Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Is It Boston Or Bust For The Cardinals And Arenado?

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

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

The latest updates on things with Nolan Aronado. Will the Cardinals make any sort of trades? Will they make any additions through free agency? Jeff Jones joins us today to talk about all of it on today's episode of Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals.

I'm J.D. Hafford and I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on TwitterX at JD Sports Radio. You can also follow the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals. I do want to thank those of you who make Locked on Cardinals your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. We're also on YouTube. Like, subscribe, comment, and hit that notification button so you know when the new episodes are posted.

This is a show that serves Cardinal Nation and gives the best fans in baseball all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Jeff Jones, who covers our beloved cardinals for the Belleville News Democrat joins us here today. Jeff, how are your holidays? Did Santa treat you well this year? The holidays were good. Santa was very kind. So all of that, all that worked out pretty well. So, you know, lucky on that front. And now, like everyone else, just trying to dig out from underneath the foot of ice. So once we get there, we should be all right. Are you a shovel or are you a snowplow guy? I shoveled. I, I, shoveled.

You know, I can't justify buying a blower for the one time every two years that we need it, right? But boy, did I really want one on, on, I guess, Monday morning when I started to dig it out. That would have, that would have been a nice day to have a blower. But, you know what? You always think about it. You're always on the app like, should I just hit the button and get one? Should I get one? But I'm like you.

And instead I end up running out and getting like a new shovel for like 30 bucks. Yeah, me and the Costco shovel huffing and puffing up the driveway. Exactly, exactly. Well, so far, the Cardinals have done very little thus far this offseason. I know that a lot of fans are starting to get pretty darn impatient with the whole Nolan Aronado situation. When the Houston Astros trade got vetoed by Nolan, I wasn't exactly shocked about that just because, you know, they weren't one of the teams on the reported list of places no one preferred to go. But in a way, it almost felt like a little bit of a setback because when I, you know, the stuff that was reported was that, you know, the Cardinals weren't going to have to pay a ton of money or anything like that.

They were kind of getting what they wanted out of that situation. And to have a vetoed was kind of a bummer for them, I feel. And it was a setback to really getting this whole reset thing started. And now here we are, what, a week into the new year. And Nato still here. Helsley's still here. Contrerson Gray are still here. Matt, Spaddy, Michaelist, they're all still here.

This feels like the worst. reset in the history of baseball. Not a whole lot has changed from last year outside of Goldie Gibson and Lynn walking away. So do we have any updates on what's going on with the Nolan Aronado situation and what's been the hangup so far? Yeah, I think that it's probably fair at this point to assume that he and Alex Breggman are sort of playing and goes off of each other in terms of what the market looks like and what that availability looks like. The scary thing would be if you're the Cardinals, you know, we've seen Scott Ford's, kind of get to this point in the winter with his clients before who maybe haven't gotten the kind of

offers that they were expecting to get or that they thought they might get and just sort of take that guy into spring, right? And maybe sometimes even into like March in spring. And while we've seen it backfire with pitchers, you know, Jordan Montgomery comes to mind. With position players, I don't know that we necessarily have an example of one where it didn't really work out all that well unless a miss one off top of my head, right? So if you're the Cardinals, I think the concern would be if Bregman doesn't sign, you know, until into spring, then what does that mean in terms of Noon-R-N-A-N-O? I do still think they will get a deal done. I do still think that it will get done before spring training.

So sometime in the next three weeks or so, I do think that's the case just because they are so far down the path with this one that it's just so difficult to imagine winding it back at this point, especially given like the particulars of the stuff. situation, right? Like I think the reporting has been pretty clear that Nolan Arnado has not asked for a trade, but it sort of understands the situation and is definitely open to one. All of that is to say that I don't, I don't think of anybody up to it, including Nolan and the Cardinals and anybody else really wants to go through a full season, a half season, whatever, of Nolan just sort of like kicking it rocks at third base while the team sort of struggles to make that fit around. I don't think anybody thinks that's to anybody's benefit. And so to me, all of the incentives still point toward getting a deal done and figuring it out, even if it's not on the ideal terms that

maybe the Cardinals would have wanted to start at the winter or even as good a terms as they thought they were going to get from the Astros. The one thing I'll say that, you know, to sort of head this off, when you read about Aronado and the Red Sox, a lot of the conversation from Boston seems to be based around the idea that Masa Yoshida would be a guy who the Cardinals would be, you want to offload in return in that deal. And I understand the logic. It's a big contract. It's a big Heim Bloom signed contract in particular.

So you can sort of see where that might look like the fit. The Cardinals had some interest in Yoshita, the winner that he signed at nowhere close to the number that he signed for, which I think it's third is. They've been vindicated on to this point. I don't, that does not strike me as a fit at present. any number of reasons. You know, they obviously want to see what Newt Bar and Walker look like in the corners. If he had Yoshita to that, where does he fit? Is he at the eight? You know, where are those events going to come from? But also, and I think this is, I think this is kind of

an underrated part of this conversation, the one that folks should keep in mind. I think the Cardinals would like to have this cleared up before Heim Bloom takes over, by which I mean, I think the Cardinals want, they don't want Aronado languishing. They don't want a bad contract that took back in return languishing. They don't want that to be front of mind for folks over the next one, two, three seasons. And so the idea that they would take back a player like Yoshita that has a lot of term on a contract, that doesn't square for me unless, you know, you were talking about, say, a three-way deal where he got spun off somewhere else. Maybe, maybe in that circumstance.

But, you know, as far as that being sort of one for one or Yoshita plus a prospect for Aronado, So if that happens, I think it means that the Cardinals really did not have any other options and prioritize just getting it done over anything else. Yeah. And that was something I spoke about last week where, you know, it kind of feels like the windows closing a little bit because teams who might have been in the market for a third base. And there wasn't a lot of them really. They're dwindling quickly. And, you know, with the, you know, the money that has to be involved and whatnot, you know, like you mentioned, there's a there's some complications and some obstacles here. and it just makes it very difficult. You know, it's not like there's 20 teams out there itching to get their hands on a Nolan Aronado at this point in his career, which has made things very difficult, which, you know, that's why when the Houston deal fell through, it was like, oh, we had it. We had it. And we could have moved on, but no one has every right to have said, like, wait a minute.

I'm not sure I want to do this yet. You know, he's earned that right. So who do you think blinks first in this whole thing? Do you think the Cardinals will have to eat a lot more money than that? they wanted or do you think Nolan's going to have to kind of open up to places that he'd be willing to go? Yeah, I don't, I'm not entirely sure that I would talk about it in terms of who has to blink, right? Because I do think it's more of a collaborative process in terms of sort of everybody understand. And like, I don't, I don't view, I don't have a reason to view this as adversarial between Nolan and the

Cardinals at the moment. I think it's much more collaborative, right? It's like, okay, where can we go together? Now, I do think that there might have to be, if not a recap, consideration of where his preferred destinations look like. There might have to be a sort of like dawning realization of the reality, right? Like, you know, if there was any part of Nolan that was still holding on hope for the Dodgers or the Padres, he probably needs to let that go. If there was any hope from the Cardinals that they were going to get a team to take on, you know, 80% of the deal.

I mean, the Astros were going to take on 75% or something. It might be time to sort of approach, okay, is it a time for the car. Cardinals to let that go and what does that mean, right? So, yeah, I do think that there will have to be, from both of those parties, a little bit of kind of squaring to the reality of the situation. But I wouldn't view it as a sort of adversarial situation yet. I still think that it probably is a situation where everyone is kind of working, pulling in the same direction.

All right. Well, we're going to talk more about the starting rotation next, because there hasn't been any movement really there either outside again of moving on from from lynn and gibson. So we'll talk possible trade scenarios, if you will, with Jeff Jones coming up next on Locked on Cardinals. Did Rocket Money help you find any subscriptions that you forgot about or that you were paying twice for? Because that definitely has happened to me and some of my coworkers. We had a few subscriptions. We've talked about this that, you know, you don't realize how many little things that you've signed up

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Go to RocketMoney.com slash locked on today. That's rocketmoney.com slash locked on rocketmoney.com slash locked on. Thanks again for making Locked on Cardinals your first listed every day. You can leave your comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X anytime you want that feedback. Always welcome and encourage we are going to answer a few of your questions later on in this episode. If we have time because Jeff Jones joining us here covers the Cardinals for the Belleville News. Democrat and I feel like I every time we get Jeff on, I just want to pick his brain and get all the info from him. He's, uh, he's got a lot of knowledge of what's going on in and outside of the

clubhouse and with the organization. I want to talk about the starting rotation now, Jeff, uh, as of today, Sunny Gray, Eric Fetty, Miles Michaels, Stephen Matt's, Andre Palante, Michael McGrueby, pretty much the top six guys that, uh, going into the season seem to be the rotation dudes. Uh, in your opinion, how likely is it than one? or more of these guys get traded away at some point before spring training. I do think it's reasonably likely. I think the Cardinals would like to trade Stephen Mats. I think the Cardinals would like to trade Stephen Mats and then sign Kyle Gibson to fill that rotation spot.

I think they would like for that to happen. You know, what does that look like in terms of how it interacts with the Aronado deal and the money that they need to send out and what all that looks like? I don't know. You know, I suppose we'll see how that plays out. But I do, I do think that that is for them, ideally, what they would like to do and leave some sort of opening in terms of competition. Because even then, like, I don't, I think that the top five is relatively set, but I think if the Cardinals go into spring and Michael McGreevy pretty clearly outpitches, especially Matt's, but maybe Michael is, I don't know that they would be all that hesitant to sort of make that change there. and maybe some of those other guys in the bullpen, just because, you know, I think that,

I think if we're to believe that they're telling the truth and being open about how they feel about development and opportunity this season, then that sort of makes a lot of sense to me. We'll see, you know, it's hard in baseball to make those kinds of changes around veteran guys, and it's one thing to say that a team plan through that and it's something else entirely to actually execute those changes. So we'll see what that looks like.

in terms of just sort of a practical, okay, who are the five when the season starts. One of the names that people are obviously excited about on the positive side of things for the Cardinals is Quinn Matthews, who had this incredible year in the minor leagues last year. What do you think it would take to see Quinn Matthews actually make the opening day roster? I guess it would take him just sort of falling out in spring. right is that you know if he pitches what would even be a lot if he pitches 15 spring innings and strikes out 25 guys and allows one run and I guess we're having a conversation right other than that I don't I don't get the sense that there is a lot of desire to really push in spring just because like

there's not a lot of upside to that right at the same time you know I wrote a predictions column last week because that's what you do when it's first week of January and the team's not doing anything. It's a little of some space. And I did write that I thought that Quinn Matthews would make his major league debut before May 1st. So even if he doesn't break camp with the team, it's not at all hard to imagine a scenario where he gets an early season call up. Because again, you know, all of these conversations about the rotation and where these guys are going to pitch all assume that every starter gets through spring healthy. and I don't know when the last time is that the Cardinals had or any team got to spring and had all of their starters get through healthy.

It sure doesn't happen often, right? Even last year the Cardinals, it was small, but funny gray missed, what, two, three starts at the start of the year. There's always something. So it would not necessarily shock me if, you know, as I know people have said many times, sometimes these problems resolve themselves, and it would not necessarily blow my mind if that were to happen relatively early in the season. Yeah, and I think one part, too, is I wonder how much pressure the organization is under with trying to give something for the fans to be excited about because,

you know, obviously the fan base is like, dude, really, this is what we're doing. This is boring. We don't like it. And one of the bright spots in the organization that's close to being a major league player is Quinn Matthew. So I wonder if there's part of them, it's like, should we do it? You know, kind of the way Jordan Walker was where I didn't think he should have been on the roster that first year at all.

all and was shocked that he was put up there. But it seemed like they, they kind of bent to the whim of, hey, this is kind of exciting. This is kind of cool and fell for that. And then ended up having to ship them out anyway. So it didn't work out so well then. And, you know, I'm a conservative guy. So I would stay on the safe side of things. And I'd let him kind of, you know, work his way up through Memphis again this past year.

Because it's not like when he was at Memphis, he was as good as he was at double A or anything like that earlier in the season. Like, you know, he had some of. to make at that AAA level where the numbers weren't quite popping off the page the same way. A guy that just I haven't heard much about. And maybe you've heard more than I have, but do they have any sort of plan with a Zach Thompson this season? Because he's a guy that, you know, we've seen obviously up in the major leagues a couple of different times, former first round pick.

And he feels like he'd be a nice swing man as well if somebody like Stephen Matt's got dealt away. have you heard about any sort of plans with what Zach Thompson might be for this team? So I actually asked about Zach Thompson at the winter meetings just because I was under the impression that he was out of options and that would create kind of a challenge with the roster. He's not. The Cardinals applied for and got a fourth option year on Zach Thompson. There are a lot of convoluted reasons they were allowed to. But what it boils down to basically is that in 2019, he missed being a pro for three months by like a week. And so as a result, he doesn't have, he doesn't yet have five professional seasons because 2020 doesn't count and 2019 was too short.

So despite being a first round pick in 2019 and signing basically immediately, he technically does not have five seasons as a professional. So they can get an extra option year on him. And so they have time to let that kind of see what it looks like. You know, if you told me that Zach Thompson came to spring and pitched the lights out and earned an opening day roster spot, I wouldn't say that I was shocked. He started the second game of the season last year, right? Like this was not a guy who they were burying in the minors. At the same time, I don't think he got any real consideration for a call-up after he got sent down in April last year. I think he had really kind of fallen off their radar. You know, that's a combination of the results just weren't there in the big

leagues, nor were they really there in AAA either, to be honest. I know that there was some body composition stuff they were working through, you know, Thompson came into spring last year, having lost like 25 pounds and was that good? Did I put him in a spot where maybe he wasn't generating the kind of push that he's used to and kind of put him behind the eight ball a little bit? So I guess the thing to say is that he has time to pitch his way back into having a role, but right now I don't really know what that role would be because he's not like the number six starter. He's probably not the number seven starter. Is he like the fourth lefty out of the bullpen? Right. That's not really, that's not really a good path of the

big league's either. So I think with Thompson, it's going to be a matter of show up to spring, pitch, and if he gets guys out, they'll figure out a spot where he fits. All right. We're going to talk about bullpen stuff, specifically bullpen are the Cardinals in the market to actually add a veteran piece to that bullpen and who are some of those names that they might add if they were inclined to do something like that. We'll talk about it next with Jeff Jones on Lockdown Cardinals. Now, I love going to live events. This is not a secret. You guys have heard me talk about, obviously going to sporting events and Cardinal games and football games, but I love going to concerts. My whole career in radio began on the music side of things,

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Game time. Thank you again for making Locked-on Cardinals. Your first listen today for your second. Listen, find Locked-on MLB with our baseball guru Sully, hosting the show with a daily blend of humor. Of course, baseball's involved as well, giving you all the updates on what's happening during this off-season. You can find Locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast.

Jeff Jones from the Belleville News Democrat. is with us once again here today. There's been some talk, Jeff, that the Cardinals could be interested in some veteran bullpen help. I know the narrative has been we will not be spending money. We will cut everything and we're just going to play all the young guys and whatnot. But there's been some talk that they could be in the market for perhaps a swing man, perhaps a setup guy.

Have you heard anything like this kind of rumbling through the trade rumors or through the free agent market? You think the Cardinals are interested in. something like that. I do. If for no other reason, and there are a lot of bull penetics they have to replenish, in large part just because of the loss of Andrew Kittridge, who, by the way, remains a free agent.

It is a guy who they really enjoyed having, who I know really like St. Louis was very open to coming back. So that would not shock me if him or someone like him was a match. You know, Phil Maton was a guy who they talked to last offseason. Local guy, still a free agent. That checks out for me as well. something of that ilk, right? Because when you sort of look at the guys they have in house,

you know, behind Helsley, when you look at the right side of the bullpen, you're talking about Helsley, and then you're talking about Ryan Fernandez, and then you're talking about Kyle Leahy, right? Gordon Grisepho, if he has a kind of spring that could be interesting. But it's not, there are guys there who they want to see more from. They want to see what Leahy looks like over a longer stretch. They want to see is Chris Roycroft, a guy, who can pitch 60 innings in the big leagues, right?

But they have to be aware of and prepared in case that is not the case with some of these guys. I think that, you know, as much as they might want to have their energy focused on a refresh, they really don't want to live through 2023 again. They don't want to run out of innings. They don't want to have 34-year-old AAA pitchers having to absorb just beatings at the end of the season. Right. I hate going back to the well on these guys, but they are, like, they don't want to get to a spot where Casey Lawrence and Andrew Suarez and Jacob Barnes are rotating the ball between them every third day because that was not productive or positive for anyone, which is just to say, you know, that's not, that's not a good way to run a ball club, especially one that all, you know, is ostensibly focused on developing talent at this point. So a little bit of a veteran backstop, a guy who they kind of trust to rely on to provide. some of those innings because again all these guys were talking about this is a presumption that these

guys are going to be healthy the full year you know if one of these guys sprains an ankle and spring training are we talking about like matt sponson making the opening day roster right like this is this is sort of the reality of the depth they have and the way that the 40 man winds up right now and and so having a veteran in that spot again keenan middleton who didn't pitch for them last year but who was still a free agent who was really kind of like shone and shockingly present in the clubhouse all year long. There are guys out there with whom they have familiarity who can maybe offer them some stability.

And that would be appealing for them just based on they do make you play 162. And so you've got to have the guys to get through those stretches. All right. So we're going to move on to some questions from the listeners here real quick. Tommy B. wants to know, why do the Cardinals continue to think Jordan Walker is an outfielder? Wouldn't it be better with Donovan and left, Siani in center, Newt and right, and then Walker as a DH all the time. People ask me this one all the time. And I always kind of think about kind of the roster crunch of things too because you got a couple of guys that need to get at bats too.

Because people, I don't know how we do it, but we kind of forget how Alec Berlison is a part of this team sometimes where we don't know whether he's going to be an outfielder. Is he going to play first? He's going to be DH. But you're not trying to bench that guy. but what are your feelings on Jordan Walker and their remaining just faith in him as being the right fielder on opening day? So I'll say this. I'm glad that the question was not about him playing first or third base because that's not going to happen. And we should stop.

Like, put that out of your minds, right? In terms of Jordan Walker, just the DH, maybe that's where he ends up, right? But the fact is he's so athletic that it really is a waste to kind of. put him in the DH spot and say, never mind, this is yours and forget it. You know, it's not good for him from a career development perspective to stop playing the field of 23. That's not going to help him have a long big league career. It's not a good use of their personnel because, again, like, for as awkward as it looks

with Jordan and Wright sometimes, and it doesn't look great all the time. He really is such like a gifted athlete that the tools in the toolbox suggest they ought to be able to be shaped in a way that he can be a perfectly competent outfielder, right? Like, I don't think he's ever going to win a gold glove out there, but there's nothing, like he can be a perfectly fine outfielder for his 20s into the start of his 30s. And so I think foreclosing on that, and you're right, too, to talk about the roster in terms of where does Berluson fit, where does Contreras fit, you know, if Contreras is going to be getting everyday reps at first base, okay, but then that means D.H.

for Burleson, but then also you're going to have DHS some days to get guys kind of a break. Now, I will say we might see that less this year than we have in past years just because you know, without Goldschmidt and theoretically without Aeronado, you don't have the kind of veterans on the roster that you're trying to save all the time. But, you know, Nolan Gorman is going to

dh some days and probably Yvonne Herrera is going to deach some days. And, you know, there are going to be other spots for these. So how many at best how many starts are there for Jordan Walker to D.H. It's, you know, if you told me that that 32-year-old Jordan Walker spent 80% of his played appearances at D.H., I don't, sure. But I don't think that pushing 22-year-old Jordan Walker to do that is probably good for anybody at this point. And that's, I preach, friend, preach, because I haven't said that about Jordan Walker when people

bring him up, moving him over to first base and stuff. I'm like, but he's so long and fast and and his arm and all of this, like, you're just going to bottle that up and throw it out? Like, you don't want to try to use that and find something better with that? I have said this, and I've probably said this on your show. I've said this over and over and over. You know who had, like, a really long, leveraging first-faced body type? Jose Martinez. And it was bad.

And it got worse every day. Being that shape does not guarantee that somebody is going to have the kind of athleticism and the instinct necessary to handle first face, especially because, like, If Jordan Walker could handle third base, right, they wouldn't have moved him off of third base. He was not a good defensive third baseman. He played third base because in high school he was the best hitter anybody had ever seen for years. And so he played on the dirt because he did because it was high school. Right.

So that doesn't that doesn't mean he's an infielder. It means that he's a six foot six outfielder and that's okay. Yeah. And, you know, something else with Jordan, too, was, you know, eyeball test wise. And maybe the numbers and analytics don't line up the way I see it. But he looked better to me out there last year. I didn't see him looking quite as lost. And like you mentioned, sure, there's going to be some bad routes that he takes and stuff. And sometimes he makes mistakes, has been playing the position that long.

But to me, he looked a lot better and more comfortable last year. He did. Mike C wants to know, when the hell did Miles Michaelis get a no trade clause? and why? Who agreed to this? It was something that caught me off guard this year, by the way, too, is when Katie mentioned it and I was like, wait, what? When did that happen? Because I never noticed it anywhere else. That was kind of something that caught me off guard because I thought he would be somebody. They'd be able to move quickly. And obviously, it appears like he's not going anywhere either. Yeah, I mean, the answer to why is pretty much for this exact situation where he ages into a not that good starter. and the Cardinals want to dump him and he doesn't want to do that. And that's why he would want it, right, to protect himself in exactly this situation. You know, I will say, just as we said here, and again, I know it's been widely reported that Miles doesn't want to waive his no trade. And that would be about what I would expect.

The one little note that I'll put here, just as a, just as an FYI, put a little star by it, It was just reported within the last hour that Braxton Garrett had UCL surgery this winter. He had an internal brace done. He's going to miss the entire season. So the Marlins are down a starter. The Marlins haven't spent a nickel in free agency in the Cardinals, but the Marlins haven't spent a nickel in free agency yet. And the Marlins are also in this group of teams.

I know there's been some reporting about the NLBPA making noise about filing agreements against the athletics. because if you are a team that receives luxury, to receive luxury tax money, you are supposed to reinvest it. Now, they don't, but there are some guidelines built in that says, hey, if you're not spending X amount of the luxury sharing money on salary, then the PA is going to file the grievance. And this is happened in the past and the grievances last forever.

And, you know, in the aftermath of the last TVA negotiation, it pretty well got underreported at the time. But there were like two or three PA grievances that as part of the negotiation, they agreed to drop as part of the collective. of bargaining. So all of that is to say, if we're to accept a trade to somewhere, it sure seems like Miami would be the spot, just based on he would still be in Jupiter for spring. He would be near his home, right? You know, it's not terrible travel, yada, yada, yada, all the reasons, all the, all the lifestyle reasons why a person might want to be a Marlin would apply to Michaelis.

The Marlins need to take on money. Like, they got to put a little bit of more cash on the books. And so I will be keeping an eye, I guess, is the thing to see there right. And because I do think that I think that that is an interesting sort of change of the state of play that maybe would create an opening that would not have existed otherwise. All right. And one more question here. Robert Kay asks, who do you feel is under more pressure to perform this season? Gorman or Walker? and is there any update on Luke and Baker's future with the team now that Contreras has taken over first base?

So starting with Luke and Baker, quite honestly, I'm a little surprised that we haven't heard about him moving to Asia. Like that, to me, it seemed like a really obvious fit to go to Korea or Japan, hit a ton of homers, come back in a couple years and make some money, right? But, you know, married, they just had their first baby. There are a lot of, like, lifestyle reasons, again, that maybe he wouldn't want to move to Japan or career right now. So maybe that's not really in the offing for him. And if not, then not. And if that's the case, then, you know, he's probably the first baseman at Memphis.

Maybe he's on the bench in St. Louis, if the bench works out in such a way to where they just sort of need some guys there. I, you know, it's not, I don't fault him for it, but they don't, they clearly don't see a lot of. of like long-term future with him because he kind of, in his big league exposure, has kind of looked like what he is, right? Like a guy who matches a ton of AAA homers who takes advantage of mistakes in the miners that don't get made in the big leagues and the pitches in the big leagues that he gets, kind of chew him up. And he has so much raw power that he will run into one once in a while,

but it's not likely that he's going to make enough contact probably to sustain, at least right now, kind of given where his swing is at. that. In terms of Gorman and Walker, I guess he would say that Gorman would be under more pressure if for no other reason than he's a year. I think he'll be art eligible after this coming season, I believe. So he is he is approaching free agency. He is approaching what raises look like. Look, Gorman ended the year in the miners. Walker ended the year in the big leagues. There were reasons for that that had to do with roster management stuff. But bottom line, one of those players ended the year as a big leader, and it was not Nolan Gorman.

So I would say that probably Gorman has a little more pressure, add on the fact that he will almost certainly be there replacing Nolan Arnato at third base, and that's like, that's tough. You know, he's going to have to sort of go in with the attitude of, hey, I can play at third base every day. And at the same time, not try to be Nolan Arnato because nobody is. That's just not what it's going to look like, right? So I would say of the two that it's probably Gorman, who was under a more intense scrutiny, at least for this coming season. Quick question for just for me and myself.

What is your projection of what the, if a Nato deal does get done? Is your projection, as far as the starters go with Gorman at third, would it be Donnie at second? Or is Donnie going to stick into the outfield still? Or do you bring in go straight to second? I would expect Gorman at third, Donovan, at second. That's not to say that Donovan would, you know, sprinkle around a little bit, right that he has. Like, you know, I can imagine days where he plays a corner and such as he plays second, you know.

But, but, yes, I would expect, I would expect for him and Donovan to be the second base. Okay. So that would be what, Newton left, Walker and right? So you think Siani or Victor Scott takes center just as of today, I know. Or how, yeah. I do. And I think, I think that Siani enters with enough incumbency that I would say today that Siani starts in center.

if Victor unseats him, that would not be like the most shocking thing in the world. But I do think, you know, on January 8th that Michael Siani is the centerfielder. Isn't that wild to think about because it was like a year ago? We're like, who is Michael Siani anyway? Now is he even a part of this team. But to his credit, and I think also, frankly, to the Cardinals credit, a little bit, we sort of look at the way that center field is trending around the big leagues, right? There aren't that many guys who play center and like hit super well.

It's a lot of Siani. Right. It's a lot of Siani type guys, right? It's the guys that have elite speed and elite defense, and you put up with what the bat looks like. And I, you know, I've said this last year, and I think it's a fair barometer. If Michael Siani can get the OPS to start with a six,

then he probably gives you enough on the defensive side of the ball and on the base paths, but you can deal with it. If, you know, if it's 550 or different below that, that's harder. But if he can get himself 610, 625, that's still not very good hit. That's basically what Yadir and Molina was as a young player, right? He's that kind of hitter, but also the kind of defender that he is. The Cardinals are probably willing to live with that until and unless someone supplants him.

Yeah. And I don't want to get it wrong. I've been a huge Michael Ciani fan since he joined the team last year. I loved this game and stuff. And I felt really bad for him because it looked like the offense was coming around. And then he suffers the injury and it sets him back, which was a bit of a bummer. But all right. Well, we're going to wrap things up after that. Jeff, as always, dude, you are awesome.

Thank you for jumping in here today and hanging out with us. Make sure you guys check them out at the Belleville News Democrat. B&D.com is where you guys can sign up and go look and read Jeff's work. Obviously, you can find him on Twitter X as well. It's J.M. Jones at J.M. Jones. So make sure you give him a follow, always up and updating us with everything going on Cardinals. I appreciate you, buddy. Yep. One last thing I want to applaud you real quick.

The St. Louis baseball writer's dinner is January 19th, that's Sunday of winter warmup. Tickets are on sale at St. Louis BVWA.a.com. That's going to be a ton of fun. Ozzie Smith makes a win, Brendan Donovan. Tony Vitello, if you're a college baseball guy or a local St. Louis baseball guy or want to just take it to Missou for having not hired him. The 85 Cardinals will be there. A. VIP event this year is a Q&A with Vince Coleman and Todd Whorell.

So if you're a Cardinals fan and your local, you owe it to yourself to come check out the baseball rider's dinner at least once. and we have tickets on sale now. Do we have to wear a tux? It is a coat. I believe it's, I don't know if it's, I think it's mandatory coat and courage. You don't have to wear a tux,

but it's at the Missouri Athletic Club, man, we don't want them to punch you out for not being, not being fancy enough at the door. So a little, a little spit shine will do everybody a little bit of good. All right, all right. Proper attire is necessary. All right.

Well, thank you, Jeff. And thank you guys for making a lotto car. Cardinals, your first listen every day if you haven't already. Give us a follow as well on Twitter, X at L0 underscore Cardinals and a JD Sports Radio. Like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason.

We'll see you next time on Locked on Cardinals.