Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Position Battles

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

- Outfield - Victor Scott II - Matt Koperniak - Jose Fermin - Jose Barrero - Luken Baker - Spring Breakout Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTube Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLB Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Wonderful Pistachios Looking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more. FanDuel Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The battle for roster spots is getting tight, particularly in the outfield, where one player continues to make his claim for a spot on the opening day roster. This is Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on Podcasts network, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals, I'm Jaddy Haffern and I am your host for Lockdown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day. You can follow me on X at JD Sports Radio, and you can also follow the podcast at L.O. underscore Cardinals. We're on YouTube. Make sure you click that like button.

Don't forget to subscribe and comment. Hit the notification button so you don't miss any episodes or shorts that we drop. Also now available on TikTok and Instagram at Locked on Cardinals. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving the best fans of baseball, all of the info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode is being brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new Fandul customers can get $150 in bonus bets if you're a lot of first $5 bet wins, download the app or head to thandal.com to get started. We got about two and a half weeks of spring training games left.

All right. We're like halfway-ish right now, I believe, and this, you know, it seems like a good time to discuss some of the position battles that are going on in camp right now. There's not a lot of them because there's not a lot of roster spots that are available. Coming into this year, when you don't trade away guys like Wilson Contreras and Ryan Helds, and Nolan Aronado and Sunny Gray and Miles Michaelis or any of those guys. It didn't really open up a lot of spots. You let some people walk. And so there's a couple of areas.

Obviously, you can fill. But we knew the cardinals were going to fill from within. They weren't going to go out and spend money this year. And they haven't at all. Still have not signed a single free agent at all. The battle, though, that is really kind of taking over what at least I'm noticing. at camp is the battle that's going on in the outfield right now because the original idea was to trade away Nolan Aronado move Gorman to third base that would move Donovan instead

of playing left field. He gets to play second base. And then you would have an outfield of Lars Dupar and left field, Michael Siani and center field and Jordan Walker and right field. I think that was kind of the blueprint of what they were shooting for. But because the Nato deal never happened, you've still got Nolan Gorman stuck over at second base. I'll play some third this here obviously when Nato needs a day off. It's not like he's not going to. And then you're going to have Donnie in left field most days because you don't want to bench him and he doesn't hurt you defensively out there in left field. I still believe he's a better second baseman. That is his best spot on the field, but that's not where they need him right now. So now you've got an outfield

that is set up to have Donnie and left field, Lars Neupar and Centerfield, and Jordan Walker and right field. The idea of having Newton's center is to keep his bat in the lineup. Where did the cardinal suck last year? Offense. Couldn't generate enough offense to win enough ball games. Newt is the best option for offense of the current veteran guys that are on the roster. So they want to keep his bat in the lineup. We know that he is not the best defensive center fielder. He doesn't hurt you in the corners or anything like that. But in center field, it's not his best spot to be, but that's what they have available. You know, Michael Siani is a better defensive player.

The title for best defensive center fielder on this roster goes to Michael Siani right now, who is outstanding defensively last season. But as you're well aware of, he is not much of an offensive threat, although he led the club in Stola Mases last season with 20, which is an aspect of this team that I think needs to improve greatly. there is a guy who can help with that. But the team is willing to sacrifice defense for more offense in 2025. And you can't really blame them after watching what this offense did last night and how much it failed last year. The other big piece of the outfield puzzle, and I mean big

literally, because he's a massive human being, is Jordan Walker, who is trying to get his career back on track after regressing last season. And it saw him going up and down between Memphis and St. Louis. He never really got comfortable at either spot outside of a week or two here and there. A couple of games, you know, there was that one little stretch right before the Cardinals called him up. That he, you know, he went on a quick tear and they're like, hey, bring him up. And they brought him up for a week. They told him it was only going to be a week is what we heard. And they sent him right back down. But thanks to this crappy sprinkler head in the outfield, Walker is now going to be out for at least a week. But the good news was there was no structural

damage in that knee. So she'll be back sooner rather than later. They're not expecting any long-term effects from this, but it's going to put him behind, obviously. He's going to be down for a week, and then he's going to have to ramp it back up. But now that he's gone, it's going to open up more innings and that bats for some of the other members of this roster to try to get a spot on the opening day roster. When I'm talking about the roster, I'm just saying like the spring training roster in general, not the 40 man, but spring trading roster in general. This is going to give a chance for some of these other guys to show off what they can do a little bit more. And the person that is just stealing headlines right now

and having the best spring of any of the Cardinals outfielder's is Victor Scott the second. I love Victor Scott. You know if you're an everydayer that I love Victor Scott. He's been on the show before. He offers a skill set that overall nobody else really can do as many things as Victor Scott can do. The big thing is, obviously, the ability to create chaos.

on the base paths with his speed. And so far this spring, Victor has been an offensive machine. He's done a little bit of everything. And 15 at bats, he's got seven hits. He's hitting 467, which is second only to Wilson Contreras. He has scored six runs, which leads the team. He's got a double.

He's got a triple. He's got a home run. So he's got a little bit of poppy showing you. He's walked three times. So you've seen him be pretty patient at the plate. He's also stolen four bases and five attempts. The one time that he did get caught stealing was on a pitcher. out. And it was a case where like that that's all they were paying attention to was Victor Scott.

Like they were throwing over a couple of times, a couple of pitchouts. Like they were just trying to make sure he didn't steal second base and they got him. Victor is clearly making a very good impression at camp right now because they've been moving them all around to see where else they can put them. They want to see them in the lineup more. So they've been using him in left field at times this spring while Newt continues to get reps in center field. which you know you might be asking yourself like wait hold on hold on why don't they just flip victor and newt if victor's a better center fielder uh that is because they already know victor can play center field they're trying to get new as many reps as possible so that if they do break camp and jordan walker is back and available that they can put out the donnie newt walker outfield if they want to and that's what you could see on opening day part of this equation they could alter some things too is the progress of Nolan Gorman. You've heard the team use that term runway a lot this spring, where the Cardinals are willing to deal with the ups and downs of younger guys like Gorman

and Walker, where in the past, they didn't have a lot of patience for it. They would just ship them out. If they had like a bad week and a half or two weeks, bye, we're going to send you to Memphis. We're trying to win enough ball games to make the playoffs here, not having the pressure of a win-at-all-cost mentality here in 2025. They said they're going to step back. They say they're going to. They're going to step back and let these guys fail a little bit so that in the long run, they become better ball players.

And that's the idea behind it all. So they're going to be more patient. They say they're going to. But if Gorman is still at a loss, you know, if he's still as bad as he has looked so far this spring, although recently he's taken some better at bats, got a couple of hits. but if he's like still, you know, can't seem to figure it out, can't seem to put the ball in play, then I don't know how you could automatically give him a starting spot when another young player,

like Victor Scott, is doing all the great things that he is doing. You know, I don't know how you can just say, well, you're not going to get in the lineup because, you know, he just has to be in the lineup at all costs. I don't know why that has to be that way. but you know the cardals as well as I do. Like if they say they're going to put Gorman out there and let him, you know, hit or die trying, perhaps that's what they're going to do no matter what. Now, Victor is no offense to Ryan Ballade, but he's not Ryan Ballade as far as like

what he is in this organization. You know, he's someone who genuinely, genuinely could play a very big role for this team. I don't know like this year, but obviously in the future moving forward. If camp ended today, how can you not have Victor Scott the second on this team over some of these other guys? The argument to keep Victor in AAA is the numbers crunch, right? That's really what it boils down to. The number of left-handed hitters they've already got, which is plenty. And then, of course, most importantly, it's just playing time in general.

Playing time in general. If Walker comes out of this knee thing, fine, then he's ready to go. go and Gorman is starting to get his crap together and is your starting second baseman, which I suspect he will be, no matter how many times he strikes out, I think they're going to, they're going to roll with him. Then that means Victor would just be a bench guy. And for me, I'd rather see Victor Scott playing every day at Memphis than riding on the bench four or five days a week. If Michael Siani is that guy, they can offer you the speed and defense as a bench guy, I'm kind of cool with that. That's fine. I feel that that's his best role, actually. If on a

really good roster, I think Michael Siani is a four or five guy. He shouldn't be a starting center field or just because the offensive side has never come around as a major leaguer. Defensively, great. we love the guy for it. But I need something offensively and you just haven't seen enough of it. So I feel that's his best role anyway is to be one of those fourth or fifth outfielder's for this team. I don't want Victor Scott relegated to that. I think his future is brighter than Siani's from an offensive side and therefore should be treated differently. I just do. Plus, you're trying to find a bat's for Alec Burleson still after his solid season in 2024. It's just another example of how not being able to move Nolan Aronado has altered things this year.

If Nato had been shipped, Newt would be in left, Walker would be in right. It would be a Siani Scott Battle in Centerfield, and it would be made the best man win. And it doesn't appear that's how things are going to shake out, at least not now, not when everybody's healthy. With Walker being out, you're going to see some more bats for some of these other, excuse me, for these other guys that are going to be more like depth pieces for the team. We're going to discuss some of those names of interest in the outfield competition, including a guy who slug 20 home runs last year at AAA. That's next on Locked on Cardinals.

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of Donovan, Newt, Walker, Burleson, Siani, and Scott. So you had six guys already. It doesn't leave a lot of room for other guys looking for roster spots. But I do want to show some love to Matt Keperniak, who's, you know, he's putting up a fight to be on this team, has opened up some eyes this spring so far. The 27-year-old is sitting 3.13. Let me get you a picture of Matt. There he is.

3-13. So far this spring, he's got a dinger, three ribbies in a stolen base. Honestly, Matt Keperniak's biggest problem is himself. And it's the fact that he is a left-handed bat. which the Cardinals have a ton of that play outfield. If he could hit right-handed, he's probably on this team, to be honest with you. It would increase his chances a hell of a lot more. I can tell you that much, but he is currently on the outside looking in right now,

despite this good start because of the fact that they've already got a bunch of left-handed guys that can play outfield. That's something they really don't need whatsoever. The need for a right-handed bat that can play the outfield has led to the Cardinals toying with Jose Fermin and Jose Barrero also playing some outfield as well as infield because they're normally infielders, Barrero has played outfield before. Formeen, they're trying to see if they can get by with him in the outfield. We know the Cardinals love to have versatile guys like that.

They, you know, they had a great one in Tommy Edmund. And we all know how that story went last year. But it's why they brought in a guy like Michael Hellman from the Minnesota Tweds, because he can do both. He's an athletic guy, right-handed, who offers them depth both infield and outfield. You know, why try to put more guys, if you've got one guy who can do multiple things for you,

that makes a whole lot more sense and leaves you more options for what you want to do with the rest of your bench as well as what you want to do with your pitching staff. Unfortunately for Hellman, we haven't seen anything from him yet this spring. I've got as many hits as Michael Helman does, which is zero. Big Mayo, his nickname, Helman Man, I get it.

Zero hits this spring and ten at bats with four strikeouts. So not great. Not great. Jose Fermin is a guy who last year had solid numbers at AAA Memphis, hit 311, eight home runs, 27 rivis, 18 stolen bases, did that in just 240 plate appearances. You love that. He's going to be 26 at the end of the month. So it's not like he's this young prospect who's got to play every day.

It's this guy that just screams depth piece. So you can see why they're seeing, well, we know you can play some infield. Do you think you can help us in the outfield? Is that something you're capable of? That's why that has some appeal to the Cardinals as a bench guy. And his career has not been a great offensive guy. So maybe those numbers from last year, either, you know, a small snapshot and just, you know, maybe he just kind of got lucky for a while.

Or is this something that maybe he's figured out? he's matured as a hitter. We don't know. We don't know. I don't think the Cardinals know yet. But certainly I got to keep your eye on as far as depth pieces go. Jose Barrero is very intriguing. Very intriguing, considering how highly he was thought of in the Reds organization just a couple of seasons ago, where some people had him like is a top 100 prospect.

And it just didn't work out. And he, I'm going to put a picture of him up here from a YouTube guy. There he is. Six foot four. 211 pounds. It's going to be 27 next month. Again, so it's not some young prospect that needs to play every day. He looks the part. That's for sure. Body-wise, the dude's a specimen. Looks like a professional athlete, just the size and the muscle mass. And he looks like he just screams. I am a stud athlete. 2023, not that long ago, hit 258 with 19 home runs and 57 RBIs and had 20 stolen bases in just 334 plate appearances in the Reds organization at AAA. Didn't work out for him.

Things weren't happening for him at the Major League level with the Reds. He moves on to Texas in their organization last year and in an injury plague season hits just 188 and 188 plate appearances. And that was it. Cardinals pick him up as a free agent. He's had 11 at bats this spring. He's three for 11 with two dingers and five RBIs. He's played mostly shortstop in his career, but he can play center field as well,

which is very intriguing, very like, oh, so you're going to know the athlete to do both of those. That's pretty good. So you figure, hey, left field, right field probably wouldn't be too difficult. Probably can play second and third if you needed him to as well. he's right-handed. He's cheap, but he's never found a whole lot of success at the major league level, hence why he was available. Maybe a late bloomer. Maybe the Cardinals strike gold or something. It would be nice to be able to strike gold with somebody that just picked up. Kind of like they did with Ryan Fernandez last year as a pitcher. But it'd be nice to see if this Jose Barrero thing would work out for them.

But he's certainly somebody I'm keeping an eye on. Cards are stacked against him, obviously. But so far this spring, I think he's opened up some eyes too. And people are kind of like, well, I don't know, man. And he's going to be in the lineup against Houston tonight, too. We'll talk more about that in a little bit. But another name I want to discuss when talking about the bench is Luke and Baker. Luke and Baker.

We're going to discuss him next on Lockdown Cardinals. Thank you for making Locktown Cardinals. You first listened today for your second list and find Locked on MLB with our baseball Gourouou Sully hosting with a daily blend of humor in baseball keeps you updated on all the teams during spring training. You can find Lockton, MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. All right. Luke and Baker, man, he's done enough, man.

He's done all he can at AAA Memphis. He does not want to go back there. That's for sure. He has earned a shot at the big leagues. In his last two seasons at Memphis, he has called. clobbered 65 home runs in 690 at bats. I will do the math for you. That is a home run every 10.6 at bat, which would tie him with what Mark McGuire

averaged over his career. Big Mac, which just so happens to be the Major League record for home run at bat ratio in a career. 10.6 for Mark McGuire. is Aaron Judge at 11.3, Babe Ruth, then Bonds, and then Jim Tomic. Okay? That is where he is as a AAA hitter. 65 and 690 at batty has got nothing left to prove there. What he hasn't been able to prove yet is whether or not he can hit Major League pitching consistently. Many people call him a 4A player. If you're not familiar with the term, that means it's a guy. who is better than the AAA level. He's mastered that.

But not quite a full-time major league hitter. They call him four-A guys. And in his defense, he has not had a lot of Major League of batch yet. Only 126 over two seasons to his name. And he hasn't done a whole lot with those events. He's batted 198, four home runs, 20 RBIs. Turns 28 on Monday.

So early happy birthday to Luke and Baker. And personally, I would love to see Luke and Baker on this bench for the Cardinals. Give me this big, massive man, right-handed power hitter to face lefties late in games with the ability to put the ball over the wall. Give me the right-handed version of Matt Adams. Do that. Would be nice as the DH, too. against left-handed starters. You'd have righty-wise win, Willie, Nato, Walker, Herrera, Baker,

and then you got Donnie Newton-Gorman on your left side, or if you need to sprinkle in a Siani or a Victor Sky. You've got them too. But the point is, win Willie, Nato, Walker, Herrera, Baker. Not bad. Six solid right-handed hitters in your lineup. The real, issue for Luke and Baker is he can only play first base in D.H. He's not versatile enough to help them in other areas. You've got Wilson Contreras, who's moved to first base, which is obviously a big deal. He's having a heck of a spring so far. You've got Alec Berluson who can play first base, DH, and do outfield from the left-handed side, which is a bonus for him. And if you count the position players at this point, you've got your two catchers in Herrera and Pahas.

not a win. Gorman Contreras on the infield. There's four. So that gives you six total. Donnie, nude, Walker, Burleson, Siani. I'm just putting Siani in there just because he was on the team last year. There's five outfielders. That gives you 11 position players, which leaves you two more spots to make 13, which is what normally teams are at. You need a backup infielder. Luka Baker can't play infield except for first base. So preferably somebody who's who can pull off shortstop. So you're not going to have Brennan Donovan doing it. He's more of a second and a third guy. He's not really the athletic type of shortstop.

So you want to keep somebody like a Thomas and Jacey or a Vermein, Barrero, or Hellman. Then you'd want someone who can play the outfield as another backup, which is why Fermin and Barrero and Hellman make even more sense, because they can do both, make more sense than Sejacy, who's also caught in this numbers crunch. it might be better served just by playing in Memphis every day. I think I'm the same boat as with Victor Scott.

If he's just going to be a bench guy, you're not going to see him out there much. Might as well let him play every day at AAA Memphis, right? And then you've got Victor Scott and Matt Keperniak. So where would Baker fit in all of this? That's really the problem for Logan Baker, despite hitting 294 this spring with three home runs and seven RBIs. It's not that he's not doing the good thing.

things. Is it best served for the, for the roster to have another guy like that who's a first baseman outfielder, or not outfielder, just EH. Can't play outfield. That'd be amazing. He'd be on here in a heartbeat. Still a couple of weeks left, right? So they're going to try out some things, see what they can do with certain people, moving guys around Friday's lineup against the Astros, Victor is back in center field, Newt's over and left. Barrero is in right field. For me, there's going to be a second base. They're moving guys around.

Gorman's going to DH today. They're trying to see if these guys can pull off other positions, just to see who can do what to give them the most flexibility on the bench. You know, they're testing this stuff out to see how it all fits. The fact that Victor is blowing Siani away offensively and isn't like a dramatic drop off in defense in center field really stands out to me. like I kind of joke with Thomas Covein earlier this week. I was like, is Michael Ciani on this roster?

Like, is he? And it's okay if he's not. And you like to have his defense. Like you want to be able to bring him in. And, you know, and I get it in late in defensive games, like to move Donnie to second, to pull Gorman. Donny goes to second. Siani could also come in for like Jordan Walker.

Like you can move people around where, that where you would have like a newt and a Siani and a Victor Scott is your three optiolid at some point like late in games defensively. I get it. I understand why he would be on the team, but like this numbers crunch is getting big. It's getting big, man. The Barrero versus Fermin battle is very intriguing. As lame as that sounds because it's not like some epic battle, but that's what spring training is about. It's the depth pieces that can really make a difference for you. And that's what we're looking at at the moment. And we haven't even got to the pitching stuff.

Yeah, this is all just position players. Night game tonight, Miles Michaelis on the mound, Spencer Arreddy for the Houston Astros. Real quick, Fandall's Sports Network has added the Cardinals versus Marlin's spring breakout, the game to its spring training broadcast schedule, Chip and is it Stephen Kerry? How's you like to say it? I forget. But anyway, father and son, going to be doing the game together. That's the Cardinals and Marlins minor league prospects playing against.

each other in the showcase that'll be in Jupiter on Friday, March 14th, 11 o'clock, I think. St. Louis time is when it starts. But you're going to see, you know, J.J. Weatherholt and C.C., Jimmy Crooks, their top catching prospect is it will be in that one. Quinn Matthews has set the pitch, Cooper Jerpy, Zach Schoalter, among others. We'll all be taking part in it. So I just kind of keep that on your radar for next week. Thank you for making a lot of card on your first listen every day. do me a solid. Give us follow on X at L0 underscore Cardinals and the JD Sports Radio. Tick at Lockdown Cardinals and Instagram. Like, subscribe on YouTube. Help our channel and our love for

our Cardinals grow. Comment, suggestions, any of that stuff, leave it below. Love it. Love hearing from you guys. And we'll get back at you again here real soon. You're the best fans in baseball for a reason. I will see you next time on Lockedown Cardinals.