Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Nolan Arenado TRADED to the Arizona Diamondbacks in BOLD Move by the St. Louis Cardinals

Starting point is 00:00:00 The St. Louis Cardinals have traded third baseman Nolan Aronado. In this crossover, we get the thoughts of Locked-on MLB host, Sully, as well as the thoughts from Dana Biggs from Locked-on Diamondbacks and how it affects both the Arizona Diamondbacks and, of course, the St. Louis Cardinals. You are Locked-on MLB crossover, part of the Locked-on podcast network. Your team every day. Hello, baseball fans, and welcome to a locked-on MLB. Locked-on Cardinals and Locked-on Diamondbacks crossover.

Starting point is 00:00:40 Say that three times fast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network where it's your team every day. This is the daily podcast. We talk about all in Major League Baseball, but also bringing in Cardinals and Diamondbacks. And we are now the number one sports podcasting network. Ah, I'm yours Paul Francis Sullivan, but please I'm begging you to call me Sully.

Starting point is 00:01:00 Follows at Lockdown MLB Pods on Twitter or whatever it's called these days. or you can get a hold of me on the Instagram. So I'm at Lock. I'm at, what is my handle? Sully Baseball podcast or you can go right here on the YouTube's and leave yourself a message. Today's episode is brought to me our good friends over at Fanduel. The wild card round has come and gone,

Starting point is 00:01:20 but the divisional round is here. And Fandul is officially in playoff mode. So visit Fandul, an official sports week partner of the National. Football League. Well, I could talk about this trade. took place in Major League Baseball between your St. Louis Cardinals and your Arizona Diamondbacks. But do you know what? This is one where we've got to start to bring in the experts all the way from somewhere a little east of where I'm sitting in Pasadena, California,

Starting point is 00:01:54 overlooking the historic Rosewell, the host of Lockdown Diamondbacks. It's Danin Biggs. How are you, Dan? Doing good. Thanks for having me. Well, guess what? show can't just have two hosts. No, we got to go for the trifecta. And here is a fan favorite. Returning to the show, it's J.D. Halfron of formerly of Lockdown Cardinals, now as you can tell, of Locked on Rebuild. Congratulations for the St. Louis Rebuild. First question, J.D. Who is going to have a better record this year? The Cardinals or the St. Louis Brown? So who's going to better this year. I'm going to roll all the Cardinals on this one. All right. Do you want, I think I think you're going to play more games. So that's, uh, that's just, you know, that's just

Starting point is 00:02:43 math right there. Well, that's, you know what? You're right. And you would sometimes you just got to, you just sometimes have to ask the questions. All right. Um, by the way, there was another trade that happened today. A starting pitcher, Ryan Weathers was traded from Miami to the New York Yankees for four players, but we will get onto that at another time. The, Marlins are getting quantity and building up, but I hope they don't trade too many players away because they're an exciting team. But we do not have room for Lockdown Marlins on this. On today's episode, we're talking about the fact that Nolan Aronado, who all last year was rumored to go to everywhere, and probably most likely I thought was going to be the New York Yankees because they didn't have a third baseman.

Starting point is 00:03:31 But Nolan Aronado was indeed traded, and he was traded. and he was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a minor leaguer named Jack Martinez, who was an eighth round draft in last year's draft. And the Diamondbacks are going to pay, this is according to Steve Adams on MLB trade rumors. The Diamondbacks will pay for 11 million tomatoes for the next two years of the 42 owned by Nolan Aronado. So the Cardinals are going to pay him a lot of money. money to not play for the Cardinals. And essentially, this is the equivalent for the Diamondbacks of signing Nolan

Starting point is 00:04:12 Aronado to an 11 million two-year contract that cost them an eighth-round draft pick. So if you were going to go out to free agency, you'd probably take that deal a couple of times. But I am not the expert on either team. So, Dana, you're going to go first. what is your initial reaction to the snakes picking up Nolan Aeronado? I was having a text conversation with my brother, sometimes co-host of the show about this at the very moment that the news broke. Because he said, hey, are we actually going to be signing Nolan Aeronado? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:04:51 There's been rumors about that all offseason. And then he immediately responded, oh, it's official. It just happened. And I look, and it wasn't even on all the news sites yet. I had to go to X to find it. And my immediate thought was, I hope we are not paying that much for him, because I know his contract is worth a lot.

Starting point is 00:05:08 But I also know that, I mean, the Rockies are still paying for part of his contract, if I'm not mistaken. And so he's getting paid, he'll be getting paid from three different teams. And the Diamondbacks, I believe,

Starting point is 00:05:19 might be the lowest paying of the three teams. And that's the team he's going to be playing on. So that was a huge relief to hear that. And it's also during this office, season with the Catele Marte trade rumors and with the perceived lack of action going on. A lot of fans here in Arizona are kind of looking at Mike Hazen, general manager, thinking, you know, is he even qualified to do this anymore? You know, we've missed the playoffs last two seasons.

Starting point is 00:05:47 Like maybe we, you know, Mike Hazen is is not the guy for the job. And, but this kind of solidifies for me like, no, Mike Hazen knows what he's doing. This was a good deal for the diamond, a great deal for the Diamondbacks, especially for a team that doesn't have a third baseman. They have Jordan Lawler, who might be a businessman someday, might be a major league baseball player someday. We have Blaze Alexander, but he's more of a utility guy than anything else. So this really kind of fills the hole that we desperately needed, especially now that

Starting point is 00:06:17 the Alex Breggman thing isn't going to be happening. And he also offers that veteran position, that veteran role that Alex Breggman would have brought, which in my opinion was the most. the biggest reason to acquire somebody like Alex Breggman. So this is an all around good deal for the Diamondbacks. All right. And JD, what is your thought? Because there have been so many Aronado rumors over the last year and a half or so that they finally pulled the trigger.

Starting point is 00:06:47 What are your thoughts about this? We're glad it's over that the saga that has been just trying to find a place for Nolan to go is over. You know, it's been 15 months that this has happened. He's vetoed trades where they found a willing partner to take him. And he said, nope, not going to get it. Staying here. Where did he veto? Houston.

Starting point is 00:07:15 Houston was the one that was announced. And then he also turned down a possible deal to the angels. I never really saw that where whatever that came from, but multiple people have brought it up online. So I assume that it's happened at some point, but Houston was the big one. He's from California. The dude's from California. That's how bad people don't want to play for the angels. Yeah. But the Houston one, you know, the deal was in place. It was ready to roll. We never saw the details about it. So I don't know if it's better or worse than what this deal was with Arizona as far as like how much money was going in return. I would assume that they were paying a

Starting point is 00:07:54 huge chunk as well because he would have had three years that. they would have had to take them on. So either way, it's done now, which is a relief because, you know, the Cardinals are trying to get this whole rebuild thing in motion. And last year when Nolan vetoed that deal to Houston, it stalled everything for another year. Sunny Gray didn't want to leave. And Wilson Contreras didn't want to leave.

Starting point is 00:08:16 Anybody who had a no trade clause wouldn't leave. They didn't want to go. And so we just had to kind of sit there in purgatory waiting for them to say, okay, we'll leave. Finally, this offseason, whatever it is that Heinblum told them. And like, you know, maybe they didn't believe John Moseilac before that. They're like, hey, you know, we're rebuilding. Like, this doesn't really make a whole lot of sense for you guys to stick around if you want to win more in a different spot. And they all stuck around for another year. And finally, this off season, you saw Sunny go first and Wilson. Now it's Aronado.

Starting point is 00:08:50 Those were the big three veterans who still had no trade clauses with a big chunk of, a big chunk of money still on the payroll that they have now moved on from. So I think Cardinal fans are sad because they like Nolan Aronado. This isn't something that he did wrong. It's not an issue with him personally. He didn't dislike the Cardinals. He didn't dislike St. Louis. It wasn't that. It's just a split where, hey, we're going in this direction. You deserve to go in a different direction. We found you a place. Are you cool with that? And Arizona ended up being the spot that made the most sense for. Well, look, when we come back, I want to talk about that landing spot because, well, they may not get the most attention, but very quietly, the Arizona

Starting point is 00:09:37 Diamondbacks have put together, say it with me, one of the best infields in baseball. The division round is here, and Fandall is officially in playoff mode every game day during the NFL playoffs. Fandil is giving customers even more ways to get in on the action because right now, Every NFL playoff game day, Fandil users are going to get what we call a profit boost pack. It's waiting for you inside the app. Every game day, you're going to see this pack. It's going to be loaded with multiple profit boost that you can apply to the bets

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Starting point is 00:11:23 You've helped us become the number one sports podcast network. But if you haven't already, go check out the new Every Day or Club. You get ad-free audio of Locked-on-B. It's similar to Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And now we've got the Everydayer Club on Discord. I'm on there a bunch. You get to hear my wisdom or, you know, just Jackassery, on there.

Starting point is 00:11:47 And you get to interact with us, especially when we start getting into the regular season. There'll be a lot of interactions there. So check us out at Locked-on MLB. That supercast.com. Before we get going, I do want to talk about the trivia question. The trivia question, and I'm going to tie it into what we're going to talk about here. What Atlanta Braves Outfielder led the National League in War in 1989?

Starting point is 00:12:11 I talked about it was the birthday of Kevin Mitchell who won the MVP, but a former Braves outfielder who was a guest on my old podcast led the National League in War. I got a bunch of people when I gave that clue, guest Dale Murphy, who was still a star on that Braves team, who was a guest on this show. but it wasn't him. It wasn't him. It was. And where is it?

Starting point is 00:12:35 Here we go. Show it, please. Thank you. Joshua and Kio 764-3. Lonnie Smith. Lonnie Smith led the league of an That's right. Former World Series champion.

Starting point is 00:12:50 Oh, by the way, let's read closely that last thing he said. Sully is the goat. It has my full support in his campaign to be the new commissioner of baseball. No, no, no, no, no. You're sorry.

Starting point is 00:13:03 Vote for Sully, baseball commissioner for a change. There you go. We need to. There you go. We got to go through this. Okay. Lonnie Smith very sneakly led the league in war back in 1989. Let's fast forward to 2025.

Starting point is 00:13:21 Rolto Perdomo led the league in war this year. Did a double take on that when I saw it. I knew he was a terrific player. But he does a little bit of everything. He's got power. He's got speed, hit for a high average, good OPS, terrific shortstop. And the fact that they're keeping Catelle Marte, which I'm glad they're doing that. Because he is a diamond back.

Starting point is 00:13:40 He was a diamond back postseason hero when they went to the World Series just a couple of years ago. And now, look at Aeronado, who led the League in War a few years ago, is no longer the MVP, but you're not asking him to be the MVP. You're asking him to be really good and to be a reliable veteran on a team with players, like Marte, Perdomo, Corbyn Carroll, and whatnot. Tell me a little bit about your thoughts about how he fits in with his team and how he, let's face, we all knew he was Plan B for they wanted Bregman, but this is a pretty, pretty good and inexpensive plan B to have if you couldn't

Starting point is 00:14:21 land Breggman. I wouldn't, I wouldn't call him a Plan B. And here's why. Quick, quick summary. the Diamondbacks were never close, even close to trading Cotel Marte. That whole, that whole story was blown way out of proportion. And which is fine, it's good, I mean, good negotiating, good marketing. You know, everybody's talking about, or a lot more people are talking about the diamondbacks because of it.

Starting point is 00:14:46 But they were, it was the sort of thing. And Mike Hazen mentioned this after the fact. He's like, we talked to maybe four teams and none of them came even remotely close. And they probably hung up the phone and went, man, Mike Hazen's an evening. idiot. Why would he think we would give up that? And he's like, yeah, we wouldn't. We didn't, we had no intention of getting rid of him, but we would have been stupid not to listen to offers. And by the way, let me just jump in for one second. That's part of a GM's job. Part of a GM's job is to listen to offers. And if someone said, we're going to give you A, B, C, and D and go,

Starting point is 00:15:17 oh my God, that's actually pretty. Yeah, you have to take those calls. It's not like they were say, give us, give us anything. We're desperate. Exactly. And that's what I think that's how a lot of people were reading it is, oh, well, he's trouble in the clubhouse or, ooh, they're paying him 15 million a year. Oh, man, they're, they're desperate to get rid of him. That was never, ever the case. But in a season where, or off season where the dimebacks are lacking in pitching as much as they are, it was, okay, listen, we need a whole haul of pitchers. So if you want to give us a bunch of pitchers, like a team like the Red Sox, a lot of depth in their pitching. So I imagine that was one of the teams.

Starting point is 00:15:57 So, hey, listen, if you really want Coteau, which a lot of teams really wanted him, if you give us this, then sure, we can make a deal. But I was very skeptical that that was ever going to happen. And apparently I was right because there was nothing even came close. So the Alex Bregman thing, though, that was more of a, if we do trade Cotel Marte, Alex Bregman would be a good piece to bring in to kind of bring our offense back up. I mean, he's not, he's not as good offensively as Catel Marte is, but he's, he's pretty good. So that would have been that.

Starting point is 00:16:30 But Alex Bregman, the chances of us bringing Alex Bregman on were so slim because it completely relied on trading Catel Marte, which wasn't going to happen. So I don't believe that was ever really on the table. And with Nolan Aeronado, I mean, we've been hearing the whole offseason that they were talking and that there was something going on. And so this doesn't come as a big surprise to me, though it does make perfect sense that they waited until after Bregman was shipped off to somewhere else and Marte was definitely staying here. So it makes sense that it didn't happen before then. But as far as to answer your question, sorry, that's a big roundabout way of getting to the answer. I think he fits in great. He kind of fills that Suarez role, the Eugenio Suarez role of who was here before.

Starting point is 00:17:22 I don't expect him to hit quite as many home runs unless we're going to see, you know, 2022 Nolan Aronado back out there. But again, he's only two years removed from being an all-star. So it's not like it's not like he's out of everything, you know, and a lot of old players come to Arizona to get a second win. So I'm definitely not counting him out there. But again, yeah, we're not looking for somebody to be an all-star superstar greatest of all time guy.

Starting point is 00:17:55 We just need somebody who can be really good. And that's exactly what he can be. By the way, there's something to remember. This was, I mean, I know enough to remind you this, but the Diamondbacks won the pennant in 2023. And then the next year they had a better record. And they tied both Atlanta and the New York Mets, but because of that, you know, free for all on the final,

Starting point is 00:18:19 you know, the day after the final day of the season. they were squeezed out of the postseason. They won, I believe they won 87 games that year. And it was 86 or 87 games. Either way, it was more than they won when they won the pennant. And just think like one game in May, one game in early June goes this way instead of that, the Diamondbacks are in the playoffs back-to-back years.

Starting point is 00:18:43 Last year, they missed the postseason. But it was really, like they had a bad May, They, bad, the bad July. And they, well, and I think they, too, they, they only missed the postseason by three games this time. Right. So they, they, they missed it by one game in 24, three games in 25. Right. They, they've been as good as they've always been.

Starting point is 00:19:04 It's just these last two years. They had two rotten months last, yeah, they had two rotten months last month, last year. And if one of, if they just had one rotten month, you know, if they just finished 500 in either May or July. And also, I looked up in one run. games last year they were 21 and 28 and in extra inning games they were seven and 12 so if they go 500 in either one of those categories not even winning like just 500 they're in the playoffs again so they also led the league in blown saves with 29 blown saves had they had they just been one of the worst instead of the worst they also would have made the playoffs like it was so close yep 47 blown leads

Starting point is 00:19:50 year. So, yeah. So, you know, I, and they had, you know, they had injuries to their pitching staff. They, you know, they acquired Burns and Burns barely pitched, like, or pitched only basically half a season. Um, you know, they still have fought, you know, we didn't have a good year last year. But if he turns it around, you know, he's still young. You know, if Ryan Nelson, you know, there's people who are good on that team who could have an improvement, kind of like Toronto. Toronto who had, you know, were a playoff team, playoff team, missed the playoffs last place. And a lot of the players who had a rotten 2024 turned it around and had a,

Starting point is 00:20:33 it had a good, you know, obviously they were a centimeter away from winning the World Series. You know, if you have a big, I mean, I was going to say a rebound year from Corbyn Carroll, the guy slug 540 and led the league of triples, the 3,100. runs and it was a 30-30 guy. So, I mean, they're guys like if, you know, and they get more solid years from some of the players. I, you know, the, the window of opportunity for them to be, they're not going to beat Los Angeles. But what if San Diego regresses? What if Philadelphia regresses?

Starting point is 00:21:10 You know, what if you got another lousy season from Atlanta? You know, the opportunity for them to sneak in as one of the playoff teams, it's not even sneaking in. It's just, you know, have stability in that bullpen and do your best. Exactly. The thing with the Diamondbacks, they have one of the best offenses in the entire major league. They had three silver sluggers this year. They, again, they're in field, especially now with the addition of Aeronado. If we could get a first baseman who can, you know, slug the ball a little bit.

Starting point is 00:21:43 We'd have. I was just going to say. Thank you. Oh, my gosh. Thank you very much. If we can whisen up and get Paul Goldschmidt back, I say all the time, we'll make our money back on him in Jersey sales alone. Like, you know how many jerseys you would sell?

Starting point is 00:22:01 It's a one-year deal. That's what you need to do. Anyway, if you have that, you have Corbyn Carroll, and you have a bunch of young guys who didn't perform super well last year, like Jordan Lawler, Blaze Alexander, who I expect a big progression from them, from both of them this season, among others. You have Gabriel Moreno at Catcher who did great when he was healthy.

Starting point is 00:22:26 And so if he can just stay healthy, then our offense is off the charts, great. It's, I mean, it's right up there with the Dodgers and with other teams like that. If our pitching can just be average, even a little below average, if it could just be not like the worst, then I believe we're competing not for a playoff spot, but for a division spot. If we can have just an average pitching. And so the first half of this next season is going to be tough because three of our best pitchers are recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Starting point is 00:23:02 So after the All-Star break, when they do return, hopefully they return pretty, you know, at least semi-close to how they were before, then we should be all right. But it's that first half of the season that we really, really need to to add depth to and and then again, hope nobody else gets hurt, which is going to happen. But so that's what this offseason is really about. Well, the diamond backs have confidence that 2026 will be a good one.

Starting point is 00:23:31 For the other side of the coin, when we come back, we'll talk about the Cardinals. All right. We're talking about the Nolan Aeronado trade with Danny Biggs is all happy. He got himself a little Nolan Aronado. And now we got J.D. who is from Lockdown Rebuild. Before I give you the rain for the rest of the show here, J.D., I have to say, I think that, from my point of view, I think the Cardinals are doing the right thing. You can't be in that middle ground, the way that the Phillies were between the time they won the World Series and the time they acquired Bryce Harper, they're in that neutral zone of we're not good enough to win, but we don't want to give up our stars.

Starting point is 00:24:19 And then wishy-washy, wishy-washy. You got to one point got to say, we got to pull the ripcourt and rebuild this thing. And I know fan base, like the Cardinals are not fans of rebuilding, but I'm sure what they would love is a rebuilt team. And in order to do that, you got to pull, you got to at some point start the process. And I know it's heartbreaking because in 2022 it looked like this team was going to be contending for the foreseeable future. But, you know, you got to do what you got to do. J.D., what are your thoughts on this? Absolutely agree. That was one of the most frustrating things about the front office for the Cardinals the last few years is that they wouldn't pick a lane,

Starting point is 00:24:58 Sully, they wouldn't go one way or the other. They wouldn't spend enough to compete with the guys to be a playoff contender. You go get Sunny Gray and you follow it up with Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson. And that's just not going to cut it. You're again sitting right around that 500 mark and it's not enough. It's just not. And when they realized that this was going to have to be. be torn down that things were not going to progress with this group. Even though these people seem to be nice pieces for other teams, the Cardinals' real problem was the farm system. They weren't churning out the guys that they used to do to become compatible with these star players that they had already. And then you had the regression of Goldie and Aronado a little quicker than I thought they think that was going to happen.

Starting point is 00:25:46 They thought that by this point, Nato maybe would start regress. now instead of two years ago, you know, and he hasn't been the guy that they needed to be that middle of the order guy, which is why he fits in Arizona really, really well. In the offseason, when this started, I was talking about teams that I feel like he would be good with to be a team like a Boston or a team like Philly. And then I brought up Arizona as well. Teams where he didn't have to carry the load, where he wasn't the main cog of the offense, the way he has had to be in St. Louis over the last couple of seasons.

Starting point is 00:26:17 he's just not that dude right now. But if you stick him into a lineup like Arizona, where he's batting sixth or seventh, and that's kind of his role. And he's not expected to be the pressure guy. I think he can thrive. I still think there's plenty of good stuff inside Nolan Aronado to be a good player at this level.

Starting point is 00:26:37 In fact, his numbers, the first half of last season, we're actually pretty good. And the injuries happen. And it knocked him off course and he didn't play much in the second half. but, you know, he was on his way to having 20 plus home runs, 80 plus RBIs last year. The glove is not as good as it used to be where he's platinum glove, but he's still awesome over at third base. Don't let it fool you. Don't let the age fully.

Starting point is 00:27:00 He is still extremely good. We learned the hard way this year that when he wasn't in the lineup and we saw other people playing third base, we're like, oh, oh, that's what it looks like when it's not Nolan Arndato. Oh, gosh. So, but you guys are right. it was time to move on. They wanted to start this last year. It didn't happen. Now with Heim Bloom in charge, you're seeing a direction.

Starting point is 00:27:24 He's being much more vocal with the fan base about, hey, this is what we're going to do. We're going after pitchers. All right. That's what we got to really replenish in this organization. And it's going to cost us some of these big name guys to do it. We are going to eat some money. We know that. We're going to take it on the chin for this.

Starting point is 00:27:40 We understand that. But long-term goal, they are saving money, even though they're spending. you know, over 50 million to pay those three guys to not play for them this year. They're not paying for them the following year, though, where like they're off the, they're off the books and stuff. So it's done. And that's going to help them kickstart this rebuild into something that hopefully fans will see the fruits of coming up in 2027, 2028, which is when they expect the winning

Starting point is 00:28:09 window to kind of open up again with a lot of the prospects and a lot of the guys they've brought in. to me last summer when they traded Ryan Halsley to the to the Mets was the moment that I thought like, okay, they're doing this. They're starting to pull the rip court a little bit here. And not that that was necessarily a blockbuster, but they got what I liked, when you ever trade like that, I like that they got, they got like three or four guys back from the Mets. And the reason why I like trades like that is that sometimes when you rebuild, you got to get quantity as well. I remember when the Cubs and the Astros went through their rebuild in the early 2010s, they were trading everything that wasn't nailed down and trying to get three or four players in each trade.

Starting point is 00:28:54 If for no other reason, just flush your farm system, you've had some dud drafts, you had some dud signings, just get some players in our system and you don't even know what the Rubik's Cube is going to be. This player who may not have been a great prospect could match up with this coach who opens up something. You don't let's come on. You've blown some drafts. You've blown some instances. So let's just flush the system, flush the farm system with players and see what you got. By the way, that trade turned out to be a disaster for the Mets.

Starting point is 00:29:23 Even if none of those players turned out to be the second coming of David Wright or Jose Reyes, you know, it's still stunk because he was a disaster and no small part of why they missed the playoffs altogether. But, you know, Cardinal fans are we've always, you know, people praise the Cardinal fans being so smart and everything like that. You know, there have been times where they've had some regression. And that regression when it's done right can lead to the great run they had in the 80s, but then that ended. They had a great run that lasted all the way through the 2000s right up until 2014 or 2015.

Starting point is 00:30:00 And they had a little regression. They came back. They made the NLCS a couple of times, but they couldn't quite get over the hump. And everyone thought Aeronado and Goldschmidt were going to be the, things that get him over the hump and it just didn't work and sometimes the smartest thing you could do is to say it just didn't work yeah you know yeah the five years with our films sorry yeah the the five years with aranato uh i'm getting ready to an episode that i'm going to be putting out is whether or not was the five years with aranato a failure is it a failure with uh what what they did

Starting point is 00:30:36 while he was here and i'll go more in depth into that in that episode but you know, three winning seasons, but no playoff wins, Sully. And that's ultimately what it comes down to is that they didn't, they never, as you said, got over the hump. And part of that, and I'm not blaming Aronado for this at all. He was wonderful. It's the people that neglected the farm system, that there was nothing to bring up to give them help. And the guys that they thought might be good, the Nolan Gorman's, the Jordan Walker's, the Dylan Carlson's, none of them have panned out so far. Jack Flaherty was supposed to be a big deal.

Starting point is 00:31:13 That didn't pan out for them at all. So as soon as that era ended in 2022, when Yaddy and Albert said goodbye, and you got what was left over of Waino's body for 2023. They just didn't have anything to add to them to take over those roles. And it really became apparent that, okay, something's wrong within your own system.

Starting point is 00:31:37 It had righted from the inside. They weren't taking care. of, you know, teaching prospects well. They weren't, they weren't drafting well as far as, like, in other areas. Like, it just, there was no pitching whatsoever, which is why you're seeing Heim Bloom go out. He's added 16 arms, 16 arms to bring into this organization. That's how empty the cupboard was for the Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:32:01 So, and we all know that, you know, arms pitching in this arms race that we call Major League Baseball, it's a very good currency to have as many arms. as you can get your hands on. And that's what they're going for right now. And they're hoping that they'll be able to rebuild as far as the infield with guys like J.J. Weatherholt, their top prospect. They're hoping Gorman will actually show up this year. But you've got a Mason win.

Starting point is 00:32:25 You're pulling your silver slugger, Alec Berlinson out of the outfield and making him your everyday first baseman in place of Wilson Contreras. So there are pieces, but 2026, it's not going to be a pretty one. I don't think it's going to be a hundred lost type of team. I think there's too much talent. for that, but it isn't going to be pretty. Let's be honest. And another thing that Dan Help matters, and we'll wrap up after this is you got to see Adoli Garcia be a World Series hero. Sorry, Dan, close your ears, but he got to be a World Series

Starting point is 00:32:54 Hero. Randy a Roserina is an ALCSMVP. Alcantra wins a side younger words. Zach Allen pitched really well. All of them were Cardinal farmhands. Yeah. You know, that when you start saying the cupboard is bare, but you see some of these other players, shining in October while the Cardinals are reading Bazooka Joe comics at home, you know, that's that does it. That's not a good look. No. For the for the team. So yeah, they made a lot of bad deals and they they put their money on players and they chose poorly. Let's put it that way from the Indiana Jones movie. They chose poorly with certain players and you see what the repercussions of that are now. But I am happy for Arizona and Nolan R. Nato, I think it's a great fit for you guys.

Starting point is 00:33:40 Dana. I think you guys are going to love Nolan. He's going to be tormenting the Rockies in the division again, which is going to be super fun for you guys. I only hope, my only hope for him is he stays healthy for you. Last year was just a nagging back injury that was bothering him. I hope he's able to get over that. Tell your coaching staff to tell him to sit down from time to time. He doesn't need to play 162 games anymore. Get 145. Get Goldie. Like me and Sally said, you guys are going to love him to be on there with him. That'll be fun, their best friends. And I think you guys will have something coming up this year because you guys are a fun and exciting team in Arizona. Get that pitching staff healthy and I think you guys are going to be all right. But good move for

Starting point is 00:34:23 you guys, not spending a lot of money, made a lot of sense. All right. 30 seconds. Last thought, Stating Biggs from locked on Diamondbacks. I'm super stoked to see how this is going to go. I think this is exactly what the Diamondbacks needed. I'm glad they didn't go a route so crazy as to trade Catelle Marte and then sign Alex Breggman, that would have been as interesting as that would have been. I'm glad that's not the way that we're going. And I think that this is going to be a really good fit. And I'm also really happy for the Cardinals. That those sounds a little weird, but I'm glad that they're making the right steps for a rebuild. And I think this will be really good for them as well. All right. Well, thanks so much for tuning in to this lockdown and it'll be

Starting point is 00:35:03 crossover. Hopefully we're going to have some shows. We can talk about signing players. But follow us at, we're at Locked on MLB pods on Twitter, whatever it's called these days. Dan, where's your show at? Locked on Diamondbacks, every platform you can find. And JD. At L.O. underscore Cardinals at JD Sports Radio on X and then of course, wherever you get your podcasts. And never miss an episode of the Everydayers Club. It's built for you at free plus members only Discord access and more.

Starting point is 00:35:34 Head to say it with me, Locked on MLB. dot supercast.com. For those of view and video, we'll send you the first ever 24-7 National Lockdown Podcast Network YouTube channel. And let's quickly do the trivia question. We're running a little late on time. What former St. Louis Cardinal was credited with the first postseason victory in Diamondbacks history?

Starting point is 00:36:02 There you go. I made it a Cardinal and a Diamondback question. So there you go. Talking about the Nolan Aaron an auto trade or salary dump or rebuild whatever you want to call it with danen bigs of locked on diamondbacks and jd a afford of locked on cardinals has been a locked on dime backs cardinals mob crossover i am yours paul francis solomon please call me sully

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Nolan Arenado TRADED to the Arizona Diamondbacks in BOLD Move by the St. Louis Cardinals

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