Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Cardinals Opening Day Lineup?

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

- Opening Day Lineups - ZIPS Projections - Nolan Arenado Resurgence? - Sonny Gray Elite? - Fan Feedback Thomas Gauvain from RedbirdRants.com joins us to discuss the Cardinals 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! 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 Super Bowl 59 is here, And there’s no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just FIVE DOLLARS, and if you win, you’ll score TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in Bonus Bets. Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of Super Bowl Fifty-Nine. 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.

Spring training is around the corner, and today we look at what we think the Cardinals lineup might look like for opening day. And then what we wish it would look like for opening day. This is Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcasts network, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardals fans. I'm Jady Halford and I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. We're covering your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio as well as the podcast at L-O-Nerscore at Cardinals.

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Joining us again today, our good friend Thomas Govane from Redbird Rance.com. Thomas, our things in Kansas City back to the big game. Go the Chiefs, buddy. It's got to be a fun time to be there. Yeah, the city's on fire right now. It's pretty cool to see the excitement that everybody has for the Chiefs. It's four out of the last five years, I think, so we're pretty spoiled, I guess. Yeah, what does it just become old hat?

like, well, yeah, duh, or of course we're going to the Super Bowl again, like no big deal. I mean, that's just what we do. Kind of the way the Cardinals used to be the team that went to the playoffs every year and, you know, use that devil magic and made a nice long run and, you know, perhaps can shock some people and win a World Series. But it's a different world this coming season for the Cardinals. Spring training is a couple of weeks away. And with little to no movement for the Cardinals, we thought that might as well.

Well, because I'm not expecting anything huge outside of maybe an Aronado trade, but even if he does get traded, you don't expect like pieces to come back that are going to affect the starting lineup or what, you know, your top 25, 26 guys are going to be in all likelihood. It would be some sort of prospect coming back in return. And those are probably not going to be guys that are going to be on the roster right away. So it may seem a little bit early to do something like this, but it's what we're talking about. We're talking about what the opening day lineup might look like with everyone healthy and with Arnaado still on the team. And then we'll do a separate version of what we think the lineup should be or what you think it should be more specifically, Thomas, if Aranato gets traded. So we're going to break it down through the starting lineup. We'll do the rotation.

We'll go with the bench and we'll go with the bullpen as well. why don't we go ahead and rip off what we think the starting nine are going to be? And if you miss this tweet by Thomas, make sure you give him a follow at Thomas Govain on Twitter X. But we'll let you do the honors if you want to. I got it in front of me, but it was your tweet. And it's what gave me the idea to talk about this because I'm more interested in this than almost anything else that's going on with the team right now. Yeah, this is about all we have is Cardinals fans, is line up speculation if that tells you where the off season's been. So my thought process of this was what I've been hearing from management, Marmall, and what Marmall did last year.

I've got Pedro Pahe's at Ketcher, Contreras at first, Brennan, Donovan, second, R. Nado at third, Mason went at shortstop. And then the outfield goes, New Parsiani Walker. I wrote Alec Berluson as DH, but that's probably a mistake. It's probably No one Gorman over Alec Burleson at DH. The bench is Herrera, it'd be then Burleson, Sejacy, and Lucan Baker. Let me stop you there. So why do you think Nolan Gorman over Alec Berlison in this particular scenario, considering Nolan Gorman was in the minors last year while Burleson led the team at home runs?

All we've been hearing is 500 ABs, 500 ABs for Gorman. And we haven't been hearing that for Alec Berluson. I also think the infield is probably more crowded than the outfield, depending on where you throw Brendan Donovan. Wherever he's placed, the other area opens up a little bit more. So if he's left field, the infield's more open. If he's infield, outfield's more open. And Burleson's a little bit more one-dimensional as far as what he can contribute.

He can be first base, but Wilson Contreras will get a lot of reps there. I wouldn't be surprised at Herrera, gets some reps there too. So I think between Gorman and Burleson, they want to see more out of Nolan Gorman than they do Alec Berluson. All right, that makes perfect sense. Let's move on to your starting rotation. What do you got as the current starting five for the Cardinals, what you think it might look like? Yeah, and I have these in order of best to least.

Sunny Gray, Eric Fetty, Andre Plante, Miles Michaels, and then Stephen Matt's. Not a very inspiring rotation. Well, see, here's my thing about their rotation. healthy. It's like solid. You know, obviously you need Palante to be what he was last year in the second half, which would

be one, Eric Fetty, to be what he was like in the first half of last year with the And then we're not looking so bad. I mean, I know it's the Michaelist thing. We give him a lot of flack here on the show and deservedly so because he gets hit around a lot. But at the same

time, you know, he's a dependable guy that get you, you know, 32 games and, you know, let the team in quality starts last year. Him being a four or a five instead of like your two or three, which is kind of where this year is a lot better in my opinion. But, you know, I can see why people are like, oh, it's so gross. Like, I mean, you've got him on the team. He's not going to the bullpen. What else are you going to do with him?

Yeah, I think the grossest part about Michael is being in the rotation is that he is a four or five, but he's being paid like a two or three. Right. And that's just tough to swallow. We need a guy who can log 108 innings with a four and a half to five ERA. Like that's a valuable pitcher, but not for his price point. Gotcha. All right.

Moving on to the bullpen. Close of Ryan Helsley gets it moving. Yeah. Housley. And then the next four or five guys are givens. And then the back of a bullpen is always the crap shoot. So I've got Helsley, Libby, Jojo, Romero, John King, Riley O'Brien. And then here's the probably the biggest twist, I guess.

Gricefo, Ryan Fernandez, and then the minor league's best closer, Matt Swanson, in the back end there. All right. Looking at those, there's not a lot to, there's not a lot of arguments to be made there. I mean, I like having Sponson up, whether or not they trust them enough. You know, this is like you said, you know, it's that you're talking about your final two spots in the bullpen. So obviously spring training is going to be a big. part of this deciding on who's that going to be, you know, would, you know, a Chris Roycroft if he

ends up having like this monster spring training. He could be that last guy. Not really. Kyle Leahy. Yeah. There's not a lot of here that, I mean, you can argue for any of these guys and it's probably going to be performance base. It's not like, you know, outside of like you mentioned, Helsley, Libby, Jojo, King, Fernandez,

these other guys, even Riley O'Brien. I mean, I don't know if he's got a guaranteed spot, to be honest. but, you know, those are where, you know, performance here in spring training will obviously come into play. And you can shuffle those guys around a little bit. Now, this in the tweet, so we want to put that out there again, is that this is what you think the Cardinals are going to do. Okay. And then you came back because you were like, but if I was in charge, if Thomas Covey was running the show, some things might be a little bit different. So what are some of the changes that you personally,

would make or would like to see happen after the Cardinals, if that's if that's the idea of what they might do. And, you know, when we think about how the Cardinals think about things, how they react to certain situations, how they make people who, you know, just because they make money, they're like, well, they have to play. Even if they aren't good, even though they've already spent the money, shouldn't matter if they're not performing.

But either way, how would you change things if you were in charge for opening day? And maybe we can go through, you know, especially the changes that you make like a catcher. You would rather see Yvonne Herrera as your catcher instead of Peter Kottes if you were in charge. Why is that? His offensive abilities. Pedro Hapahez was, I think he was 80 WERC plus last year, which is 20% below average. Meanwhile, he's got Ivan Herrera, who was just busting the seams off of every baseball he hit.

I know he's got some defensive concerns, especially when it comes to base runners, but those things can be fixed. It's tough to add offense that. we need out of Pahez behind the plate. You can adjust base running. You can adjust how pitchers keep runners on much easier than you can. Go hit for 300, Pedro. Like, that's not going to happen.

Yeah. First base, you've still got Wilson Contreras. At second base, you switch it out. Brennan Donovan, not at second base. You have him somewhere else. And you've got Thomas Sejacy in at second base. Why have the change there? If we're going young,

Cajie is probably our best MLB-ready young infielder, who hasn't really gotten a full taste of the majors. So throw them in at second base every day, have him be Matt Carpenter 2.0. That's my hope here. Do you think we'd call him that if he wore batting gloves? Like, do you think that would be a thing? No.

That's like the one thing is that they have in common. And it's just like we just, as Cardo fans, that's what we do. Third base, a change, not in first names, but in last names. You've got Nolan Gorman playing third base instead of Nolan Aronado, and that's because you're anticipating a Nolan Arenado trade. So that's why that makes sense to move him there. We already mentioned having him in the lineup is something that the Cardinals desperately want to do. 500 bats is what they're shooting for.

You know, they want to see what he can do. They want to see if he can handle the ups and downs without the threat of going to the minor leagues. And I'm one of those guys that's on board with that because I think most of the problems for Gorman, and it's just in my opinion, is the mental side. of things. I think physically the tools are there, man. He's got it. And I just think he can't get out of his own head sometimes and really gets down on himself. Just reading body language is where I get that from. Shortstop. You still got Mason Winn. Here's where we got Brandon Donovan. You find him in left field instead of Lars Neupar. Newpar, you've got going to centerfield instead. And why the

change there? Yeah, I think this lineup I have here is our best offensive lineup that we can have, especially if not as traded. There's been a lot of chatter. Derek Gould's mentioned this many times about moving Newport to center. There's some injury concerns, but if Brendan Donovan is going to get 600 at bats, he's going to be a Utah guy,

but putting him in left field for most of the season is by best, and then he shift Newport over to center. You sacrifice some defense here, as opposed to Siani or Victor Scott the second being out in center, but this is a pretty heavy, potent, offensive lineup. Yeah, and what was the problem with the Cardos last year? everybody say it out loud. Offense. Offense was the problem.

It was nice having Siani doing what he did in center field last year. It was a lot of fun to watch. I clearly enjoyed it. He was one of my favorite guys on the team last year. But if you don't score, you're not winning. It doesn't matter. He's your prototypical fourth outfielder, fast defense first. Like, that's what you need.

Yeah, and it just makes so much more sense. And you mentioned the injury issues with Nupar over the years where, you know, it's always been these kind of freaky weird injuries that happened to them. And sure, we're going to have more chances to get injured by playing in center field. But I mean, you can't put them in a bubble wrap out there. Like you got to let him play ball. Like you just have to do it. If he gets hurt, he gets hurt.

So what? Then you go back to Siani or you go to Victor Scott or something like that. But you've got to score runs. You got to put runs on the board to win in this league. And Lars Nupar is certainly a much better hitter than Michael Siani is at this stage in his career. Right field. You've still got Jordan Walker out there. which is completely fine with me.

And then you get to slide Alec Berlison into D.H because Nolan Gorman's over at third base. So that makes a whole lot of sense. Bench-wise, though, you did make a change. Obviously, we flip-flop some people. So now it's Luke and Baker, Pedro Pahez and Siani on the bench. But you also threw in a guy that the Cardinals got in that trade with Jack Flaherty and the Baltimore Orioles. Sezar Prieto. You've got him on the bench.

What's your thought process with having him there? He can play all across the infield so he can be wins backup shortstop. He hit almost 300 in AAA last year, so there's at least some of an offensive profile there. He's your 26th man, essentially, that you're not spending $5 million for. True. And he also left-hand hitter off the bench as well. So you would have Siani and Prieto from the left side, Pahas and Baker coming from the right side that are still on the bench. And it's a guy, too, that, you know, putting Sajani and.

on the bench, like, I don't know how good of an idea it is at this point. His career, like just having them kind of rot there where you see what your normal infields probably going to look like, where Cesar Prieto is not a guy that you're banking on to become something more. You think a good utility role would be a pretty good ceiling for Cesar Prieto at this point. If he outshines it, so be it. That's great. But he, again, that's why I really, when I saw you had his name on the list, I was like, I like it. I like it. Why go spend money on something where you might have it just sitting here for cheap? Why wouldn't you give you a shot? Why wouldn't you do that?

Throw them on the bench. Why not? Starting rotation, Sunny Gray, Fetti, Palante, Michaelis, the number five spot. You've swapped out Stephen Mats and you got former first round pick Michael McGruevy in there. Explain yourself. How dare you do this to Stephen Matt. Sorry, Stephen. The ingredient was good in this showing last year. and I think we just need to give them a full run. Very rarely have the Cardinals just thrown out a pitcher, said you're our starting pitcher,

you're not going to flex from the bullpen to the rotation, just go throw 140 innings for us on the back end. That's what you need to do with McGreevy. If this year is to see what we have in the young guys, put him at the number five pitcher, throw him out there every five days. If he gets rocked in three innings, that's fine. Pull him, go to the bullpen.

If he doesn't and he can make it through six or seven and it's a good start, that's what you're supposed to do with young number five. five, number four starting pitchers. And the Cardinals haven't done that. If they're going to go young this year, but Michael McGrady go for it. I'm in full agreement with you on this because I don't,

what are we trying to get out of Stephen Mats? Like, it's not a team that you're like, well, we're put this team together to win a pennant. No, that really, we haven't. And what is the point? Like Stephen Mats, I think, has as much value as your number five guy as he does,

is your swing guy, long guy in the bullpen. How many times did we go to double headers going, shoot, what do we do? We don't have, what? And all of a sudden, you got Levertoe making starts and stuff. And like, instead of screwing around with him, screw around with Stephen Mats. Let him be that guy. And if he gets hurt, oh, well, he's been hurt every single year. You're used to it.

Like the 32-year-old. Yeah, you know, it's whatever, man. You've already paid the guy. Like, what is the point? Like, there's nothing left to see. You want to know what you got Michael McGreevy. This is why you bring. him and you don't let him sit in the bullpen and pitch every once in a while.

You go and find out what the hell he's got. That's what you do. So you got Matt to the bullpen now, Helsley, Libby, Fernandez, Romero, King, Gricepoh's in there again. And then you threw in another name. This would be a free agent pickup who, as of right now, has not signed anywhere. A guy I've been a big fan of, I'm assuming you have been too, because you've got him on this list. Who is your addition, free agent-wise to this bullpen for the Cardinals, Thomas? It would be free agent, David, Ron.

Robertson. He has been an excellent late evening reliever. He is turning 40 at some point this year. So there's that. But he he's going to be the veteran in the bullpen because right now it's Ryan Hesley. Like he's your oldest guy. He's 30. You need an Andrew Kittridge. You need someone else who has been there, done it, lived the life of an MLB or bring him in, have him be there for the experience for guys like Libby or Fernandez or John King or Gordon Grycefo. All right. I mean, I would love to have David Robertson on this team because he's also an asset that if he signs and he has his normal numbers, which has always been consistently good, like for the most part, very rarely, very once in a while, you kind of, you know, they had a spike here and there. But most of the time he's pretty darn good. He's an asset that you can ship at the deadline. Obviously, has not had a problem being traded over the years. He's been with a number of teams. So think about that down the, down the stretch as well. So what are your thoughts? on all of this. That's what we want to hear from you guys in the comments section.

Obviously, you can hit us up on Twitter X as well at Thomas Govain or at JD Sports Radio. But let us know your thoughts on this. Do you agree with Thomas thinks the cardinals are going to do? Or do you like what Thomas would do if he was in charge? We want to hear it from you in the comments section. Zips projections. If you don't know what the hell those are, that's okay. That's what we're here for.

We're going to explain what they are and what they have to say about what the cardals might look like in 2025. It's not doom and gloom, as most people would make you think it is. So we'll get to that next with Thomas Govain on Locked on Cardinals. Attending NFL playoff games is just an unforgettable experience if you've never done it before. You know, playoff games just bring fans together. You know, when the Rams were in St. Louis, the greatest show on turf days, it was unbelievable. Like what an experience to be down at the dome at the time.

I'm sure many of you have been to have a Cardinals playoff game. And there's just a different buzz around the ballparks and the stadiums and the domes and the arenas when it's playoff time. You felt it with the Blues. You felt it with the Rams when they were in town. You felt it with the Cardinals. You know what I'm talking about. And game time has now made it even easier to get tickets to your favorite events, including playoff games to any sport that you want to go to. With their new feature, game time fix, this feature filters out the fluff to show you only incredible

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Download game time today. Last minute, tickets lowest price, guaranteed. Thank you again for making a lockdown car. It's your first list. And every day, you can leave your comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter. Anytime you want feedback, always welcome and encouraged. Thomas Govain from Redbird Rance joins us again today. All right.

So for the unfamiliar, there's this thing called Zist Projections. All right. And for those of you don't know exactly what it is, it's super nerdy stuff. Okay. It's stuff that you would listen to a baseball podcast in January type of nerdy stuff. All right. It is stats. It is what or so-and-so going to project to be coming up

in 2025. Is there a different way to explain it, Thomas, that they would make it simply simplified for everybody? Or is that basically the just event? Did I say it right? Yeah, that's pretty much it. It's a program that runs projections for players based on comps of history and their last few years of performance.

See, Thomas has it better than I do. He's better at that kind of stuff. Well, Zip's projections just came out. It came out on Monday, if memory serves. And we're going to start with the offensive side of things because Zips has Aronado still on the team because he is still on the team. So what did Zips have to say about Nolan because it wasn't that bad? And what did they have to say about the rest of the possible starting nine hitters that caught your attention when you saw this come out? Yeah, they actually have Aronado pegged up a little bit offensively.

His total war drops 0.2 points. It's a rounding error essentially at that point. but his batting average dips his slugging goes back up to 423 he has an OPS plus of 106 so he sees a little bit of a resurgence in his power and a dip in his batting average which honestly I'd rather prefer for Arnaudo given his profile and what we need out of him we don't need as many OBP batting average guys we need some slug so that's a nice exchange you don't want you don't want those little bloopy singles to right field that he had to do last year you didn't like that no hit it over the fence please

Who else stood out for you on the offensive side of things that Zips talked about? As Lars Nupar, as our best offensive player, according to OPS Plus, at 116, I know. Hold on, but they only see him for 475 plate appearances. So they're baking in some injuries there. The most negative player in my mind was Jordan Walker, sadly. He is projected for just half of more, 0.5F4, and an O'K. PS Plus that is slightly below the average player. So I think that's a result of underwhelming performances these last two years.

His war total is probably brought down by what would be less than average defense, not miserable defense, just lower than average. So I don't think that Zips doesn't see Jordan Walker to have the breakout year that we're all wanting him to have this year. Well, that sucks. Screw you, Zips. I'm hoping for that. We're going to need that one.

pitching wise cream of the crop for the cardinals. No surprise. It's Sunny Gray, who although didn't replicate the side of young, worthy numbers that he had in Minnesota the previous year. It was hardly a bad pitcher last year. I know the home run ball was a big issue. Obviously, he gave up a lot of taters compared to what he had done in previous seasons. What did Zips have to say about Sunny and the rest of this pitching staff who is now without, you know, veterans like Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, Andrew Kittridge, as we've talked about plenty. Yeah, Sonny Gray is actually a top 10 picture according to Zips. So for those of you who are scared of using the A word, he is an ace at this point, according to Zips.

Uh-oh. He's throwing the A word around. Here we go. Behind Sunny, there's a lot of young guys. McGreevy, Quinn Matthews, Tink Hens, Drew Rom. They're all given a whole bunch of innings, Gordon Grispho. So I think Zips is seeing what the Cardinals are wanting. The problem is that the Cardinals have too many pitchers signed already, primarily Eric Fetty, Stephen Mats,

and Miles Michaels, so they'll be blocking these pitchers, but there's a lot of innings given to those young guys that we're hoping to see. All right. And when you say Sunny Gray is the top 10 pitcher, are we talking Major League Baseball? We talk in National League. All of baseball. He's up there with Scoobool. He's up there with Glassnow. He's up there with them. All right. All right. So we're looking for big things out of Sunny Gray this year. Any other surprises?

through the Zips projections that, you know, stood out to you in general. Like, did they give you any ideas of what the Cardo's record might be? Anything like that? Or is it just, you know, single players? Dan Sismorski is the guy who produces all this and writes about it. I didn't see a record projection for him. I would imagine it's right around 80 to 83 wins. Probably the last sentence he has of his write-up is hilarious.

He says that the team's biggest signing this winter was, I'm going to butcher his last name. Ryan Vallade, I remember Enfielder, I think. Even throwing in the towel would be more interesting and probably more helpful than cosplaying as the heat death of the universe. So Dan just wants us to do something. Yeah, I mean, everybody wants to Carl's to do something.

The problem is, it's like, what you mentioned, though, it's like they already got so many people signed and the guys that are signed, they won't go anywhere, even if we wanted to trade them. So we're just kind of stuck with them. And unless injuries or something happens in spring training, I'm not saying to the Cardinals, but other teams. Like if some pitchers go down, you know, it happens every spring.

Maybe a desperation trade for a guy, you know, maybe somebody gets crazy. It's just like, dude, we need somebody and they try to take Stephen Mats or at this point, I don't see them trading in Eric Fetty anymore. I mean, it's, again, unless something crazy happens and then just somebody just throws a ridiculous, you know, type of trade scenario at him. I think we're kind of looking at this is what they are right now. And they're really hoping that some of these guys, which is what every team does, though, some of these young guys are going to take that next step.

They're hoping Jordan Walker, who just a couple years ago was the top hitting prospect in all of baseball. So you're telling me, everybody got this wrong and he stinks now. You know, and I just, I can't believe that. I can't believe in age 22 that his career is over. And he's Dylan Carlson, newly Baltimore, Royal Dylan Carls. You know what I mean? And I get, we've been burned before, but I just, I just, I choose not to believe that. Okay.

I'm going to believe that Jordan Walker is going to be better. And he's not going to, I mean, just watching him at the winter warm up, he didn't look like a Dylan Carlson. He was just kind of, okay, yeah, I'll do whatever. You know, he didn't look like that. Dylan Carlson never carried himself with confidence. I never saw it out of him hardly ever, except for like a week or two here and there. Jordan Walker looks like he's ready to rock. He's like, look, I have had enough of it.

this. And you guys make 40 in right field and I may not be great defensively, but damn it, I've been able to hit my whole career and I'm going to show you. And it looks like Brent Brown has rejuvenated some of these guys and has given them a little bit of fire in their bellies about what's going to happen here in 2025, which the cardals have sorely missed over the years of my opinion. So you did a story about this. So make sure you guys check that out at redmerdrance.com about the zip projections. And he'll break it down. a little more for you in words there. So do that at Redbirdrance.com.

We're going to talk about questions that the fans actually have for you, Thomas. You're becoming very popular here. They don't even ask me to answer things. If Thomas is around, can you ask him this? So we're going to get into that next year. Thank you. Thank you again for making a lockdown. Carlos your first list.

Today for your second list. You can find Locktown MLB Baseball Guru Sully, bringing you a daily blend of humor in baseball. He's got you updated on all. all of the different roster moves throughout the offseason with every team. A new one from the Reds happened here today that they ended up taking Austin Hayes, former Orioles guy. So maybe you actually talked about Thomas, a guy that made sense as a bench bat.

We've heard that Cardinals could be interested in a right-hand bench bat. I don't know how real that is because with Nottos still on the team, that's like a spot that is not open. So it's like, you know, I don't know if we're ever going to. going to see anything like that, which whatever. But Sully has got you covered on all these other teams. Make sure you find lockdown. I'll be on YouTube and wherever you listen to your podcast.

All right. Questions from the fans. Nate from North County asked. We talked about David Robertson here, but who do you think takes over the Andrew Kittredge role in the bullpen? I guess if we don't get somebody from pre-agency, who's somebody on the roster that you can see slide into that role. I guess we'd go with a young guy.

What do you think? The logical non-wild ones would probably be either Libby or Riley O'Brien or Ryan Fernandez. If I'm going bonkers, it would be Tink Hens. I think that'd be awesome to see Hens be a son of man. You think Tink Hens is, you think he's going to be a bullpen guy in his career? Because, you know, he's had some issues staying healthy for long term. You think it's a better spot for him? Probably. He'd be nasty in relief. Picture like Jordan Hicks. You know, that's what my mind is going to, or a late year Carlos Martinez when me threw him in the bullpen for like he's going to have nasty stuff in there. I'll be able to let it rip for 20, 25 pitches and not really worry about it. But I would love him to be a starter. There's a ton more value for him there.

Yeah. Glad you mentioned Riley O'Brien, a name that, you know, what a difference the year makes. Last year we're like, dude, we got the best closer in baseball all of a sudden out of nowhere stolen from Seattle. And then. injuries and then he was very good. But the stuff is still there, obviously. Like he's still popping 96, 97, you know. So I would like to see what a healthy Riley O'Brien could do. You also had in your bullpen projections, Gordon Recepbo is a guy that might surprise some people. And, you know, if he gets a chance, could take over a role like that. I know it's not the veteran guy that we're all thinking about.

But again, it doesn't have to be a veteran. It could just be somebody who is good like Ryan Fernandez was. last year. They could slide in and fill that right-handed roll in the bullpen. Steve from Hazwood asked, is there a chance that Thomas and J.C. Doesn't make the opening day roster this year. What do you think? Yes. I think he'll probably make it, but it might be, if he's going to be on the bench, like you said earlier, it's probably best for him just get full reps in AAA, wait until an injury arises or not as traded, and then bring him back up.

He'll probably start on the major league roster. If he's not starting every day, I would prefer him to be in AAA. Yeah, it's one of those things, too, that spring training will tell us, you know, who's going to be some of these bench guys. Yeah, with Nato not getting traded again, that's just another spot that is full. You know, you can't shift all these guys into getting the more at bats, you know, because if Nato's still here, that means Gorman's still down a peg, you know. And if you need those two to slide up, Nato's got to go.

and at this point, we haven't heard anything that, you know, we're still waiting on Bragman. He still has made a choice. He's like, now you can be going back to Houston again. So we're still playing the waiting game. But definitely, if CJC isn't getting enough at bats in the major, what's the point? You know, that's.

I think there's a world where he outperforms Gorman in spring, and then Gorman becomes full-time DH. And then Cajie's just at second base. Donnie's in left field, something like that too. Yeah, that's a world. where your boy says our preado comes into play where it's a guy that if he doesn't get the events, we can live with that,

where Mr. Jacey, you think he could be something at some point. Karen from St. Louis asked, who is the biggest wild card on this team that could surprise people with a really good season? All right, who's somebody that might surprise us? What do you think? That's a good question.

I think we'll see if you want to. You go first, I'll think. Yeah, you go first. I'll think. You mentioned him earlier, and it's a guy that I'm really excited about because of the offense, and that's Yvonne Herrera. Yvonne Herrera, who I know he struggles throwing the ball. How the hell does he, did he just forget how to throw a ball to second base when he got

to the major leagues, or is this something that's always been a problem? I'm not entirely sure. I never really heard about it being a problem before. So perhaps it's just something that fundamentally he's just, he's got a ticker. Maybe he'll work on it and get better. I wish we had a guy, maybe out of year on Molina around to kind of help him with the defensive side of things. But as you mentioned earlier, the dude has hit everywhere, though.

Like everywhere, he's got every level. He's been a slugger. 301 and 72 games last year, five dingers, 27 ribbies, and his first real extensive look in the big leagues. The OPS Plus of 124. You know, we had Wilson Contreras behind the plate. and you were able to go, well, not great. But look at his offense, not too shabby.

Could he be something like that? Perhaps, perhaps. I'm not saying he's going to be a multiple-time all-star, like Contreras has been. But obviously, if you get it figured out, and it wasn't just Herrera who couldn't throw anybody out. Nobody had a lot of. No, they were terrible.

Yeah, last year for the Cardinals. So, you know, and again, they didn't have guys in the minor leagues teaching these guys how to do anything. like, well, Yaddi's really good. He's going to be here for 50 years. It'll be fine. Didn't work out that way.

So hopefully they get it all figured out, and he becomes at least a more capable defensive guy behind the play. But I love the bat. He looks very much about a visual guy when he's at the plate, you know. And he just looks like he's going to do damage every time he's up. He looks confident. He's got the turned leg. And he just, I don't know.

He just, I feel like he looks like a slugger. And if he, is anything like he was over those 72 games last year. I think you're going to be surprised at how Gadevan Herrera could be for this team. Got a name for us real quick? Wilson Contreras popped in my mind at first. I just don't know what people expect out of him at first base. His offense will be there.

He'll be serviceable defensively. But then the next guy that's going to make some fans angry would be Lars Nupar. I think people are giving up on it. He was another guy. He mentioned Walker at Winter Warmup. Newpar was on fire. He was excitable. he was energetic he was on it i think he could really show up this year as a true three and a half

four world like leader of the team all around i would love that i think it's more frustration than anybody quitting on him it's just like man and it's never and again it's never because he's doing something wrong he's not some idiot out there making terrible plays and getting hurt weird stuff happens to him like it's a thumb it's an ankle you know it's this weird so you just hate it you're just like and then you got to ramp it back up and it takes him like another month to get back to where he needs to be and as soon as you feel like he's about ready, you get hurt again and something happens. And we really need, I mean, you got to let him be who he is. But at the same time, you just, you're hoping for some health.

I'll throw another one out to ask you really quick because we didn't, we don't really know him that well. And that's Eric Fetty. Like, what if Eric Fetty becomes the guy that was the guy for the White Sox in the first half last year and is that kind of all-star capable pitcher? What a difference that would make for the rotation. I have one-two punch with him and Sunny Gray. So I feel like people don't talk about him a lot because everybody expected him to be traded and not be around here.

And he's still on this team. He's a former first round thick and it was pretty darn good last year. So maybe things go well with him. Or maybe I'm just trying to blow sunshine up people's butts. Maybe that could be the problem. Sometimes I'm too positive, Thomas. There's nothing wrong with optimism. We got to wrap things up here.

today. We appreciate Thomas coming in each and every week. Make sure you guys go to Redbirdrants.com and you read up on all his articles and all of the work of everybody does at Redbirdrance.com. You got anything lined up this week that you're going to be writing about that you want to tease some people with? Not that I think all the top of my head, wanting to produce something about Nolan Gorman and how he's probably already had his chance to show us what he is. So a negative story. I'm kidding. It's Redbird Rants, man. We got a rant.

You got a rant. It can't all be sunshine and rainbows. I get it. I get it. All right. Well, check it out at Redbird Rance.com. Thomas, appreciate you. Stop and by as always, my friend.

Thank you for having me. And thank you guys for making a lockdown carlidels. Your first listen every day if you haven't already give. Thomas a follow at Thomas Gauvain on Twitter ax at L.O. underscore Cardinals at a J-D sports radio. You can like, subscribe on YouTube and help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans of baseball for a reason. If I don't say it, I'll get in trouble.

Happy birthday to the wife, celebrating her birthday day. 21 years old again. It's incredible. I don't know how she does it. Wow, how she does it. Yeah. It's amazing. It's amazing.

We'll see you next time. I have a locked on cartels. Have a good one.