Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Nolan Arenado Did What?!?!

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

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Nolan Aronado's latest Instagram posts have got the baseball world buzzing and some fans kind of freaking out a little bit. We'll talk about it today on 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 fans. 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 Twitter X at JD Sports Radio. You can also follow the podcast at L0 underscore Cardinals.

I do want to think those of you who make Locked on Cardinals your first listen every day. We are free to available wherever you get your podcast. Also available on YouTube. Please like, subscribe and hit that notification button so you don't miss out on a single episode because this is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans in baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode brought to you by Fandall. You can start the season with a big return on Fahle.

Vandul new customers can place a $5 bet and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet just fits bandel.com to get started. All right, Nolan Arnato, I know, I know. It's to the point where you're starting to get a little sick of hearing about it, aren't you? But until something happens, this is going to be big news in Cardinal Nation and in Major League Baseball. people are very curious where Nolan Aronado might end up if he doesn't return to the St. Louis Cardinals. And again, we don't think he's going to be here.

We think there's been an agreement. He's going to move on. They're doing their best to find a suitable place for him, someplace he wants to go. But the Nolan Aronado saga has taken another turn, I think. I think we're starting to pick up clues as things continue here. in this offseason. And it really kind of depends on how you choose to see things. So for those of you who didn't see,

Nolan Arnado had posted some offseason photos of himself out, enjoying life with the family. No big deal, right? Here's one of the pictures. That's him with the family. You can see that on YouTube. And nothing about the picture say anything at all, having to do with baseball.

Like, it's just showing him having a good time with his family. But then you look at the song that he added to go along with the picture, and that is where you're going to raise some eyebrows. The song is from Kendrick Lamar, very popular artist. And the name of the song that he chose to place over these photos was Dodger Blue. Now, I'm going to summon my intermorphius here for just a moment, if you don't mind, from The Matrix. So bear with me.

But looking at this has got some fans thinking, one way or another. And again, it really depends on what you choose to believe in. If you take the red pill. You believe what he posted on his Instagram here is just him. Enjoying live, pure coincidence that he used the song of it just so happens to have the words. Dodger Flew and the title. Maybe he's just a big fan of Kendrick Lamard.

He's a big fan of that song. Maybe it has nothing to do with the impending split with the Cardinals. You're somebody who doesn't want to believe. that you take the blue pill you are reading this here as nolan saying out loud for everyone to know that he wants to be with the los angeles dodgers and is hoping the cardals in l.A. can come to terms on a deal that would benefit both sides and land him over at the hot corner for the defending world series champions in 2025 so that he can have a better chance at competing for a championship next season no doubt L.A. is going to be the favorites going into it they just got Blake

Snell, they've got all the studs already. Why wouldn't you want to go there? You know, personally, I'm on the blue pill side of things here. I do not care how much you enjoy Kendrick Lamar or that particular song. You know what your situation is right now. You know what people are thinking. You know that there's a million eyeballs on what's going on with you and they're watching what you're doing. And you're going to post something like this. You know what's going on. You know, this is, there's no way.

This is a coincidence, right? The Cardinal situation is what it is. There's no way, Nolan Aronado, as bright as he is and as smart as he is, is oblivious to his surroundings and how people are going to react to things. In this day and age, when you put a song called Dodger Blue,

on your Instagram and not expect people to flip out in one way or another. Then on top of it, here, check this one out, Aronado is, and it's hard for me to tell whether he's thanking a fan or the fan is thanking him for being respectful to his family. And it says, met my hero the other day, what an amazing guy, future Dodger. And Nolan put that up on his Instagram as well. well. I mean, come on. This is. And I'm not saying there's a deal done with the Dodgers already, but obviously he's saying that's where I want to go, which is what a lot of us thought he wanted to do in the first place. He's a West Coast guy. It makes a lot of sense. There was all of that

talk before all of this when the Cardinals were thinking about moving on from there, having that bad season in 2023. And Nolan's like, no, I'm not, you know, trying to go anywhere else. I want to be in St. Louis. But everybody was saying, I mean, you don't want to be a Dodger? You don't want to be a Dodger? And it's not shocking that he would want to be a Los Angeles Dodger because of all of this. We had a report from NJ.com's Randy Miller that the Yankees and the Dodgers are both interested in Nato. And those are two teams that are in a championship window right now, who can afford pretty much any they want and don't mind spending all this money and wouldn't mind an upgrade at third base. I think the Yankees could use an upgrade at third base more than the Dodgers need to.

But if L.A. is where Nato wants to be, then he has a say in that. According to the reports, Miller was on WFAN in New York and or W fan and said, I think the Cardinals are trying to trade them. St. Louis would have to pick up some of the money and maybe the Yankees could have a deal where they trade some prospects. I keep hearing it's going to be either the Yankees or the Dodgers. I think he's a West Coast guy that would prefer to go to the Dodgers, and I think the Dodgers want him. So maybe he's just kind of addressing those reports.

It was just saying, hey, I'd rather be in Dodger Blue than Yankee Pinstripes. The question is, what kind of deal can we get out of this? You know, how much money are the Cardinals going to have to eat here? And what kind of prospects can they get in return? And obviously you eat more money, you usually get a better prospect. But, you know, it's not like money is a big deal to the Dodgers, you know. The Dodgers just landed Snell, deferred a bunch of money there. They got all this money in Show Hey, that's deferred.

They're the favorites to land Roku Sasaki. And if that's the case, you know, if they want him, that's where he wants to be. and now that they've got Snell and Sasaki does end up signing, which is something that we're going to have to wait around for a little bit. I wonder if the Dodgers will be a little more lenient with the pitching prospects that they'd be willing to deal back to the Cardinals in exchange for Nolan Aronado, future Hall of Famer. One could only hope that they will be lenient and they would be more than happy to hand

some of these guys over. I mean, hey, Bobby Miller kind of had a tough year. last year. You sure you want to hang on to him? I would love to see Bobby Millett in Cardinal Red. That would be great for me. And as much as I don't really, I don't really want to trade Aronado. I just see the benefits for everyone involved. They really do. It's like just to kind of compare it to things that go on in the NFL with my Green Bay Packers. You know, I'm a big fan of them. Every day as you know this by now, I do have one of the stock options. I'm one of the owners of the Packers.

And it's just kind of like what they had to go through over the years. Did I want them to trade Aaron Rogers? Of course not. You know, he's been a phenomenal player, three-time MVP for the Packers. But I understood why it was happening. Same with Devante Adams. One of the best wide receivers that's ever worn that uniform. The Packers wanted to go young.

They didn't want to pay for the older guys. And it's worked out quite well for a Green Bay. compared to what the cardals are doing. They're moving on from Paul Goldschmidt, probably moving on from Nolan Aronado. And that's okay. You know, it is. Things change.

And I just, you know, you're going to leave all these little clues or what is the same picking up the tea leaves or whatever the hell that is. I mean, there's no way that it's just, oh, I didn't realize that's what it was going. there's got to be something to this. Whether there's smoke, there's fire more times than not.

And, you know, I just hope the cartels are able to get a good deal for him. That's really all you can say about it. You know, even if he doesn't go to L.A., I don't know where else he would want to be. You know, it seems like New York is really his lifestyle. You know, he seems like a more laid back kind of guy. So West Coast obviously makes a whole lot of sense. But I don't know. It looks like we're going to have some movement at some point or

Now, obviously the Juan Soto stuff is going to hold things up for a little bit, a little bit because if the Yankees don't get Soto or the Dodgers don't get Soto, because apparently they're still in the, of course they are. They're still running for that. You know, then things will change. They'll have to make different plans. So that's kind of holding things up at the moment. So we're waiting. But again, it's okay. Things change.

Teams change. rosters change. Ryan Housley, for instance, somebody who was also kind of in limbo at the moment. He's a guy who's been rumored to be on the move, but we haven't really heard how he feels about it until now. We finally have got some comments from Halsley. So we'll discuss him in further detail.

Coming up next, I'm locked on Cardinals. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fanduel. America's number one sports book because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win. The Fandoz Sportsbook gap gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL, and it's all in one place. Was that the Bengals and Steelers game on Sunday? And from the very beginning, you can just tell it was going to be a high-scoring game. There's going to be a lot of points.

You had to pick six right off the bat, and they just up and down the field, they went. And it was, I believe it was the highest-scoring game in the NFL so far this season. The Bengals have been notorious for these types of games all season, just college football-type scores in their games usually. So taking that into consideration, had a feeling Russell Wilson was going to have a pretty good day for the Steelers and boy, Dead E, throwing for over 400 yards. So when you get a hunch like that in the middle of a game, no matter what sport it is, you can check out the latest stats. You can do live play by play and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. Makes very easy. Visit fandle.com to join today. And once again,

you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets. If you win your first $5 bet, that's handle.com, never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fandall, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Thank you again for making Locked on Cardinals your first listen every day. You can leave comments on YouTube as well as on Twitter X anytime you want your feedback is always welcome and encouraged. If you do have any like trade scenarios that you want to bring forth and you want us to talk about it on the show, it's something that I would like to do, be sure to send them to me either on Twitter X or hit me up on the comments. section on YouTube of some,

uh, some trades that you think the cardinals should be chasing, like legitimate ones, you know, let's, let's not, let's not make up ones that are just ridiculous. I mean, I guess we can talk about those too, but, um, before you send it, you know, just kind of make sure it's, uh, something that can happen in real life. It's not fantasy baseball type of stuff. All right. So if Nolan Aranato is the most talked about trade shift that the cardinals had, there's

an argument that Ryan Helsley will be their most lucrative trade chip because the N. L.L. Reliever of the year, pretty good. Still a member of the Cardinals for how long. We're not quite sure, but his name continues to get floated around as a trade chip for the Cardinals who once again don't have to trade up. They don't have to do that if they don't want to. He's going to get a big bump in pay in his final arbitration year this year, and then we'll likely test the free agent market in 2020. Well, unless the Cardinals decide to extend him, but that doesn't seem likely. You know, and I know we all love Hells Bells, get the cool intro, great guy.

There's nothing bad about Ryan Helsley as a person. And of course, on the field, he had this incredible record-sending year, but he has had some health issues in the past. And with this reset of the Cardinals, a premier closer would be worth a lot more to someone else than it would be to the Cardinals. Hence, why you're hearing his name brought up his trade bay. He's now the longest tenured player drafted and developed by the Cardinals who, you know, you got to give him a little credit there too. You know, as much as we bag on the Cardinals, it says something about this franchise who, again,

has been criticized repeatedly for their lack of player development. And here's a very big success story with Ryan Helsley. Now, one thing that we hadn't heard yet is how does Helsley feel about this current situation. Is he eager to get out of town? Is he ready to jump ship and like, yeah, man, send me to a consender? I'm cool. That's fine. Or would he rather stick around the way Wilson Contreras and Sunny Graham apparently chosen to do? Well, according to a to John Denton, who's the writer for MLB.com, but he also puts out his cardsbeat newsletter. Ideally, Hellsley said he would remain with the Cardinals,

but the business often trumps feelings and life will go on if he's dealt. Denton was quoting Hellsley in the newsletter and says that sometimes guys think the grass is greener on the other side, but that's not always the case. There are a lot of good organizations out there, and the Cardinals are the only one that have a winning history. If I get traded, I hope it's to a team that I can help win. But that would be an emotional day because I grew,

up rooting for the Cardinals got drafted by them in 2015 and i've spent 10 years with them but at the end of the day i've got to be professional and move on if it comes to that and of course you know we see this and hear this and we're like no dang and Ryan like why you got to go there why you got to pull on the the heartstrings there and say something like that now all of us sentimental saps i'm one of them are going to want to keep you instead of facing the reality of the cardinal situation and gaining new, younger, cheaper assets from a trade with you as the main piece. Now we're going to be like, okay, you can stay with us. And it's just going to benefit the Cardinals in the long run,

if they pull up a good trade, obviously. I mean, they could get prospects that flounder and don't do. anything and then it's a complete bus. But, you know, Helsley this past year, considering what he did was pretty cheap. You know, he made under $4 million, which is a steal considering his performance, but he's now projected to make over $8 million in arbitration this upcoming season. And then after that, some think if he continues to, you know, throw like he did this past year and stay healthy, that he could command a contract close to the ones that Edwin Diaz and

Josh Hader have signed. Now, Diazzi, got five years and $102 million from the freewheeling Mets who could care less about spending money. And then Hater got five years and $95 million from the Astros who can be thrifty when they want to be. But they don't just throw, you know, $300 million payrolls out there. They're pretty smart with their money, but they will spend. But both of them locked them in five years, 95, five years, 102. So how did those deals pan out for those two teams since the deals have been signed? well, this is something the Cardinals are probably paying attention to because Diaz missed the first season after getting hurt celebrating during the World Baseball Classic.

It was a freak injury and it was sad to see it happened. Nobody could have seen that coming, but it happened. And then this year in his first year back, he regressed at the age of 30 appearing in 54 games. He goes six and four. The RA jumps from 1.31 in 2022 to 3.45. This year, his saves fell from 32 to 20. The ERA plus tumbled from 297 to 112. And the Mets were a good team, too.

It's not like the Mets sucked. And he just didn't have opportunities. So perhaps it was just rust from missing an entire season, which, sure, or was it something more? Josh Hader turned 30 in April. In 2023 with the Padres, 1.280 in 61 games. 33 saves, a ridiculous 338 ERA plus war 2.4 stud. 2024, first season with Houston.

Goes 8 and 8 in 71 games has 32 saves, but the ERA jumps to 3.80. The ERA plus crashes to 104 and his war plummets to 0.6. Again, Houston was a good team. Is this a case of just switching leagues? new surroundings, trying to get used to things, or is there something more to it? Ryan Helsley will turn 31 this season. And if you watch Cardinals games on a daily basis, which you probably do if you're listening to a St. Louis Cardinals podcast in December, it means you probably locked into it.

You know how good Ryan Helsley was. But you know how stressful things would get with him on the mound at times. too. Now, nature of the position. Nobody's perfect. Nobody just comes in and wipes everybody out. Emmanuel Class A was an absolute freak this year. Even he got dinged up in the playoffs. But Hellsley's whip went up for a second straight year. 56 and a third innings. Give up 50 hits. Struck out 79, which is good. But it's the second year in a row that his strikeouts per nine has dropped. He was at 13.1 in 2022, 12.8 in 2020, and down to 10.7 in 2022. I'm just giving you the trends and the numbers here. His batting average against has gone up in back-to-back years, too.

It was 128, then to 176, and then to 210. Opponents hit 276 against this fastball this year. It was at 150 in 2022, 224 in 2023. So that's gone up. Signat. significantly in back-to-back seasons. Batting average against the slider. His other wipeout pitch, 113 in both 2022 and 2022. Amazing, right? Last year goes up to 171, which is significant. And I'm not trying to tell you that Ryan Helsley stinks.

And it's almost laughable to see the numbers that I'm throwing out there for you guys and to whine about that. Like, like, that's a problem. I'm just pointing out the trends here that things are going in the wrong direction. And sometimes that happens with age. Now, Denton ended up asking Helsley about discussions with the team, how things have been going, like the conversations between the two. And he did bring up that one thing that's going to happen with the Cardinals soon in the future

might alter his tenure with the team as well. So I'm going to tell you what he said about that coming up. next on Locked on Cardinals. There's not a whole lot of things better than going to a live sporting event, right? You know, whether it's basketball, hockey, football, of course, baseball. And with the game time map, you're going to be able to find tickets to all of your favorite sporting events, whether it's blues hockey, who, you know, now that you got Jim Montgomery behind the bench, they've looked a whole lot better, college basketball in full swing, you know,

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I know there's a bunch of bands. I'm a big rock band. So bands like the All-American Rejects, Ewall Nation, Franz Ferdinand. What about holiday stuff? Trans-Siberian Orchestra is in Texas. Justin Timberlake. I have not seen him live before, but I have friends who have gone,

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I would do it now. I would create an account and use the code locked on MLB. That way you can get $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account. Redeem the code locked on MLB, L-C-K-E-D,

ON MLB for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute, tickets lowest price guaranteed. Thank you again for making Lockdown Cardinals. Your first listen today for your second list. And be sure to find Lockdown MLB. Our baseball guru, Sully, brings you a daily blend of humor and baseball. He'll keep you updated on all the teams during this offseason. Be sure to find Locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Now, as you probably know, John Moseilock, president of baseball operations for Cardinals, is going to be stepping down at the end of this year, much to the chagrin of many fans who wish he would just take his bowtide, his smug attitude and leave right now. We don't need you for another year, but he's not, he's not going to do that. He's doing his part to set up the next regime and is trying to put it

in a good spot for them moving forward with this new philosophy of the team. And I commend him for it. You know, it could have been very easy for him to go, yeah, I'm done. Done. done with the crying and the whining from everybody. You know how good I've been? You could have done that and said, fine, I'll get out of your hair. Good luck with your lives. But no, he's going to finish out his contract.

I'm sure he hates that his legacy, which up until 2023 was pretty darn good, has kind of been tainted a little bit because it's been a tough couple of years for Mo. And I'm sure he wants to end on a good now. But the fact of the most stepping away is something that Ryan Helsley said to John Denton could alter his future in St. Louis. Denton quoted him as saying, I think the talks have gone well with the team. They say they love having me here in St. Louis.

Of course we do. With the way things have gone this last year, they like me, we're on that financially. But they don't know if they want to keep me long term. Now with Moseilock leaving, that's something that is going to have to be talked about too. But we haven't crossed that bridge. I know and they know this will be something that has to be decided from a business standpoint. So to me, he sounds like a guy that would be more than happy, more than happy to stay in St. Louis, finish his career in St. Louis and end up with a red jacket and have his face on the wall out there in the outfield or the bullpen or something like that.

But he understands this business. He gets it and he's got a chance to get paid. And if five years and $80 to $100 million is what it takes to sign them after next year, it just doesn't feel like the smartest move for the Cardinals. I just don't see it as the best use of resources for this team at this point. Now, what if the team is good? We keep talking about what if this whole thing fails and this whole idea of going young just blows up in their face. But what if it does work?

And what if things get turned around rather quickly? and what do you do then? And it just feels like you can find guys to close games. You know, there's ways to work the bullpen. You don't have to have that very, you know, last boss type of guy at the very end to win. It's very nice when you do have those things. But there are ways to maneuver around it. And, of course, there's other guys that I'm sure that are in the system that have,

an arsenal that the cartels are like, I feel like we can do pretty well as this guy as a closer, you know, Matt Sonson, as a guy who's had some success, you know, Chris Roycroft. Does this stuff good enough? I don't know, but he just got that bulldog mentality. So I'm sure there's a plan in place and there's some guys that they like that could take over a role like that. I've been asked on numerous occasions, why do they have to trade them this off? season as opposed to the trade deadline next year.

And I'll break it down for you once again in case you haven't seen any of those fan feedbacks where I've talked about this. But right now, you know, Ryan Helsley is the in-out reliever of the year. He's healthy. And if you trade for him now, as the other team, you're going to get a full season of him as you're closer. Now if the Cardinals wait, there's risk there. You know, there's a risk that he could get hurt.

He's, again, dealt with entries before. He's a pitcher. They go through that. He could regress. What if he gets worse? And then his value drops. And then you don't get the return that you were hoping for. And it's just another one of those instances where fans, you know,

be like, see, should have them earlier like they have with guys like Dylan Carlson and Tyler O'Neill and anyone else that didn't get much value in return, considering how much they were worth at one point in their careers. I just keep saying like, you know, you're either going to crap or get off the pot. You don't want to do this reset thing halfway. you're either in or you're out, Contrars and Gray, they don't want to go. They have no trade clauses. That's their right.

And same goes for Aronado and Miles Michaelis. But for Halsley and Stephen Mats and Eric Fetty, I'm not saying trade them, like, just get them off their hester. We've got to move on. I'm not saying to just trade them to trade them. But if a solid deal comes across the desk of John Moseilock and Heinb Bloom, they better be ready to pull the trigger. Like, don't be gunshot here. Winter meetings begin in Dallas on December 9th. They go through the 11th.

I would anticipate much more action around the Cardinals and Major League Baseball in general. The one thing that's good about them is that, you know, they kind of hold the cards in this situation in my eyes where they don't have to train any of these guys if they don't want to. And if they don't like the offers, they can just walk away. You know, it's not a trade deadline situation where this guy is a free agent at the end of this season. and he's gone, you're going to get nothing in return. That's not the case.

That's not the case with these guys. They're not behind that kind of eight ball right now. They want to shed salary. The league knows they want to shed salary. They want to go younger. The league knows that. That's why there's going to be some communication. Hopefully at the winter meetings,

we get more clarification of what kind of stuff they could be looking at getting in return for some of these guys. But nobody has demanded a trade and is trying to make this situation ugly. at least not that we know of. The only person that's talking about it, and he's not even talking about it, but his posting about it, is Nolan Aranato. You know, and, you know,

to me it seems pretty clear. He would like to be a Dodger. It makes a whole lot of sense. They got the money. They've got prospects. It wouldn't shock me if a deal would come to fruition between the two teams at some point. I'm not saying it's imminent,

but again, winter meetings coming up, and Juan Soto stuff gets dealt with, and, you know, maybe the Roki Sasaki stuff gets dealt with. And then maybe something can happen. It could happen after those things take place. So, but we'll keep you posted on it. That's what we're here for. Thanks for making Lockton Cardinals.

Your first listen every day. If you haven't already, give me a follow on TwitterX 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. And we will see you next time on Locked on Cardinals.