Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Is Yadier Molina Preparing To Return To The Cardinals In 2025!??

Starting point is 00:00:00 With a shakeup in the organization anticipated some recent news about one former Cardinal legend has got people wondering, is he going to be the next manager of the team? This is Locked-on Cardinals. You are Locked-on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Lop-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals fans. I'm J.D. Haffron and I'm a national radio sports anchor, born and raised in the Lou and a lifetime Cardinals fan. And I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:00:34 Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio and the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals. We want to thank those of you who make Lockdown Cardinals your first listen to every day, free and available, wherever you get your podcast. We're on YouTube as well. Stop on by. Say hi. Like, subscribe, comment, hit that notification button so you know when the new episodes come out. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans in baseball.

Starting point is 00:00:57 It's frustrated as they may be all the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by booking.com, booking.com. Booking dot yeah, the right say can make you a fan of any city, even your baseball rival's. Book today on booking.com, the official accommodation partner of Major League Baseball, get the booking.com app today. So the Cardinals are back on the diamond tonight. One final road trip here in 2024 before the season is wrapped up, a season that obviously has been disappointing in many, many ways, specifically the standings, right, where the team is 70, and 77 has already been eliminated from playoff contention for a second straight season. Is 2024 as bad as last year? No, no, it is not. But when the expectations of your fan base and your city are as high as they are in St. Louis,

Starting point is 00:01:52 finishing at 500 or right around it is not going to cut it. Remember the words. Buildewitt Jr. You know some places. winning is just a winning record or even 500 is acceptable. Players have a nice season, go home, and get back to their families and so forth, but not in this city, not with this franchise, not with this history, and not with our great fans.

Starting point is 00:02:17 Well, here we are a mid-level 500 team who certainly has some talent, not taking that away. There are guys on this team that camball, but they underperformed. as a whole for a second straight season. And when I say as a whole, I'm talking about the players, the coaches, the front office,

Starting point is 00:02:39 all of these people involved. It's time for change. And everybody knows it. Everybody knows it. The people in charge know it. And the change needs to happen throughout this organization. It's not just one person. It's not just one player.

Starting point is 00:02:54 It's not just one coach. It's something that needs to happen in multiple areas. within this organization. The infrastructure is a word that has been thrown around a lot where there just needs to be some changes done, all right? Most believe that the front office transition from John Moselock as president of baseball operations to Heinbloom is a foregone conclusion. All right, obviously they brought a men, special advisor, and all that.

Starting point is 00:03:26 How soon will that change take place is the real question. right because Mo's got a year left on his contract it seems like he wants to move on like it seems like he's fed up and the Cardinal's fan base is fed up with Mo being in charge he's had a great run not taking that away from John Moseilock but things have not gone well over the last few years he's trying to get out time to bring some new blood in Hein bloom is here it seems like the handoff of duties is going to be happening at some point this offseason. Some people anticipate that, you know, in the postseason press conference that they're going to have or, you know, they talk about wrapping the season up and stuff.

Starting point is 00:04:18 They didn't do it last year, remember, they avoided it. But this year, they're going to do it. And at least I'm supposed to. And it seems like maybe an announcement could be made that. some of the what the changes are going to be and we'll see we'll see but what about the manager what about the manager yesterday we talked about the reds pulling the trigger or not being afraid to pull the trigger on firing david bell despite signing him to an extension in 2023 and i had to chuckle a little bit uh because their GM nick crawl he also used the word

Starting point is 00:04:52 I couldn't believe it came out of his mouth philosophical differences where where have we heard that before Cardinals fans as one of the reasons when talking about why they moved on from David Bell, which means obviously David Bell will be managing a team in a couple of years and take them to the playoffs like Mike Schilt has done with the San Diego Padres. Foregone, foregone conclusion on that as well. But Ali Marmal has had the full backing of John Mosellock ever since he was hired following the abrupt firing of Schilt so much that heading into the season that he gave Ali that extension, just so he wouldn't feel like he was getting set up to be the lame duck if the Cardinals came out of the gate slowly against a pretty tough schedule early on,

Starting point is 00:05:38 which, of course, they did, going 15 and 24 before turning things around after Mother's Day in Milwaukee. That's when things started to get a whole lot better for Ali, the Cardinals, and everybody involved. Since that point, the Cardinals are 64 and 53, 11 games over 500, a 547 winning percentage, which is very good. You know, that 547, that's playoff caliber winning percentage. But is it enough at this point to actually save Ali's job? If they decide to move on to Hein Bloom and he gets to make the decisions, does it make sense to have Ali back

Starting point is 00:06:23 or would Bloom want his own choice as the person to manage this ball club in 2025? And if they decide to replace Ali Marble, is Yadda or Molina going to be the guy that takes over? There's been some new developments and some new information that's come out about Yadi that has some people wondering, myself included, if he's not setting up for a return

Starting point is 00:06:49 in 2025 to the Cardinals organization. We'll talk about it next on Locked on Cardinals. Passion drive and patience. What brings home the winning trophy is what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors says everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance from superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and a whole lot more. Whether you're into speed, whether it's power, whether it's style. Maybe you want all three. Why not, right?

Starting point is 00:07:17 eBay Motors has got you covered with over $122 million. parts for your number one. Ride or die, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay guaranteed fit, your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or you get your money back. Because with eBay Motors, you're burning rubber, not cash. With all the parts you need of the prices you want, it's easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that when. Keep your ride or die alive at eBay.com slash motors. eBay guaranteed fit only available to U.S. customers, eligible items only, exclusions. apply. Thank you for making lockdown cardals your first listen today for your second list and enjoy the

Starting point is 00:08:01 lockdown MLB podcast hosted by Paul Sullivan, aka Sully, who was here daily to provide national expertise with his trademark humor, prepare for the fall classic with Sully, who's got you covered each and every day on lockdown MLB, which is available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast, part of the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. Again, thank you guys for making lockdown cardos, your first listen every day. Leave your comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X anytime you want. want feedback is always welcome and encouraged. I am very much excited to hear what you might have to say about recent developments that

Starting point is 00:08:34 have popped up. Let me take you back and just kind of recap for some of the newer listeners. I know my everydayers are like, yeah, we already know this. Not everybody knows all this stuff, okay? The past off season, the Cardinals, if you remember, made that big announcement. That huge announcement, the one and only, the catching God himself, Yaddea or Molina, the beloved cardinal who spent his entire career with the team, one of the greatest defensive catchers of all time,

Starting point is 00:09:01 arguably one of the best all route catchers of all time. There are some people out there that do believe that Yadir Molina was not that great on offense. And, you know, us in St. Louis feel a little bit different because he was awfully clutch. But yeah, he doesn't have the office of numbers of a Johnny bench or something like that. But, man, was he something special, right? and we figured out how important Yadi or Molina was not only in your lineup, but specifically behind the plate after he retired and things went haywire in 2023.

Starting point is 00:09:34 But last year they made the announcement that he was going to come on as a special assistant to the team. And I remember being at the winter warmup. I was a couple of rows away from John Moseilac when he was like, hey, everybody, excited that Yaddi's coming back. And it was met with a loose. warm response. And Cardinal fans are pretty smart overall, all right?

Starting point is 00:09:58 And it's not that they weren't happy to have Yaddy coming back on that frigid morning. That wasn't what the problem was. We're all at Ballpark Village, excited to hear what was going to happen. But it was because they wanted more. They wanted him to be more than just a special assistant. They wanted him in charge as the manager of this ball club. I talked about it on this show plenty. What an awkward position, it was kind of setting up to be for everyone involved.

Starting point is 00:10:30 You know, Yadi coming on, they were talking about, you know, yeah, he's going to be in the dugout sometimes and went in uniform and helping now. He's going to help out with the catchers, but he's also going to be in the press box doing stuff. Like how awkward that was going to kind of be for everyone with Yadi seemingly being the manager in waiting. Ali having to kind of look over his shoulder the whole season. You know, it was just kind of, to me, it was setting up to be a problem. And Ali said all the right things when it came to this situation. You know, he was like, yeah, I want Yadi around. We wanted to be a part of this staff and talked about how they had a good relationship.

Starting point is 00:11:08 And he's excited about it and encouraged it. And then in the spring to, in my opinion, put Ali, at ease and squash any issues with what was going to happen in this season. Mo gives him an extension. Despite coming off of that horrible season in 2023, going into his last year of his contract, where a lot of us felt that, you know, let's see what he can do. You know, let Ali prove himself that he's a really good manager. And if he is, cool. And if things don't work out, you know, you move on. but they gave him an extension.

Starting point is 00:11:50 They gave him an extension. From that point forward, we hardly heard anything about Yadda or Molina anymore. We were told he was handling some personal things in Puerto Rico. He never ended up showing up at spring training, despite Mo's saying, oh, yeah, you know, he's just coming in a little bit later than we thought he was going to. No big deal by the time game start. You know, he'll be around.

Starting point is 00:12:16 Never happened. never showed up at Bush Stadium for any games this year. It was never on the road. Just an absolute ghost this season. Like the whole idea of him just poof, just vanished, right? What happened? What happened? Now I'm not going to speculate on any, you know, family things that he might have been dealing with

Starting point is 00:12:40 because I have no clue about that side of stuff. One of the things that is public knowledge is that Yadayr, was, you know, doing stuff with his basketball team. You know, I remember his last year. Remember he left the team and dealt with some stuff with his basketball team for a little bit? And everybody was like, what the hell is going on here? But he's got a commitment to this basketball team that he owns and manages. And, you know, that was something that he was into.

Starting point is 00:13:11 But that could be changing. That could be changing. Reports are that Yadimilina is considering selling the team. team. This is a big deal for us in Cardinals Nation because if he does do the, you know, the Salas of the team, does that mean, does that mean that he's going to fulfill his role as a special assistant in 2025? Is that what's happening? Is he going to come on? Well, he had more time to give to the St. Louis Cardinals. Also, what if, just what if the organization is to make some sweeping changes.

Starting point is 00:13:52 John Moseilock moves on to a different role within the organization for his final year under contract and ends up becoming a special advisor or something later on down the road. I don't think he's just going to stop being a part of the organization. But what if they're like, all right, last year, Moe's going to move on. Ein Bloom's going to take over,

Starting point is 00:14:14 president of baseball operations, decides to fire Ali Moll. Marble and hire Yadda Yarmulina instead. What if that's something that's being set up right now? Again, speculating. There's no information that that's what's going on right now. But if it were to happen, can you imagine the reaction by the fan base if it were to go down? I mean, not only do you get what the fan base has been asking for.

Starting point is 00:14:47 changes in the front office, changes coaching staff wise. You get the fresh eyes and fresh blood in the front office, but also you're bringing back one of the most cherished players in team history who was just on this team, not too long ago, two years ago when they went to the playoffs. You get him to take over his manager. Let him bring in the coaches that he wants and trusts to get the cardinal way back on track. If this were to happen, you might see celebrating in the streets of St. Louis like they just won the world series. Certainly kind of Marty Grosh, right?

Starting point is 00:15:28 There's going to be people celebrating, women flashing maybe. I don't know. But it's there. People are going to be very, very happy about that. It would inject some enthusiasm into the fan base about this Cardinals team moving forward in 2020. I think it would also show that ownership is listening and paying attention. to what the fans are trying to point out their refusal to buy into another year of what this has been the last two seasons,

Starting point is 00:16:02 which has been failure and then mediocrity. You can call it progress if you want to look at it that way. It's mediocrity, which is not what we are used to here as St. Louis Cardinal fans. You know, they stopped coming out to watch this team in its current state long ago, despite the trade deadline deals for Eric Fetty and Tommy Fam, which at the time made sense move-wise. It made sense, but still underwhelming. Remember when I talked about Eric Fetty?

Starting point is 00:16:37 I'm like, he seems like the guy the Cardinals are going to go after. He just seems like that dude. But I want more. This team needed more than just an Eric Fetty, who came over from Korea and had a really good first half of a season. You needed somebody who could come in and dominate. That he is what he is. And coming to the Cardinals,

Starting point is 00:17:00 he didn't live up to what he was in Chicago in the first half. He just didn't. And then considering you gave away a fan favorite in time he had been on top of that, who's now flourishing with the Dodgers, 265, six bombs, 19 RBIs, and six stolen. bases in 31 games. You don't think the Cardinals could have used that. But nonetheless, they made the deal.

Starting point is 00:17:27 They moved on from Tommy Edmund, who's just loving life in L.A. from what I hear. The fans gave you a little golf clap, like, okay, when you decided to make the promotions of Jordan Walker, Thomas and Jaycey and Michael Walker, Evie. You know, you had the weird thing with Jordan Walker coming up for a platoon roll for a week or something. Like, just weird stuff.

Starting point is 00:17:51 But when they did decide like, all right, he's coming back and we're going to make it a full-time thing no matter what, it's too little too late, man. You'd already lost the fan base. They were already gone. They'd already moved on. They knew the team wasn't good enough. And until real change happens, I don't think they're coming back. You've even got team leaders and Wilson Contreras and Nolan Aronado telling you that

Starting point is 00:18:18 you know, hey, this team needs help, that the front office needs to be hungry to win the division. Like you're getting a sense from them that they feel that the front office isn't trying all that hard. At least that's how it comes off to me. And that's a big deal because when have you ever heard that from a Cardinals player? Calling out the front office saying, hey, you're sucking right now. Figure some stuff out here, man. We need some help down here on the field. It's clear that changes need to be made, yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:51 And if you can't afford the free agent names that it would take to turn this fan base around and trust you again and believe in you again and come out to the games more often, then you need to start with some things that you can control. And that's who's driving the ship in 2025. If you want fans to believe in you again, then have Heinbloom and Yadier-Milina. spearhead your turnaround. That makes a lot of sense. I think a lot of people would be excited about that, that it's a change, and it's a change in the right direction,

Starting point is 00:19:28 people that they are excited to see what they can do with what this organization has already. Again, there is a lot of talent in this organization still. It hasn't lived up to expectations, but we need to get Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman, on track. What I see today, let me check out. Hold on. Jeff Jones just had tweeted this out, and I want to include this real quick. Jimmy Crooks, Tinkentz, Quinn Matthews, and Matt Fonson all named Texas League All-Stars. Their manager, named the Texas League manager of the year.

Starting point is 00:20:09 So that's back-to-back Texas League MVP's. So Jacey was down there last year. And now you got Jimmy Crooks catching prospect. Jones also says probably worth mentioning that Crooks was named the Texas League MVP. Teen Kent's named the league's top pitcher. There's talent in this organization. It's there. It just needs to be harnessed. And the people who have been in charge the last couple years have not been able to do that. Proofs in the pudding, man. Go look at it. Go look at it. Now, well, Cardinals ownership have the nuts to make drastic moves like this, to say, all right, time to move on from everybody involved here and bring these guys back in. It's not like you're dealing with somebody you don't know. I mean, Hyam Bloom's been there already.

Starting point is 00:21:00 Yadia Molina was here for 20 years, man. Come on. This is not like some stranger coming back in. But will they have the nuts to move on from both John Moseilac and Ali Marmal for 2025? That remains to be seen. And this isn't an anti-Ali thing for me, by the way. It's just about turning the page from what you've seen the last two years. It's getting a clean slate.

Starting point is 00:21:26 It's starting fresh. That's all it is. This is not me bashing Ali. Like, it's not. But to move forward, you can't just keep dragging the same people along with you, right? Yadir Malina could be the mouthwash, if you will. That gets the bad taste of the last two seasons out of our mouths quicker than any free agent, Mike. And he's a hell of a lot cheaper.

Starting point is 00:21:55 You don't have to pay, you know, $200 million contracts to managers. And if the cardals run it back with the same guys in charge, same kind of players in place for next year, I hope ownership's ready for the reaction, which we'll, probably be a lot of empty seats from the get-go in 2025. And I don't think that's something they want to do. So anyway, leave your comments, leave your suggestions down below. What do you think of this?

Starting point is 00:22:23 Am I out of my mind? Am I on the right path? What do you guys think? I need to hear from you and get some fan feedback for our upcoming episode. So let me know. Let me know where you're at on this. We'll preview the Rocky series specifically tonight's matchup, Tuesday night, coming up next year on Locktown Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:22:46 This episode of Locktown Cardinals is brought to you by booking.com. Booking.com, booking dot, yeah. Explore those U.S. cities you always secretly wanted to learn more about. If you're not somebody who has traveled much, I advise you to go to places like New York and Boston and Vegas, Miami, San Diego, L.A., Nashville, Kansas City, some of my favorite places in the country that I've gone to for not just sporting events, but for just to go see different places around.

Starting point is 00:23:13 the country. Those are some of my personal favorites. They've got hotels, bed and breakfast, vacation rentals, resorts, and so much more available on booking.com. You might just find your perfect stay even in your baseball rival city during the postseason. Maybe it's time to taste test your baseball's competition stadium cuisine. Luckily on booking.com, you can find the stadium stay. That's just right for you. With booking.com's wide variety of choice across the U.S. you can go incognito to all of your baseball rival city, Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, obviously Colorado right now, probably beautiful out there this time of year.

Starting point is 00:23:54 Booking.com delivers exactly the right U.S. stay for you. Booking.com can help you book a state that's close to your home teams or rival stadium no matter what team you're rooting for in the postseason. I know our cardinals aren't there, but if you want to go see some of these games happen, booking.com can make you a fan of any U.S. city from hotels that overlook the stadiums to family friendly resorts to cute bed and breakfast days booking.com is so many choices across the u.s. The right state can make you a fan of any U.S. city, even your baseball rivals. booking.com booking dot yeah. Hey NFL fans, you can start the season

Starting point is 00:24:32 with a big return on Fandul, America's number one sports book. You know, sometimes you'll be you'll be watching a game and you see a trend taking place during a game. You know, you're watching those Monday night games last night and you're seeing that the Bengals defense cannot stop Jada McDaniels. You're like, ooh, maybe I should put something down on what's going on with Jada McDaniels. You can do that. You can do that. Obviously, it works out for baseball as well. When the Cardinals are doing well, they're failing in a certain area, you can kind of see how that game is trending. This is nice. That's when you go to Fandall and you take advantage. When you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats.

Starting point is 00:25:10 You live play by play and so much more on the same page where you actually place your bets. They got it all consolidated right there for you. So it's quick. It's easy. Hopefully you cashed in on what you were seeing last night in that Jaguars Bill's game where the bills just steamrolled the Jaguars. What is going on with Trevor Lawrence?

Starting point is 00:25:30 What happened to that guy? Former number one overall pick? Just, it's bad. It's bad right now. But you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's $200 in bonus bets. guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet at fandul.com. That's fandul.com.

Starting point is 00:25:55 Thank you for making Locktown, Carlos, your first listen today. Now go check out the Lockdown MLB podcast. Sully's preparing you for the fall classic each and every day. Find the link to Lockdown MLB in the description so you don't need to search. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. All right, final road trip of the season. We start off in Colorado tonight against the Rockies where we get to see Michael McGreevy, make his second start in in Cardinals' uniform.

Starting point is 00:26:19 form tonight. The former first round pick has been outstanding. His two appearances at the major league level, July 31st against the defending champion Rangers, seven innings, one run on five hits on just 99 pitches, picked up his first major league win in that game. I remember he was so good. And the Cardinals had just gotten Tommy Fam. And fam was like flabbergasted that it was a spot start for McGreevy. He was like, yo, we need to. keep this dude around. This guy was good. Obviously, the Cardinals didn't do that. They immediately sent him right back down to Memphis, where he continued to pitch pretty well. Then recently, brought back up, came out of the bullpen in his first appearance, and once again, brilliant,

Starting point is 00:27:03 throwing three shutout innings against the pirates. He allows two hits, strikes up four, grabs his second Major League win. So he's now two and no, the RA 0.90. We'll see how things for McGreevy play out at, you know, Coors Field, which obviously can be a house of horse for pitchers. It's not an easy place to throw the ball in. Rockies do have the worst, third worst, pardon me, third worst record in baseball. They're 60 and 96 ahead of Elaine the White Sox and the Marlins, but they're always a completely different team at home as compared to what they do on the road. They're 36 and 39 at home, 24 and 57 on the road. Two of those wins in St. Louis. Remember that serious? What a letdown that was. That was a whole week of just, that was when they lost the

Starting point is 00:27:49 The Cardinals lost a series of the White Sox this year. You guys remember that? Unbelievable. Anyway, Rocky's offense, not so good on the road. 217 batting average. Then it jumps to 267, 50 points higher at Coors Field. And for years, they've been led by Chuck Nasty, Charlie Blackman, and just announced on Monday that he's going to be retiring at the end of the year,

Starting point is 00:28:16 which is, you know, all good things come to a. team's career leader in triples was 67, just under 1,800 hits, just under 3,000 total bases. He's got 333 doubles, 1,618 games played among other accomplishments. He ranks second in team history only to a Hall of Famer Todd Helton. So kind of cool that Carls will be around in his final week in a Colorado Rockies uniform. You get to see some of his last at bat. So, you know, that's kind of neat. And it's cool to see, you know, Nolan Aronado gets to go back to Colorado and, you know, see some of his old guys.

Starting point is 00:28:55 You know, obviously he played a number of years with Blackman. So that'll be kind of a cool story to see that. Ryan Feltoner will get the ball for the Rockies tonight. Right handers just three and ten on the season, but has been pretty good recently going to and O with a 1.96 ERA over his three starts in September. Gave him four runs. None of them earned on just two hits and struck out seven and five in a third innings against the Cardinals back in June. in a game that the Rockies won by a score of six to five.

Starting point is 00:29:21 On the road, respectable 3.93 ERA at home, balloons, 5.76 ERA. So hopefully the Cardinals can take advantage of that and put together some offense tonight, did not do a lot of that. In their last game, offense was tough to come by. They didn't score a lot of runs in general against the Guardians, but somehow won two of three against Cleveland. maybe we'll get some fireworks tonight offensively from the Cardinals' offense. They need to go two and four over their last six games here this week to avoid a losing season.

Starting point is 00:30:00 They need to go five and one to meet my prediction of 84 wins at the beginning of the year. My guess, they'll fall somewhere in between, right in the middle, kind of like they've been all season. Just, yeah. First pitch is going to be at 740, St. Louis time. but if there's any reason to watch tonight's game, let's see Michael McGreevy, a guy that is making a push for a starting rotation spot in 2025. I think a lot of us believe he deserves at least a crack at it,

Starting point is 00:30:30 and he pitches well in Coors. What are you going to say about him? I mean, not a lot of people pitch well there. Thank you for making it locks on Cardinals. Your first listen every day. If you have it already, please give us a follow on Twitter X at L1 underscore Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio.

Starting point is 00:30:46 like, subscribe on YouTube and help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are still the best fans in baseball for a reason. And I will see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals. Enjoy the game tonight.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Is Yadier Molina Preparing To Return To The Cardinals In 2025!??

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.