Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals Make BOLD Moves to Shield Top PROSPECTS from The Rule 5 Draft!

Starting point is 00:00:00 The St. Louis Cardinals continued solidifying their future by protecting multiple young prospects and placing them on the 40-man roster. Which players were deemed worthy of protection? Find out on today's episode of Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked on Cardinals. Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey there, Cardinals fans. I'm J.D. Hafford, a former national radio sports anchor. You're born and raised in St. Louis and a lifetime Cardinals fan. And welcome to Lockedong Cardinals. Part of the Locked on podcast network, now the number one sports podcast network. You can follow us on the socials at Locked on Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio.

Starting point is 00:00:45 Thank you to our everydayers for continuing to be here with us. For those of you who are new, welcome in. Hope you enjoy the content. This is a show that serves Cardinal Nation and gives you the best info about the birds on the bat. Today's episode being brought to you by Thandall. Right now new customers can bet just $5. and if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. So download the app today.

Starting point is 00:01:07 On today's show, we had our first legit trade this offseason. It was interesting. And even though it didn't involve the Cardinals, we're going to take a look at it and how it might affect possible deals involving the team this offseason. But we're going to start today with the moves that the team made on Tuesday involving four prospects, two of them pitchers and two of them position players, one of them is a top 100 prospect, according to MLB pipeline.

Starting point is 00:01:34 All four of them were selected to the Major League roster, aka put on the 40 men roster, and all four of them are ranked in the Cardinals' top 30 prospects in the organization, according to MLB pipeline. So these were guys that, you know, are seen as to have bright futures and solid ceilings and redeem worthy enough to protect from the Rule 5 draft, which will take place in December now. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what the Rule 5 draft is,

Starting point is 00:02:00 I know some of the stuff. It's tedious. You're like, what? Huh? There's another draft. Yeah. Well, it takes place in December. It's going to be on the 10th during the winter meetings.

Starting point is 00:02:08 It's where teams can select players from other organizations, minor league systems, okay? And they can select from guys who are not on the 40-man roster not to be eligible. Players must have been in the minors for four or five seasons, depending on their signing age, and not have been protected by being added to the 40-man roster, which is what the Cardinals did yesterday. teams that have open spots on their 40-man roster can then make selections. But if they draft a player from another organization, they got to pay a fee. And they got to keep that player on their much tighter 26-man MLB roster for the entire season. Or they must offer them back to the original team they took them from.

Starting point is 00:02:48 And if that happens, they can move them to the minor leagues if the other team says, now we're good. And you can move on. The Cardinals did that with Ryan Fernandez, a couple of, years ago. If you remember, they took him from the Boston Red Sox in the Rule 5 draft, kept him on the team, he had a solid season, and then things fell apart for him last year. So we're hoping he's a bounceback candidate here in 2026. But the Cardinals had plenty of solid names to make decisions on, but in the end, they had three spots available on the 40 man and actually

Starting point is 00:03:19 created a fourth one when they designated pitcher Jorge Alcala for a assignment. He was claimed off waivers by the Cardinals last year. Got a nice arm and all, but there wasn't much that stood out about him during his time with the team, ERA over five in 15 appearances, very similar to Rotary Munoz, who they just lost on waivers, but, you know, it's armed talent, which is fine, but for whatever reason has not found success at the big leagues, whether it's being able to throw strikes, not having any secondary pitches to get outs. Like it's, you know, there's a number of different reasons. So Alcala now designated for assignment. So no longer on the 40 man. So that gives you four

Starting point is 00:04:03 spots. The four names that the Cardinals were hoping to, you know, hang on to and hope will pay off in the future. At some point, we're added to the 40 man in those places. You had catcher Leonardo Bernal, outfieler Joshua Baez, and left-handed pitchers Cooper Jerpy and Bryson Mott. Now, the cream of the crop, as far as the rankings go, is Leo. Bernal, who was ranked number four in the organization and number 92 in MLB Pipelines' top 100 list. Get a lookout here on the YouTube there. But he's not currently in the top 10 catchers. I do wonder if that's going to change as time goes on as we get into the season for the 2026 season.

Starting point is 00:04:42 Because the guy obviously is talented, Switch hitter can swing the lumber pretty well. But he also just won the minor league gold glove awarded catcher, which, you know, that's fans across all of minor league baseball. It's not just the level that that particular player played at. So it's a pretty big deal when you snag one of these, especially at the catching position where his, you know, big star by this part was where he threw out 27 of 69 base stealing attempts, spent the whole season of AA Springfield,

Starting point is 00:05:13 helped them win that championship hit 247 with 13 home runs and 70 RBIs and 107 games and just under 400 total at bats this year. He along with top catching prospect right now, Rodriguez, are part of the excellent depth that the Cardinals have at the backstop position along with guys at the major league level already. Yvonne Herrera, Pedro Pahez, and Jimmy Crooks. It's why we continue to hear rumblings that teams are standing by just in case. I'm Blume. We'd want to deal away any of them at some point because not every organization can produce catchers. And the Cardinals at this moment have been able to do that and got some pretty decent ones.

Starting point is 00:05:52 So we'll see if anything ever gets done with those guys. The next biggest name on the list, and I mean big, is outfielder, Joshua Baez. Also found a lot of success at AA Springfield this year. 22 years old, former second round pick in 2021, had a breakout season here in 2025. Now, he started the season with high apioria and then got promoted to Springfield, where he hit a combined 287 with 20 home runs, 79 RBIs, and 54. stolen bases and did all of that in just 117 games play. Most of that damage came at AA, where he hit 271, 16 home runs, 55 ribbies, and 34 stolen bases, did all of that in

Starting point is 00:06:36 just 79 games for Springfield and less than 300 bats. He just went crazy last season. And I reposted, if you follow us on X, I reposted some of the highlights from Baez's 20. 2025 season. And he just looks like a baller, dude. You know, sometimes you can just look at guys and say, that guy looks like a freaking athlete. Now, they don't always pan out. But Baez, when you see this man, looks like an athlete.

Starting point is 00:07:08 Had a wrist injury early on in his career, which might have stunned his growth just a bit early on. But my goodness, what a season he had. You know how I talk about the Cardinals needing to develop a star offensive player. somebody they can really build around be like, look, this is a special guy. Not just very good, but a special guy. Bias is 6.3, 220 pounds,

Starting point is 00:07:30 power, speed. What a combination he's got there. That's elite stuff. And he's got a 60 great arm in the outfield. He's got a cannon out there as well. A lot of fun tools on that young man and with not a whole lot of top outfield prospects in the organization right now,

Starting point is 00:07:48 might have a quicker and clearer path to the big leagues than people think. A couple guys get moved, some injuries, and all of a sudden we're looking at is Joshua Baez ready to come up to the major leagues in 2026? We'll see. You hope that you don't have to do that. You hope that some of the guys that they got out there already, aka Jordan Walker, Victor Scott, got it locked down in center field. But really, I'm kind of focusing on Jordan Walker here. you hope that he finally busts out the way that Baez just did a double A. I would assume Baez will start at AAA this year and we'll see where things go from there. But say Lars Newpar gets traded and say Brennan Donovan gets traded,

Starting point is 00:08:32 that's some of your outfield depth right there that you're going to have to find somebody. Somebody's got to come up to play. So maybe Baez does make an appearance at the big league level at some point in 2026. If things go great for him and he's just mashing at Memphis, Why not? Why not? Right? Coming up next, we're going to discuss the pitchers that they kept on the 40 man. Both of them are lefties. One of them is a former first rounder.

Starting point is 00:08:58 We'll get into that next coming up on Locked on Cardinals. The NBA is back and there is no better place to get in on the action than Fandle, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Now, even if you miss the start of the game, it's okay. We've got the live bets. Or maybe you're watching a game and you're like, ooh, so-and-so is starting to get hot and you want to ride that hot hand later on in the game. Fandall has these live bets on everything from who's going to score next

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Starting point is 00:09:46 And you just get into it. And all of a sudden you're like, not only is my team winning. Not only is my team doing well, but I'm not. making money off of this. So right now, Fandall is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fandle.com to sign up and play your game with Fandle, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Thanks for making Locked on Cardinals, your first listen every day. And thank you for making it locked on the number one sports podcast network. Now, if you enjoy daily Cardinals content, you can follow the podcast on X at L1 underscore Cardinals. You can find me as well on there at JD Sports Radio. We're also on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram at Locktown Cardinals. Young controllable starting pitching is something that Heinbloom and the Cardinals are desperately looking to acquire this offseason. You've got names like Nolan Aronado, Sunny Gray, Vernon Donovan, Wilson Contreras, Lars Newport, seemingly available for the right price and the right deal. Nato, Gray, Willie, they have to approve these deals because they have no trade clauses because apparently Mo was just handing them out, no big deal, you know.

Starting point is 00:10:54 But the Cardinals are going to try to get it. as many arms as possible. That is the goal. As we know, you can never have too much pitching. Most of the time, guys are going down. They're getting hurt. They don't perform well. You just want to have so much available that you can just keep restocking that. And you can use those pieces at some point to make deals to go get other needs. So to see the team add two pitchers to the 40 men, that was not a surprise. The additions of Bernal and Baez, those were no-brainers to me, in my opinion, but there were a few pitchers that they had to decide between. And ultimately, they landed on former first rounder Cooper Jerpy and Bryson Mautz.

Starting point is 00:11:32 Now, the 24-year-old Jerpy is a former 2022 national pitcher of the year in college at Oregon State. When 11 and 2 in 17 games with a 2.53 ERA, 161 whiffs and 103 in a third innings, Cardinals took him 22nd overall that year. and although he has been decent when he's been on the field, it's keeping him there that has been the problem. Injuries have robbed him of a lot of his professional career thus far, and he missed all of last year following Tommy John's surgery. Now, if you're looking at the picture that I have up on YouTube,

Starting point is 00:12:09 you can see just the torque that goes into that elbow. The Cooper Jerpy just had put back together. So he missed all of last year following Tommy John's surgery. He's currently ranked 13th in the organization. and he reminds a lot of people of, you know, you'll see the comparisons about Braveside Young Award winner Chris Sale. Obviously, that's a great comparison. I also see there used to be a starter with the Dodgers

Starting point is 00:12:34 and I believe he's with the Reds. He's been with a couple of teams, but Alex Wood. If you remember Alex Wood reminds me a lot of him as well. It's got this very unique mix of sidearm, three-quarter type of delivery that it's just funky. It's funky looking. It's unorthodox and it makes it like, you know, when left handers have to face him,

Starting point is 00:12:55 it looks like he's throwing from behind them. They used to say that about Randy Johnson back in the day, too, which drove left handers nuts where he's so long and he would have, you know, where he would release the ball from. It was like he was throwing it from behind your head. And that's kind of what Cooper Jerpy's got going on here. Tough arm slot to pick up. Lots of movement on his stuff.

Starting point is 00:13:17 The dude can be downright nasty. The real question was, would some team take a chance at keeping him on their 26-man roster to take advantage of his potential? And Ricardo's clearly were not willing to risk that. So he gets the shield. He is safe and will be a part of Picardos 40-man roster. And hopefully he comes back here in 2026 as healthy as ever and becomes somebody that they can rely on down the road. Because like I said, he's got some nasty stuff. the fourth and final guy, fellow 24-year-old left-hander, Bryson Mottz,

Starting point is 00:13:51 ranked 21st in the organization. He was a second round pick in 2022 out of San Diego. And I noticed this when I was doing the research and every dayers will know this for sure. When I go back to drafts and I kind of like to look at, you know, who could they have taken or who should they have taken instead. And this is one of those moments where I'm like, all right, let's go see. four picks later, four picks later. The Brewer selected a guy that you've heard of now.

Starting point is 00:14:21 His name is Jacob Mizorowski, aka the Ms. Dole! And I look at it and I go, how did you miss this guy when he was literally playing in Missouri at one of my old colleges that I would do, Crowder College in the Yosho, Missouri. I know it very well. I went to school there. It was school, baseball, and they had a Walmart superstore.

Starting point is 00:14:49 And that is all we had to do. Kids would get their trucks together and hang out in the parking lot. That is what we did. Not a whole lot to do in Neosho, Missouri, except play baseball. And that's what we were there to do. And Jacob Mizorowski was there, lighting it up in Missouri. And the Cardinals didn't take them. And it ended up being a pick for the for the brewers who are loving life because of it. kind of frustrating when you go back and look at it. But anyway, let's focus on the good, right? Let's focus on Mots. Not his fault.

Starting point is 00:15:20 This past year at Springfield, 8 and 3, 2.98 ERA and 25 stones. We like that. We like that. Opponents hit just 219 against them. He struck out 134 batters in 114 and 214th innings. The scouting report for Mots reads like this. Throwing from a low three quarters slot,

Starting point is 00:15:39 6'3 South Falls added some Velo with Springfield. Now was in the 91. to 95 mile per hour range with enough ride to get decent whips. His slider has long been his best pitch with good depth to play off that heater and generate misses, and he's added a cutter to keep righties off balance. His mid-80s changeup has shown improved movement in recent years but still doesn't miss many bats, making another option necessary against opposite side bats. He can also flip in a 79 to 81 mile per hour curb ball to steal strikes.

Starting point is 00:16:07 Even with the added velocity, Monsters' control has steadily improved throughout his Simon Pro Ball and he has enough pitches in his arsenal to keep getting starting looks. What they're saying there is the Cardinals did tinker with the idea when they sent him to the Arizona Fall League back at 24. They had him come out of the bullpen, mostly because, I mean, I guess because you want to see what he'd be like, but at the same time, because he had hit it, you know, thrown enough innings so they didn't need him doing starters innings. But his numbers were not very good at the AFL in 24 coming out of the bullpen. But I suppose it's all. always an option if it's needed. But Mott's is somebody that clearly they like. They like what

Starting point is 00:16:49 they have with him. They got a nice little grouping of lefties when you look at it. If Jirpy becomes what we think he will, if who else we got, Quinn? Yeah. Yeah. I'm just coming off a pitcher of the year award winner a couple of years ago. So you got Quinn Matthews, you've got Liberator, you got Mott. So nice grouping of left-handed starters right there to work with. So I hope they all pan out, right? So those are the four names, which leaves off some names that are current. So, you know, they're certainly familiar, but these aren't guys that you're like,

Starting point is 00:17:28 oh my gosh, how could they do this? You know, infielder Blaise Jordan, who they got in the Stephen Matt's deal with the Boston Red Sox. Didn't have a huge year at AAA. obviously there's room to grow. He's still very, very young. Would somebody really take him and stick him on the 26th man roster for the whole year? Probably not. So you feel kind of safe there.

Starting point is 00:17:47 Pete Hanson was a name that was brought up at MLB.com that they thought was a bit of a tough decision to keep him or to not keep him because they think that he might be a guy that could get drafted. We talked about that on Monday, but they left him unprotected. Former Cardle's minor league pitcher of the year in 2023, Max Radford. He wasn't protected. So that's somebody. 23-year-old outfielder Miguel Lugeto, who just hit 350 with 16 ribbies and 17 games in the NFL. He was left off.

Starting point is 00:18:19 He could be available. But again, you got to remember that teams have to keep them on the 26-man roster. So are any of these guys ready for Major League Baseball yet? Do they feel like that they're worthy of a spot on the 26-man roster? And that's where the Cardinals had to look at and go, okay, who's really at risk here? Who's really at risk about getting taken? John didn't mention some names, outfielder Mike Antico, who we've had on the show before. Solid minor leaguer could be a solid worth outfielder in the major leagues,

Starting point is 00:18:55 but hasn't ever ascended to that next level. Pitcher Randall Clemente. pitcher Alex Cornwell, infielder Noah Menlinger, notable names that could be. be taken away from the Cardinals. If it happens, it happens. But none of those guys were really guys that you're banking on being a huge part of your future, at least as of right now, from things that I've gathered. Again, just because they aren't protected, doesn't mean they're going to get trapped in that you're automatically going to lose these guys. But it is a risk that you take when you don't have any other spots available. And that's where the Cardinals are.

Starting point is 00:19:30 So thoughts, comments on who they decided to protect and who they didn't. I think we kind of nailed this talking with Thomas Govino Monday. He picked three of the four, and that was only because there wasn't a fourth spot available just yet. But pick three of the four. We both said that Jerpy was somebody that we think you need to as well if you're, if you get a spot available. So I think we kind of nailed this one, boys and girls, if there's girls watching. Late last night, there was an MLB trade between the Angels and the Orioles.

Starting point is 00:20:03 Similar deals are what the Cardinals should be looking into. as well. I'll explain what I mean by that coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals. Thank you for making Lockdown Cardinals your first listen every day for your second list. Check out Lockdown MLB hosted by my guy Sully. He's going to bring you a daily blend of humor in baseball throughout the offseason. You can find Lockedon MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. So the Angels traded right-handed hitting outfielder Taylor Ward to the Orioles on Tuesday night in exchange for former top pitch prospect, Grayson Rodriguez.

Starting point is 00:20:42 Yes. Many will remember that name, former first round pick. It was not that long ago that he was supposed to be one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. An interesting move for the O's who give up multiple years of control of a pitcher like that who had a ceiling like that. Future ace of the staff is what people were saying just a few years ago in exchange for Ward, who is a solid Major League hitter, no doubt. This past year, set a career high at home runs at 36, doubles 31, RBIs with 103, but he's only one year away from free agency. It's not like they're going to have him under control as of right now.

Starting point is 00:21:18 I mean, obviously, you can extend contracts and do what you need to do. But as of right now, he's got this year and then free agency. And it's over. Whereas Grayson Rodriguez, I believe he's still got at least three years of control. Now, a reason to do this if you're Baltimore is that you're just fed up with the injuries that Rodriguez has endured year. after year after year. It's been a lot of lat injuries, which obviously is a problem,

Starting point is 00:21:48 like they just continue to pop up. What it reminds me of is the Cardinals were in a similar spot, not that long ago with Alex Reyes. If you remember, Alex Reyes, one of the highly touted right-handed pitchers in all of baseball. Moby Pipeline had him as the number one,

Starting point is 00:22:06 right-handed prospect in baseball at one point. and he blew through the miners was just racking up the case and looked like he was going to be a future star. And as soon as they brought him up to the major leagues, he got hurt. And then he got hurt. And then he got hurt again. And then he got hurt again. It was awful. All the talent in the world.

Starting point is 00:22:28 Sky was the limit. But he couldn't stay healthy. He had the one all-star appearance, which ironically came as a reliever in 2021 because they couldn't trust him to make starts anymore, was fantastic. and gave up the home run to Chris Taylor. Injuries got him again, has not pitched in the major league since 2021. Dodgers picked him up after the Cardinals cut him loose, and he's never been able to stay healthy. So just a shame.

Starting point is 00:22:56 And I wonder if he owes feel that that's the path that Grayson Rodriguez is on, and they're just done with it. They don't want to wait around for it anymore, and that was it. So my thought on this is that Ward is a known commodity. Rodriguez is not really, but if he reaches his potential, it could be a hell of a steal for the angels, if he can figure out how to stay on the field. And I think that this is the type of move that the Cardinals,

Starting point is 00:23:22 that I'm hoping, I should say, that the Cardinals can swing whenever they do trade away, Nolan Arnado, or perhaps somebody like a large noobar. Those are guys whose values aren't great right now. They're not worth as much as Taylor Ward is. you know the guy i keep but if you're going to trade somebody and you want to like go get like a lottery ticketish type of guy the guy keep coming back to for a deal like this is bobby miller from the dodgers former top prospect who has not panned out he just hasn't the things have not

Starting point is 00:23:59 worked out for bobby miller in l a the team has appeared to move on from him in their their plans for the future they made him a reliever in the minor leagues why not see if the Cardinals can do something with him? You'd have to have something the Dodgers want to go get him, which is why I suggested his name as part of the Brendan Donovan deal, if they were to decide to trade him to the Dodgers. He wouldn't be the main piece that I'm trying to get, but part of the package that I would want to come back.

Starting point is 00:24:33 But that's the kind of a deal. I certainly hope the Cardinals can get with Nolan Aronado at some point. shed his payroll. You're going to have to eat some money. Just is what it is. Get a couple of guys that maybe haven't reached the levels their team wanted them to be at at this point, but still have some ceiling and see if you can strike gold with them. The issue is the handcuff of the no trade clause. Only so many teams that Nato will go to, which limits your options. But if Ward can get you something like Rodriguez, perhaps Nato,

Starting point is 00:25:08 or Newt can score you something similar. Maybe not quite is the ceiling that Grayson Rodriguez has or had at one point. But something like that, like, you know, an Alex Manoa, who's now in the Braves organization. Remember him in Toronto, went to the All-Star game, was this up-and-coming superstar, got hurt, and there was some like mental issues with not feeling ready to pitch. designated for assignment.

Starting point is 00:25:39 The Braves got him, but he's still a young man. A reclamation project like that, this is where the upgrades and scouting come into play. Try and find a diamond in the rough, so to speak, perhaps a former diamond like Manoa who just needs some repolishing is all. There are a lot of guys out there

Starting point is 00:26:00 that haven't lived up to what people thought they were going to. Cardinals can, you know, Cardinals can take a chance on some people like this, whether it's pitching, maybe it's other positions as well. You know, don't be shy about it. See what you can get. See who's got upside out there. Again, this is where all of this money that you put into the scouting and everything, this is where it comes into play. And hopefully it works out.

Starting point is 00:26:21 Happy hunting. Heim. Thank you for making Lockton, Carlos, your first listen every day. If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L0 underscore Cardinals and at JD Sports Radio, TikTok and Instagram and Lockton Cardinals, like, subscribe on YouTube, help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We'll see you next time on Lexon Cardinals.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals Make BOLD Moves to Shield Top PROSPECTS from The Rule 5 Draft!

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