Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Cardinals Sign Veteran Reliever

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

- Phil Maton Signs One Year Deal - Bullpen Alignment - Steven Matz - Cardinals Tie The Houston Astros 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! Wonderful Pistachios Looking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more. FanDuel Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official 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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There will be no shut out. The Cardinals have officially signed a major league free agent. 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. I'm J.D. Haffern and I'm your host for Locked on Cardinals, part of the Lockedon Podcast Network, covering your team every day. Follow me on X at JD Sports Radio and the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals. We're also on YouTube. Make sure you like, subscribe, and comment. Plus hit that notification button so you don't miss out on any of the new episodes or shorts that we drop. Also available on TikTok and Instagram at Locked on Cardinals.

This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Strange off season for the Redbirds, right, who initially made plans to let more younger guys play. That idea was blown up with Sunny Gray and Wilson Contreras said they'd rather stay than be traded. the Nolan Aronado. He vetoes the trade to Houston, which really put the whole reset idea to bed. Now we're talking about it being a transition year, but really the transition is what's happening in the front office with the move from Moseilock to Heinblum and the upgrades in the player development in the minor league levels. The Cardle's roster really hasn't changed all that much from last year outside of Paul Goldschmidt going to the Yankees, Andrew Kittridge, going to the Orioles.

Kyle Gibson is still a free agent. Lance Lynn is still a free agent, although there were rumors that he is talking to the Cubs, possibly Kyle Gibson, possibly talking to the Yankees, but not a whole lot of turnover, considering three of those guys were only here for last season. It's not like these were pillars of the organization or something that the way like Goldie has been, right? Goldie's been around a few years, obviously one of the main players on the team. The other guys, one year.

Thanks for playing. We'll see you around. So not exactly transitioning into some brand new phase of Cardinal Baseball. Instead of upgrading, basically, you know, they didn't go out and sign any free agents at any positions. The Cardinals decided, let's not spend money and trust the guys in the organization to be those upgrades from last year's team. You can call it cheap if you want to or you can also call it having some faith in their own guys and saying, look, I don't think there's a guy out there that we're going to sign the money we're willing to spend. that's going to be that much more of an upgrade than what we've got already with us. So why not let's just let these guys play.

So this offseason, they did almost nothing transaction-wise. And they hadn't signed a single player in pre-agency until today. On Thursday, when the team inked right-handed reliever and Chatham, Illinois native, I have some fraternity brothers, by the way, who were from Chatham. So I'm familiar with it. But Phil Maton has been signed to a one-year deal, reportedly worth $2 million that also has award bonuses. So he could make some more money, but $2 million is what we're looking at here.

To make room on that 40-man roster, the team did designate left-handed pitcher Bailey Horn for assignment before then trading him to the Detroit Tigers for cash considerations, which, you know, it's always nice when you're able to bring in somebody of the caliber of cash considerations to your team. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll understand the joke. If you're listening to the audio, I'm sorry, it's probably not making any sense to you. But make it rain, right? Bring all the money in you can. Every dayers will remember that we talked about Phil Maton last year

and how he could be a good fit for the Cardinals and what they were looking for, only to see the Tampa Bay race. Signing him instead, they got him on a one-year deal worth $6.5 million and a club option for 2025. He was coming off a really strong year with the Houston Astros, where he made 68 appearances, went four and three with an ERA of three, ERA plus at 146, and he had a strikeouts per nine of 10.1. He was really, really good for Houston.

And I actually reached down to H-down, who covers Locked on Astros, one of the guys that covers locked on Astros and asks him what his thoughts on him. He's like, great guy, really good. You're going to like, just be careful after games. He likes to hit lockers. And I'm like, hit lockers, like hit his head. And he's like, no, with his hand. So let's be careful.

if don't be punching lockers with your pitching hand, Phil, let's be smarter than that. But for the raise last year, he didn't do so well. Those numbers dipped significantly. In 40 appearances, the RA jumped to 4.58. The ERA plus, it dropped to 88. His trackouts per nine fell to 7.6. And then on July 9th, the race swung a deal with the Mets, setting Maiton to the Big Apple in exchange for a player to be named later.

And in New York, Maiton was a strong. was excellent in 31 appearances for New York. He posted a 2.51 ERA with 30 strikeouts across 28 and two thirds innings pitch. The ERA plus back to 159. The strikeouts up back to 9.4. Things were going well. Postseason was a different story for Phil. Things got a little rough again in six appearances.

He got ding for six runs on 11 hits. Four of them were home runs. He walked four. He struck out only six. The ERA was at 8.5. three opponents were hitting 393 against him in the postseason. So the Mets declined the club option, making him a free agent and allowing the Cardinals to test out like their own guys for the first few weeks of spring training before making a

decision on whether or not they needed to go grab a veteran right hander and see if that was needed. And in the end, they decide that, yeah, you know, $2 million is certainly worth the gamble on Phil Meiton. if he can recapture that that 2023 season form that he had in Houston. And last year during his final 42 games of the break of their season, at a 1.99 ERA, opponents only hit 169 against him that they're going to get that guy for $2 million. Hell yeah.

Hell yeah. And if you go to his baseball savab page, you'll see that he rates pretty well in pitching run value. Fastball run value is pretty good too, but you do need to notice that. he is not, you need to know this going into it, that if you're not familiar with his game, he is not a hard throwing right-handed. He's the exact opposite. His fastball, which is a cutter, averages 88.7 miles per hour. He doesn't even touch 90. And his sinker is 87.5. So it's not a hard sinker. But what he's known for is his outstanding curveball. He also throws a sweeper. But everything he throws has movement. He's got the cutter. He's

He's got the curb. He's got the sweeper. He's got the sinker. The top three pitches that he throws are the cutter curb and sweeper. Number one pitch by far is the curve ball. Opponents hit 174 against his cutter last year, 160 against the curve ball. The sweeper got popped a little bit, to be honest. 2.98 against that. But the curve was his best pitch in 2023 with the Astros. The run value was in five. Last year, his cutter was actually up and very good run value of five. Curve ball was still strong, though.

whiff rate of 33.5%. So that's what his big thing is. It's the curveball. That's, that's his go-to pitch. So it's not like he's going to come in again, humming 97, 98, blowing people out of the water. That is not who Phil Maton is. He is a curveball guy. And that's how he gets people out. So we're going to talk about what John Moseilock and Phil had to say about the signing. Plus, how this affects the Cardinals bullpen what they had in place already. We'll get into that next on Lockedown Cardinals. Every check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? You know, between dining out or online shopping and entertainment, it's pretty easy to lose track of where some of your funds are going. And that's where Monarch Money comes in, your personal

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Obviously, we want to hear what you think about. The Cardinals finally signing a free agent and a being reliever, Phil Maton. There had been reports of the Cardinals were still in the market for a veteran presence to add to the bullpen to help till the shoes left by

Andrew Kittredge, who was so, so good last year. like so good and they were able to get Mayton for $2.6 million, or I should say $2 million, but Kittridge last year was $2.6 million. So relatively same price. And Ketridge was able to turn that one-year contract, turn it around and cash it nicely with the Baltimore Orioles.

It gets a one-year $10 million deal with a club option for next season. But sadly, bad news for Ketridge. He's dealing with a knee issue. that's going to sideline him for months. So essentially the Cardinals are hoping to catch lightning in a bottle once again this year with Maytown like they did with Kittridge. President of Baseball Operations, John Moseilock told medium members that we are trying to look for depth.

We do feel like going into the season we have put together a lot of flexibility in our bullpen. Phil, even last year before camp started, was someone we were trying to sign. Obviously, we didn't. He was out there for the last month or so. I've been keeping a pulse on the market, and ultimately we got to a place where we were comfortable. Phil even spoke to media members and was certainly surprised that he didn't have more offers this offseason saying we were pretty confused with the entire offseason in general. I guess there is less value and durability and being available every day than we thought there was going to be.

But that's the reality of it. So I've got to be ready to go this year to prove that they should have made me an offer. So you like to hear that. You like to hear that guys got a chip on his shoulder felt he was, you know, kind of dealt the bad hand that more teams should have wanted him and wanted to pay him. Manager Ali Marmal had nice things to say about him as well, saying he can really spin it. And that's one of his best attributes. When you look at where we are and what's needed, adding a right-handed arm was what's needed.

And I'm glad it worked out this way. Reports are that Phil Maton has been working out in Arizona already and is like physically up to speed and ready to rock and roll. He's going to do some live BP against hitters this weekend, reportedly. And hopefully we'll get into some spring training games before the team has to head back to St. Louis for opening day against the twins on March 27th, because we are 14 days away from that game taking place. And another thing that's going to endear him to Cardinals fans is the fact that he grew up

as a Cardinal fan from Chatham, Illinois. So he said that, you know, a younger fan. Phil would have been stoked to now finally be a St. Louis Cardinal. And he said it's going to be exciting, being close to home and close to family and friends that they grew up as Cardinal fans. So, you know, kind of a dream come true there for Phil Mayton. So hopefully all of this leads to him having a strong season for the club in the bullpen this year. How does it affect what the Cardinals already had in the bullpen? What was already kind of in place, at least what we thought was in place. One of the names that was. was kicked around this spring as, hey, maybe, maybe a bullpen spot here for Gordon Grispo, right? Maybe we can use him there, but the team has already optioned him to AAA Memphis. They did that today. Moving their major league roster. Now there's a little confusion here because they have also, hold on, who else did they send down today?

Hold on. Now I'm confused. But they've sent down because they got it to 47. Hold on. I just had it in front of me, and now it's gone, and now I am wasting all of your time right now, so I apologize. Let's see.

Ryan Lutos has been an option to Memphis as well. So, yeah, so that's where we're at. So it's either 47 or 46. One of the two, I'm not entirely sure. But to Co-Robi, also optioned to Springfield yesterday. So that's another arm. that was cleared out. So you still have your main guys as far as how the bullpen is shaping up. You've got Helsley, Romero, Fernandez, Libertorian King set to go. And yesterday we were looking at

John Denton's projections, which had Grecepho in the bullpen for opening day. Clearly, that's not going to happen. So Chris Roycroft and Riley O'Brien were the other two guys they mentioned. So you're basically subbing out Grecepho. You're bringing in Mayton and things really haven't altered all that much. The real question is, where the hell is Riley O'Brien? Has anybody seen this man. Have you seen this boy? We're looking for Riley O'Brien. I haven't seen him in a game since February 26. So if you got an update for me, I just haven't seen it anywhere. I haven't heard anything about it from anybody. I don't know. So no updates, no idea where he is. He's just MIA. Is he hurt again? If so, then I think that maybe Kyle Leahy would be a guy who would take over that

spot instead. A couple of these guys were in action today. This bullpen was very good. again today against the Houston Astros, and so was starter Stephen Matt. So we're going to discuss what happened against the Astros coming up next on Locked-on Cardinals. Looking for a snack that's both delicious and nutritious, then crack into a good source of protein with wonderful pistachios. I say good, but it's really kind of great, to be honest with you. Wonderful pistachios is one of the highest protein nuts. You can get your hands on. Each one I'm serving has got six grams of protein, giving you over 10 percent.

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And please find Lockton MLB. Baseball guru Sully brings you a daily blend of humor in baseball, keeping you updated on all the teams during spring training. find locked on and it'll be on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. So the Cardinals and Astros played to a one-to-one tie today at Cacti Park in Palm Springs. What a boring game this was. Neither offense did much of anything. And we can bag on this offense again today. If we wanted to, held the one run on three heads, another brutal showing overall for them. But instead, I'm keeping it positive. Let's let's give some love to the Cardinals pitching staff,

who held the Astros to one run on four hits today. And it all. started with Stephen Matt's, who was very strong today tossing four and two-thirds innings. He allows one run on two hits. He had two walks and three strikeouts. The lone tough inning for Matt's today was the third where he got the first two outs on ground balls. He didn't just eight pitches, like very quick. And then it was back-to-back walks to Jose Al-Tube and Issoc Parades that led to an RBI single by Yordaun alvarez, which tied the game up. Now, normally, now they don't have all the bells and whistles at Cacti Park. They don't have stat cast or anything like that.

Normally the MLB strikes zone. Like if you were going to MLB.com and you pull up a game, you can see where different pitches were charted at and where they went over the plate, where they were balls, where they were strikes and all that. And usually that's pretty darn accurate. So if these are right, and I'm going to show you this on YouTube, and I apologize again to the audio people, but we got some visual stuff to use today.

If these are right, what the hell was this up doing? Because two of the balls called here on Jose Altuve are clearly strikes in the zone. See those two in the upper right? Those are strikes and they were called balls. And then the next header, Esauk Paredes, got three pitches.

they were called balls that were also in the zone. Again, YouTube guys, you can see this. Again, here's Altuvae. Here's Parades. What the hell is going on here? It seems kind of odd that the home plate umpire would miss five calls in two hitters. So I don't know if that's as accurate as it should be. Let me know in the comments section.

I did not see these at bats when they happened, so I didn't get a chance to check it out. So I don't know. But if I'm looking at these the right way, what happened? Either way, that's really the only time Matt struggled if he struggled at all, actually, because those are strikes. But his spring numbers are now at 13 and 2 thirds innings, four runs, nine hits, one home run, five walks, and nine strikeouts. Opponents are hitting just 188 against Matt so far.

It certainly appears that the Cardinals are going to go with the veteran rotation of Sunny Gray, Eric Fetty, Stephen Mats, Miles Michaelis, and then Andre Palante with Michael McGreevy going to the minors, although he's going to get a start on Friday. Then after Matt's, Ryan Lutos came in for one out, and obviously we talked about he's got sent down. Then you had Joe Joe Romero, who continued his stellar spring, getting three outs on five pitches. Then I remember, I always remember this quote from my father. and he was like, what's the perfect inning? And as a young pitcher, I was like,

nine pitches, all three strikes to each hitter. And he's like, no, perfect inning is three pitches and get three outs. I'm like, ah, it makes a lot more sense. And three outs and five pitches is pretty darn good for Jojo. That's, that's efficiency right there. He's now gone six shutout innings here in the spring allowing just two hits, two walks. He struck out 10. He looks great. Chris Roycroft tossed his sixth shutout inning after Jojo. He allowed one hit, but still has that perfect zero ERA. Same goes for Kyle Leahy, who threw the final two winnings, no runs, no hits, three strikeouts.

He's now thrown eight shutout innings this spring and has struck out nine. Offensively, because we got to bring it up, even though we're staying positive. But another empty day for Mason Wend, who went 0 for three with a strikeout. He's down to an 86 batting average this spring. And everybody keeps saying I'm not worried about when. I'm not worried about when. Okay. Okay.

Sophomore slumps do happen. And I know that, you know, perhaps the swing is coming around and he's working on things. I know he's hit a couple of balls hard that have been robbed of hits and stuff. But, you know, I'm just looking for some sort of positive progression here. Like I want to see a little bit more. And hopefully he gets heated up here soon. Gorman over three did strike out today. He's down to 184.

Burleson, O for three with a K. He's down to 200. Donovan O for two, a walk, a K. He's down to 120 this spring. these guys got to wake up, man. I need to see it. I know Donovan hit one deep to right today and looking off the bat and kind of died at the warning track. But, you know, I just want to see a couple of hits from these guys, man.

You know, I just want to see a little more guys. On the positive side, how about this? Michael Siani, my darling Michael Siani from last year, got to walk today, stole second, which he has obviously the capabilities of doing because he's a fast guy. And then ended up scoring on Lars Newt bars triple in the top of the third inning. Newt scorched that one. That was well hit by Newt. Ciani also made a beautiful diving catch in center field,

something we came accustomed to last year watching him when he was up with the team. But he was 0 for two at the play overall and is now hitting 33 on the year. So, yeah. Tomorrow the Cardinals get the spring breakout game in the morning. They'll take on the Marlins breakout players. Quint Matthews gets the start for the Cardinals. J.J. Weatherholt's going to be in that game. Thomas and Jacey, Jimmy Crooks, Yonaro Padilla,

Chase Davis, Cooper Jerpy, a lot of these young guys that are big-time prospects in the Cardinals organization will be in action tomorrow. This game is going to be televised in the morning. So if you have the means and you have the time, I encourage you to check it out. It should be fun to watch those guys. And then you get the big club at night with the Mets.

And as I mentioned earlier, Michael McGreeby, scheduled to make that start. All right. Thanks for making a lockdown cardals. Your first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on at L.O. underscore Cardinals and a JD Sports radio. We're on TikTok. We're on Instagram at Lockdown Cardinals.

Like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and our love for the Cardinals grow. Jeff Jones is going to be joining us tomorrow. So if you have any questions for him, maybe he'll know where Riley O'Brien is. But I don't know where this dude is. I don't know what I have. Is he sick? What's going on? Hopefully we'll get some answers about that tomorrow and get his thoughts on how things are going for the Cardinals this spring and what maybe he projects the opening day roster to look like and stuff.

And if he agrees with some of the things that the Cardinals have done, we'll get his thoughts on Phil Mayton and a whole lot more in tomorrow's show. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. And I will see you next time on Locked on Cardinals.