He's going to have like. like 70 RBIs and he's going to his it's just not what you're used to when you've when you've had Paul Goldschmidt for so many years uh in this league and he's been so good and just to see

him kind of fall off the cliff so quickly after an MVP season just two years ago it's been a little bit rough um Nolan Aranato the the power numbers are down for Nolan um but he's had a really good August. Uh, he's the guy if there's a guy in this lineup this weekend that you know you might want to be careful with. It's him. He's learning to spray the ball a little bit better. He's not entirely a Deadpool hitter like he used to be, but the power is obviously still down the line to left field and then the left center gaps. But, you know, he's a guy who's starting to embrace the idea that he's not the kid anymore, you know, even though he's not 38 or something like that, but he's in his early 30s, but he's around a lot of younger players now. And I think he's starting to

embrace the idea of being that that veteran leader on the team. And I think it's turned things around for him. I think the mental side of accepting that and being able to be sort of a mentor to some of the young guys that are on this team now, I think him embracing that has helped kind of ease the burden of what's been going on of a tough year for him. And I think it's made him feel a little bit more loose. He's always been kind of an uptight guy over there at third base. You know, he's very hard on himself.

And I think now that he's like, you know what, I don't have to hit 40 bombs for this team to win or to be happy. Let's just go out and enjoy the game and see what else we can do. And that has led to him being a better player here recently. So, you know, it just, Juan Soto getting away from New York would freak me out. He just belongs there. I said that and the Padres fans were not happy.

Javier was not happy with me when I, I was like he just fits there when the trade have. And I'm telling you, he's perfect for that city. And we'll see it this weekend. So that's going to be a lot of fun to watch. All right, we're going to talk about what the futures of these franchises look like. We'll go through a couple of the pitching matchups because we don't have every pitcher starter just yet. But we'll get to all of that.

We'll talk more with Stacey Gatsulias from Lockdown, Yankees. Coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals. Price Fix is America's number one daily fantasy. sports app with more than 5 million members, and it's the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Now, unlike other apps, prize picks has it going where it's just you against the numbers. You don't have to go up against another person and worry about that. Just you and the numbers. You beat that. You win. You pick more or less on two to six player staff projections, and that's how you watch your winnings roll in. They've got promotions for you each and every

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You can find the link to Locktime MLB in the description so you don't need to search. It's all part of the Locktown Podcast Network, your team every day. All right. So pitching matchups real quick, Eric Fetty and Marcus Stroman. Cardinal fans, you've seen Marcus Stroman a million times when he was with the Cubs. They usually hit him pretty well. You worried about that at all stays? Here come the Cardinals against Stroman.

We like him. Yeah, I'm worried about Stroman. Aside from the hitting, he's walking a lot of guys. He had a couple of good starts there. They kind of skipped a start for him or delayed a start for him so he could work on some things. And he came back strong in that first start. And now he's slipping back into the walking on a tightrope routine,

which is not fun to watch. No, that's not fun at all. Fetty coming over from the White Sox, who, what was that, 17 people in attendance the other day? Yeah, something like that. No, that I broke Jones looking at my attendance recently, but yeah, that was a frightening looking scene at Chicago. But Eric Fetty was rescued by the Cardinals and they pulled them in.

And he's starting to define his groove. I mean, he's not a guy that's, you know, he's not a strikeout guy by any means. But he's a guy with the sweeper and the sinker that, for the most part, just tries to keep you off balance. How do the Yankees handle? I mean, obviously he got Soto from the left side, but how do they handle righty lefties?

Is there a big split there, like that you're, better against one or the other is it kind of middle of road. They're horrible against lefties. Oh, I was too. That's awesome. Yes, awful. Just really awful against lefties. I can't remember the exact record.

I saw it the other day, but it is abysmal how bad they are against left-handed starters. It's ridiculous. They'll occasionally hit one, but for the most part, terrible. Terrible. Wow. We don't have any lefties starting against you in this series. But we got some of the bol. National pet three, so yay.

Game two on Saturday, Kyle Gibson against Will Warren. Who is that, St.acey, because nobody in St. Louis will know who Will Warren is. Will Warren is a rookie. They called him up as an emergency starter in Philadelphia when Garrett Cole was under the weather. And he did okay, but not great. And he just seems to have gotten worse with every start. Yeah, yeah. So that could be an auto win for you guys with Will Warren. But who knows, now that I've said that, he'll come out and throw like five shutout innings because I poo poohed his past performance. Hopefully he figured some stuff out. But I feel bad for him because he's going back and forth from Scranton to the Yankees. And, you know, it probably was pretty scary for him to have to pitch in Philadelphia under that short notice. I mean, the Yankees ended up sweeping the Phillies in Philadelphia. And they're were able to win the game that he started, but it's just, it's not a steady thing for Will Warren, you know, to be in the rotation. And that's hard to do too. You know, when you're, it's hard to have,

when you're a batter, it's hard when you sit for a number of games and then you're stuck in the lineup again, and then you can't get things going. It's the same thing for a starting pitcher. If you're not there for every turn of the rotation, it's not easy to get into a groove. Yeah. No, I agree completely. It's one of the reasons why some of the guys that are down in the miners for the Cardinals, some of their bigger prospects, Nolan Gorman was going through it, despite he's, I mean, like a 20 home run 60 something RBI guy already, but he was in a bad spot. He couldn't even put the bat on the ball anymore.

So they sent him down. Jordan Walker went down again, and it's for those very reasons. And people get upset about it because they're like, we want to see these young guys play. And they're like, yeah, but they wouldn't play every single day right now for the Cardinals. And so doing what they did and keeping them amendments to get, you know, constantly being in the lineup every single day, getting it bats, getting right down there, just made more sense for those guys.

So I get where you're coming from there. And then the final game on Sunday, Miles Michaelis will be taking on TBD. Tell me about TBD. How good is this guy? I think I saw that it's Nestor Cortez now. I could be wrong. Oh, dang it. You guys are going to put a lefty.

That's rude. That's just rude. Yeah, I think it might be Cortez. I have to double check that. But yeah, Cortez is good at home. That's been his thing where he's good at home, bad on the road. The Yankees have a lot of weird splits going on. They're really good on the road and not as good at home, which is strange.

And like I mentioned earlier, they're great against teams above 500, not that great against teams that are under 500. So how will they do against a team who's actually 500? Who knows? We're going to find out this weekend. Now, Nestor Cortez, some of the fans should be familiar with because there was rumors that the cardals were close to pulling the trigger on a deal with the Yankees to acquire Nestor at the deadline, which obviously it either fell through or things picked up with Feddy and they went in that direction instead and whatever happened. But yeah, it's going to be interesting this weekend. I'm excited to see it.

Stanton is back and apparently healthy. He's doing okay now. There's another connection there between the Cardinals and the Yankees and Stanton where Stanton basically said, I don't want to go to St. Lawrence. Like, don't make me do it. I can say no, vetoed it, went to the Yankees. But he's kind of one of those guys that, you know, that he's kind of the whipping boy for fans in New York, considering the contract that he's got and, you know, the injuries he deals with a lot.

Yeah. It's like it's not your money. So calm down. And he. is consistently one of their best and only plutch hitters in the playoffs. Like he's amazing in the playoffs when he's there and when the Yankees are there. So I don't understand this hatred that people have because there are some Yankee fans who like

legitimately don't like him. And it's like, it's not like he's purposely getting hurt. You know, that's just the way his body is. And you just have to deal with it. It's frustrating when you see it. Yeah. But when he hits, it's like, my God, he had a home run over 400 feet last week from his knee. I don't know how he did that, but he did 417 feet, something like that. Because his arm, his one right arm is the size of both of us, Stacy. He's a monster up there. He really is.

And his bat speed is still like when he really, like when he swings it fast and hard, it's just like, geez, like my God. It's disgusting. Yeah. Like I see a lot that I love about Stanton, but obviously you bring up the, the reasons why he, he catches so much flack from the Yankees fans. And it's just the injury stuff. And, you know, you can't, you can't predict that, unfortunately.

Garrett Cole, tell me about Garrett Cole real quick. We got a, we got a couple of minutes left. And there's rumors that Garrett Cole might opt out of his contract with the Yankees, either to pinch the Yankees for more money or take his talent elsewhere. I don't know. How is that being perceived? and I know he's dealt with injuries this year. How's he been since coming off the injured list?

Coming back, he's been okay. The two worst starts that he had were against the Mets, fittingly enough. And he didn't look great against the Nationals. Give up a few solo home runs, which was weird. But I like the idea of Garrett Cole going into the playoffs with basically a fresh arm because he missed the first two and a half months. You know, so he's not at the same point where Stroman Rodon and Nestor Cortez are. And I think with the opt-out, it's really to get more money.

I don't think he'd leave the Yankees. The only thing that worries me is he's a Boris client and so is Soto. And it's like, that's a little worrisome to me. But I like the idea of a fresher Garrett Cole going into the playoffs for the Yankees. If he decides to opt out and you can choose one, which one do you keep? You keep and you're going to keep Juan or are you going to keep Garrett? I would say Juan. Juan?

Yeah, because you would have him around for longer. I mean, if they're going to sign him, he's going to get one of those like 12 to 13 year contracts. Because again, he's at that age. It's not like he's 29 or 30. He's 25. Sign him for the rest of his natural born life. He feels like he's going to be that Julio Franco guy. who plays till he's like 48.

Oh, I was trying to think of Julio Franco earlier. Thank you for that. And Nelson Cruz, too, because he played till he was like 40. That's who it was. Nelson Cruz, too. It was like 42. He seems like that guy who's just going to be around forever until he decides, I'm cool.

I'm going to mose you on out. But it doesn't feel like his talents will ever dissipate so bad that people are like, get out of here. You're not good anymore. Go away. I feel like people will always want him. And he's got that infectious attitude and stuff. He's just great.

He's great for the game. And I feel like he belongs in New York. And I was very happy that he landed there just for the game of baseball. I thought it was a perfect match. And obviously things are working out. If things, if they don't win a World Series this year, what happens with the Yankees in the future? Because the Cardinals are in a spot where it looks like it's not a blow it up type of thing. But this is a rebuild that's going on where they're going to probably inject a lot more youth into the lineup,

up a lot of like, I don't know what we're going to get. Like you're going to have a, you know, a couple of veterans in your rotation still. But if they don't bring back Goldie, if they decide to move on from that contract, their bench is all old guys that are probably, they're all on one year deals. They're probably gone. People like Lance Lynn, people like Kyle Gibson, they're probably not going to be here next year. It's definitely going to be a more youthlike look in St. Louis and try to build that way as opposed to keeping, you know, a lot of veterans. there. What do you think the, what's the Yankees trajectory? What if they don't get soda? Where do you go next? Out the window? I don't know. I don't want to think about that. You know, the Yankees can never do a

true rebuild. They've never done a true rebuild. Well, they haven't, excuse me, they haven't since George was suspended all those years ago. That's when they did a true rebuild. It'll never happen again as long as the Steinbrenner's own the Yankees. I wish it would. I know Yankee fans, don't want it. But in order to truly reset things and rebuild, you have to do it from the ground up. You can't do this half rebuild that the Yankees have done in the past. Like I said before we started recording. You know, other teams would kill to be in the Yankees position. I know they haven't made a World Series. They haven't won a World Series in 15 years and Yankee fans are going crazy. But other fan bases would kill for what the Yankees have done in the last 30 years. Like honestly, um,

But for the future, I mean, even with Soto, they might get rid of some of the older guys that they have and get rid of some of the money that they have on the books in order to keep Soto. You know, so the team might look a lot different even with him. It's going to be really interesting this offseason to see what happens. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the playoffs as well. But the off season is really, this will be one of those off seasons that I think everyone in baseball is going to keep an eye on. just because of Juan Soto. It might even be more than the Shohay Otani stuff from last offseason. I think this might be because you have the people who will want the Yankees to not keep Juan Soto

because the rest of baseball will be thrilled if he doesn't remain with the Yankees. And then you have Yankee fans who are going to, like I said, throw themselves out windows if they don't keep Juan Soto. And the thing with Shohay is I never expected him to go anywhere else but L.A. And with Soto and the way things are going, like, there's a chance that he does end up somewhere else. If, you know, because the way the, at least from what I have heard, where the Yankees are like, look, we can't just keep throwing out money like this all the time. Like, even though we are the Yankees, it's just not something that we plan on doing. They can. Every team can. They just make excuses. These guys make so much money. And it's just ridiculous that they cry poverty all the time. Oh, we can't spend that. Yes, you can. You can.

Is there another team that you're worried about? Is there a certain one that you're worried about coming up and stealing him away from you? Oh, the Mets. The Mets. The Steve Cohn will be like, here's $800 million. Here you go, he doesn't care. He doesn't care about luxury tax. He'll spend whatever he wants to spend.

Ooh, yeah, that's going to get interesting. Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. That's the team I'm the most worried about, the Mets. Well, looks like our teams are both headed in different directions, but it looks like when you just check out the pitching matchups, It's maybe a good series between the two teams, despite the differences in what's going on in the standings, where you got one pushing 80 wins.

You got one just barely over the 60 win mark. But it'll be fun nonetheless to watch the Yankees in action in New York. Cardinals will be there. So I'm sure we'll see packed houses and should be very entertaining. So I appreciate you jumping in here today, Stace. And we'll keep up to date with each other on the old Twitter machine over the weekend and stuff and chit chat again real soon, okay? Yep, thank you for having me.

All right. And thank you guys for making Locked on Cardinals and Locked on Yankees. Your first listen every day, if you haven't already. Give us follow on Twitter X at L.O underscore Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio. You can find Stace at Stace Gots on the Twitter X as well. And, of course, at Locked on Yankees. Like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channels and love for our teams grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball, despite this being there ahead of the national

anthem recently because we still got this guy. I forgot to bring him up for you, States. We still got this guy in our corner. Amazing. And he never gives up. He never gives up, States. We'll see you guys next time on Lockdown Cardinals and Lockdown Yankees.