Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals' offseason: Free agents + payroll reduction plans

Starting point is 00:00:00 If the Cardinals were inclined to build a World Series contending team, who were some upcoming free agents that they could realistically bring in to push them in the right direction. This is 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. Haffern and I'm a national radio sports anchor born and raised in the Lou and a lifetime Cardinals fan.

Starting point is 00:00:32 and I'm your host for Lockdown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, helping your team every day. You can follow me on Twitter, X at JD Sports Radio and the podcast at L.O. underscore Cardinals. I do want to thank those of you who make Locked on Cardinals your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get your podcast. You can also find us on YouTube. Be sure to like, subscribe, and comment and interact with us, and hit that notification button.

Starting point is 00:00:53 So you know when the new episodes are posted, 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 being brought to you by price picks, download the app today, use that code locked on MLB to win $50 instantly. When you play your first $5 lineup, price picks, run your game. So during this offseason, we are going to continue to highlight the work that is done by a lot of talented writers and bloggers around the internet journalists. A lot of people have a lot of opinions on what the Cardinals should or should not do heading into 2025. but we've got a lot of unanswered questions still.

Starting point is 00:01:34 And frankly, most of them, if not all of them, are not going to be addressed or answered again until after the playoffs are done. So that's going to give us a couple of weeks here, some downtime, if you will, to debate, discuss certain things going on with the Cardinals, things that they may or may not do heading into the next season. And I wanted to highlight a couple of write-ups that I've seen recently. So we'll be doing that in the next few episodes, as well as going over other things that happened in 2024.

Starting point is 00:02:03 I encourage you to go check out my last episode, which talked about grading manager Ali Marmal and how he did in 2024. Are you pro, Ollie? Do you think he did a good job? Are you negative on Ali and think he did a bad job? If so, let me know, go check out that episode and let me know in the comments section because we are going to recap that one

Starting point is 00:02:23 because, you know, Ali is kind of a hot button for Cardinals fans because some love them, some hate them, some of them are just like, but, you know, somebody's got, everybody got an opinion on him. So, but I want to also talk about some things that other people might be talking about, just to have some fun content and discuss during this downtime that is going on right now for the Cardinal. So the one that I saw that caught my attention yesterday, and I want to talk about it today, was just because the headline by itself, I thought was hilarious.

Starting point is 00:02:55 This is Zach Press now over at fan-sided. and the title was three free agents, the cardals could sign that would erase John Moseilocks stink. I mean, he's not beating around the bush, not a fan of Moseilock and moves that he's made, wants to get rid of whatever foulness is still coming off of John Mosea lock in his opinion. So creative, creative headline, that's for sure. Zach got me to click on it, definitely.

Starting point is 00:03:24 And what Zach Delves I do here is something that, And I want to be honest about this that, in my opinion, is more fantasy than reality. Because from everything we've gathered from what we've heard from the Cardinals so far this offseason, is they're not really planning to spend money on any premium free agents this year. Okay. I'm not saying that they're not going to go get a couple of guys to fill some holes here and there. But if the goal is to bring the payroll down, which is what we've been told they want to do, citing major free agents is not exactly something that makes a whole lot of sense now, does it?

Starting point is 00:04:01 But for content purposes, let's see what Zach has to offer us here, shall we? So I'll have the full article link in the description and in the show notes. So depending on what you're listening to or what you're watching, it is available. Let's start off with his first choice. And that would be from the Padres. He's going to go with relief pitcher Tanner Scott. Tanner Scott was having a hell of a season with the lowly. Marlins this year had been good for the last couple of seasons.

Starting point is 00:04:29 It was one of the more sought after bullpen arms at the trade deadline this year. And it was the Padres who ended up getting him in the end and made their bullpen just outstanding. Wasn't enough to get him over the hump as they get beat by the Dodgers. But like I said before, Zach is talking about rebuilding a World Series contending team. So bolstering the bullpen obviously is a good way to go about that. You're seeing the Guardians right now. They're in the ALCS in large part due to the strength of their bullpen.

Starting point is 00:05:00 And, of course, Jose Ramirez in the middle of their order. So here's what Zach asked to say about Tanner Scott. With Helsley being a righty, adding left-handed closer, Tanner, Scal would make a ton of sense. Scott was one of the best relievers in the game and he adds an additional aspect as a left-handed pitcher compared to the right-handed Helsley. The issue here is that Scott will have a ton of contenders chasing after him. If the price drives up too high, the Cardinals shouldn't overpay too much for him. They could chase other bullpen options, but adding Scott would be the dream move for their bullpen. Now, there's nothing about Tanner Scott that says he wouldn't fit right in with the Cardinals bullpen.

Starting point is 00:05:43 Obviously, that would be fantastic. I mean, imagine what your final innings can look like if you're a Cardinals fan. if you've got Helsley, Tanner Scott, Matthew Libertzo, Ryan Fernandez, Joe Romero, some pretty good arms right there to finish off the back end of your bullpen. Not too bad. But as he mentions, price is going to be a problem here. SpotRack has his market value at four years and $66 million. So I would not hold my breath unless you want.

Starting point is 00:06:21 to make yourself pass out for kicks because that's the money that Ryan Halsley is going to be searching for. It's going to be the money that Ryan Helsley wants after this final arbitration year that he's got. And if we're already talking about the Cardinals not willing to pay their own guy and Ryan Helsley, I find it hard to believe that they're going to pay some outsider that money either. You know, the Cardinals like to keep their own when they can. And And for all, you know, anything about Ryan Helsie, there's no really reason why you'd want to let him go other than how much he's going to want. And if the Cardinals aren't willing to invest that kind of money in somebody at the back end of their bullpen, probably not going to spend it on Tanner Scott either.

Starting point is 00:07:07 They're just going to find some new arms to do that. So that would be my problem with Tanner Scott, but obviously great player, a lot of talent. And, of course, we would, if you could get him and make him. a one-two combination of him and Helsley at the back end with those other guys would make a whole lot of sense on building a World Series championship team. Next on his list, he's going to go the starting pitching route with a very familiar name to Cardinals fans. We'll talk about it next on Locked on Cardinals. Price Picks is the best place to get real money sports action with over 10 million members

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Starting point is 00:09:18 and have had plenty of people talking about a lot of the episodes that we put out this week so far. So get in on the conversation and have your thoughts be heard from everybody in the community. Once again, we're coming through a blog on fanciated.com from Zach Pressnell, who is with the story is linked in the description for you guys and the show notes. So make sure you go check it out, give them a click and go read what the whole story is about because I didn't go. I'm not giving you everything. I'm just giving you a little bits and pieces of the things that he asked to say. But just to give us a little bit of outside flavor on what some other people are saying and thinking about our St. Louis Cardo. So next on his free agent wish list is a guy that we are all very much familiar.

Starting point is 00:09:58 with, and that would be the Dodgers, Jack Flaherty. Now, Jack Flaherty hasn't been with the organization with the Cardinals since being traded at the deadline in 2023. He has spent time with three clubs since the Cardinals, sent him to the Orioles. Then he went to the Tigers and now he's with the Dodgers. And we always thought Jack would end up back home in Los Angeles, didn't we? We're in the Dodger blue. It just seemed like something that was inevitable at some point or another.

Starting point is 00:10:28 and it ended up coming to fruition at the trade deadline this year when the tigers traded him there. And then the tigers go on to still make the playoffs. Imagine if they had not moved Jack Flaherty and kept him as the one-two punch with Terek Scoobal, what Detroit might have been able to do in the playoffs then. What they did was very impressive, very impressive feat by Detroit altogether. But I wonder what difference that would have made. Are they looking back at it like, ah, if we'd only known, they didn't know they were going to go on that crazy.

Starting point is 00:10:58 But overall, Jack set a career record for wins in a season with 13 with a 3.17 ERA, struck out 194 hitters and 162 innings, just top-notch stuff from Jack. And I've never been somebody who's been like a Jack hater, so to speak. You know, sometimes it's tough to read his body language when he's out there. It sometimes looks like he's really frustrated with everybody around him. And it's just, you know, it's a vibe that he gives off sometimes. and it rub some people the wrong way, but we always knew that he had the stuff.

Starting point is 00:11:30 It was just getting him back on the field and getting him healthy again. 2023, he finally was healthy, first full season coming back healthy. And now in his second full season where he's healthy from all those injuries that he dealt with as a Cardinal, you're starting to see that Dominant Jack Flaherty again that was the guy that we thought was going to be the future ace of the Cardinals' rotation. So far in the playoffs,

Starting point is 00:11:54 he is one-in-one 2.92 ERA got hit kind of hard by the Padres but then dominated the Mets in game one. Again, he looks healthy. He looks confident. And, you know, that's, that's undoubtedly a type of harm that the Cardinals could use, right? I mean, heck, all the teams, basically baseball would probably love to have a Jack Flaherty in their rotation right now. Here's what Zach has to say about Captain Jack. He began his career with, the 122 starts as a member of the Cardinals. St. Louis could run into an issue in resigning him if Flaherty has any hard feelings about being dealt away. It was Moseilock who dealt him away in 2023. So for Moseilock to try to re-sign him two years later might not go over so well.

Starting point is 00:12:40 Still, the Cardinals need to upgrade their rotation over the aging veterans who have struggled the last two years. Flaherty is the perfect pitcher to do that. Now, there was talks in this past season where people brought up that, you know, Jack Flaherty would never want to come back to St. Louis, that, you know, he's probably burned the bridge here, that he's probably like, oh, you guys traded me, gave up on me. I wouldn't want to come back. And apparently that's not the case. We learned that during the season where Jack liked certain things that were said online about fans saying he never said that he didn't want to be here or anything like that. And so people took it as that Jack Flaherty holds no ill will toward

Starting point is 00:13:21 the Cardinals organization or anyone involved. I think he understood that it was business at the trade deadline cardinals weren't going anywhere gave him a chance to go somewhere and compete in the postseason which he got to do with the baltimore orials and then his path was set a one-two punch of jack flarity and sunny gray i mean obviously that would be great to go along with eric theddy and whatever mix remains of uh miles michaelist stepan matts michael mcgrie and andre palante but again flarity who you know he banked on himself by signing just that one-year deal this past season. You know, he didn't get the deal that he wanted from whoever else was out there and perhaps

Starting point is 00:13:59 was trying to give to him a couple of more years. He wanted something better. And he banked on himself, was like, fine, I'll take a one-year deal, I'll approve it deal. I'll go to the Detroit Tigers. And he has turned everything around. So he's not going to be exactly cheap this offseason. Spot Rack has his market value at three years and 61 million. So just over $20 million per, which.

Starting point is 00:14:23 To be honest with you, seems a little bit low for Jack Flaherty, in my opinion, because we're not talking about a guy who is, you know, 33, 34 years old, like a Sunny Gray who just signed a three-year deal. We're talking about a 29-year-old who should be right in his prime of his career now. And for him to accept only a three-year offer seems awfully low for me at 61 million per. Personally, if he's willing to do that, then awesome. awesome. I'd be all over that. I just, I cannot see that happening. I think somebody's going to give him more money than that. And I just, and then the other side of it, it's not that he doesn't like St. Louis or didn't enjoy his time in St. Louis, but I just feel like if I'm Jack Flaherty and I left

Starting point is 00:15:11 St. Louis and I found more success outside of that organization, I don't know why I would want to come back to it under the same people, too. It's not like there's this new regime. team of coaches and managers and all this stuff that he's unfamiliar with. He knows all these people. He knows Ollie and Dusty Blake and John Moseilag. Like he's familiar with them. I just, I find it hard to believe that he would want to do that,

Starting point is 00:15:38 that that would be a decision he would want to do unless he was paid a whole lot more money than anybody else was giving him. And that's another thing that I find hard to believe that the Cardinals are going to do in this particular offseason. But in this fantasy scenario that we're kind of, talking about if the 2024 jack flaredy who is healthy and striking people out looks really really good if that's who you're getting and not the one that dealt with multiple injuries in 2021 and 22 with the cardinals then i think he's very good bang for your buck so i just it's

Starting point is 00:16:13 just does not seem like something that will probably happen uh i know the dodgers you know he looks good in dodger blue but the dodgers got a lot of pitchers coming back too uh the just have been injured right now. So, you know, they're, Shohay's going to be pitching for him next year. And Yamamoto, and they're going to get glass now back. And there, Clayton Kirshaw is set to come back again next year. And they've still got some young guys that, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:38 they want to bring up. So I don't know where Jack Flaherty is going to go next year. If he ends up not going back to L.A., but somebody will pay for him. Somebody will pay for him. All right. Last but not least, that goes to the positional player route. and tries to fill the hole that is being left by Paul Goldschmidt.

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Starting point is 00:18:39 and important safety information. Subscription required price varies based on product and subscription plan. Thank you again for making Locktown Cardinals your first listen today. Be sure to check out the Lockdown MLB podcast with our buddy Sully, who hosts it talking about everything that's going on with the playoffs. So he'll talk about just anything you want to be honest with you. He'll talk baseball. You want to talk movies. You want to talk about TV. He's got you there too. Sully a very entertaining character, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. So Paul Goldsmith is set to become a free agent this offseason. And although I figured that the Cardinals might try to resign him at just a lower price, it has been reported that they will move on altogether. from the 37-year-old to ending his tenure with the team,

Starting point is 00:19:34 which is not a bad thing. When you're dropping payroll, this is some of them, you know, tough decisions you got to make. Again, this is not a personal thing against Paul Goldschmidt. Obviously, everybody loves him, but offensively, Goldie has declined the last couple of seasons since coming out of nowhere to win that NLNVP in 2022.

Starting point is 00:19:55 He's always been a very good hitter. We knew he was put in the mid-30s at this point. So things were eventually. going to start to regress a little bit. And then he goes bonkers in 2022. You're like, oh my gosh, maybe this guy's shelf life might be a little bit longer than we thought. And then the last two years have happened. And it's like, all right, it's time.

Starting point is 00:20:17 It's time. And we've discussed multiple scenarios on how to fill the void left by Goldie as far as the lineup, right, offensively, where we've been talking about different combinations of like Alec Berlus, and Lucan Baker and Jordan Walker, maybe Yvonne Herrera, Matt Carpenter, you know, he might bring him back as a bench bat and he can play first. The logical move seems to be the Burleson, Lucan Baker route. It seems to be the logical one to me, where you have one who starts against lefties, you have one that starts against righties.

Starting point is 00:20:55 When that person isn't starting, he becomes a very important bench bat for you. I don't see the wrong in that idea. Plus, neither one of them makes a whole lot of money yet. Where I think the Cardinals are going to miss Paul Goldschman a lot is defensively. It's a side of Goldie that I think we've taken for granted over the years. And no offense to any of those guys that might take over at first base, but they haven't proven at the Major League level that they can hold a candle. to what Paul Goldsmith did defensively at first base.

Starting point is 00:21:32 I mean, Goldie was really, really good, you guys. I mean, how many bad throws have we seen him save, you know, make the pick or make a diving play and keep his toe on the bag, barely? How reliable was he on just ground balls, just your basic stuff that we were always like, well, I mean, he should feel that, right? Well, not everybody does. Not every first baseman does. How about making the toss of pitchers who are recovering first base?

Starting point is 00:22:00 People screw that up all the time. Rarely saw any issues with that with Goldie. It was just really, really good. And if you're going to bring in a free agent to fill the void, what Zach brings up here is not a bad idea. Makes sense to pick up somebody who can do those things just as well, if not better, then Paul Goldschmidt defensively. And that's what Zach does here, talking about Christian Walker,

Starting point is 00:22:25 first baseman for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Walker is the guy that eventually took over for Goldie in Arizona when he came over to the Cardinals, took over first base. And what a seamless transition that was for the debacks. You saw him not only become a big part of their lineup offensively, but also goes on to win two gold gloves and could win a third consecutive one this year. He's incredible over at first base. So you wouldn't lose if, you know, you went this route and you went and got.

Starting point is 00:22:55 Christian Walker in free agency. You wouldn't lose a single thing defensively at the position, and you still get a guy who in a 160 game average is going to give you like a 250 batting average hit you close to 30 home runs, 86 to 90 RBIs. The downside, if you look at it, is that he's already 33 years old. So, you know, you're hoping for somebody a little bit younger, I would assume. I mean, obviously, Ali Perlinson and Lucan Baker are much. younger than that. But it also means that he wouldn't command like a long,

Starting point is 00:23:29 expensive contract either. So here's what Zach says about Christian Walker. 33-year-old routinely puts up an OPS of 800, doing so in each of his last three seasons. Last year, Walker slash 251, 335, 4 to 68 with 26 home runs and 26 doubles. A lot of the bigger teams will likely go after Pete Alonzo instead of Walker. Pulling him away from the diamond bags would be tough, but the Cardinals are a much bigger market. So they could likely offer him a bit more money, it would certainly be quite the impressive signing to send Mosea lock off in the sunset. Now, SpotRack does have Walker's market value at a very similar contract to what you're seeing with the first two guys we mentioned in this episode, three years, $66 million.

Starting point is 00:24:13 So just over $22 million per. The thing is, if you are cutting payroll, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Now, if you weren't cutting payroll, it seems like Walker was taking over for Goldie and St. Louis is like he did in Arizona. It would make a ton of sense. But I just cannot see the Cardinals investing that money that they're saving now from not having Paul Goldschman on the roster, making, you know, the $20 odd million he was making this year, close to 30, really.

Starting point is 00:24:45 I cannot see them just investing it and putting it right back in to the first base position. It just does not seem like a Cardinal thing to do. And when you go down the list of free agent for Space, coming up in 2025. Your headline by Pete Alonzo, who's going to get a bag from somebody. It'd be weird to not see the Mets reach out, considering they have all the resources that the Mets have. It'd be weird to not see him end up with the Mets once again, considering their run

Starting point is 00:25:12 here in the postseason. Paul Goldschmidt is there, obviously, but he's old. Then you have Christian Walker. Then you've got Josh Bell, who also ended up in Arizona, the switch hitter. that used to be with the pirates and that he was what marlins and he was guardians i think he was guardians i think he was a padre for a little like he'd been around to a couple of different spots um and then it falls down to guys like carlo santana and joey gallo as your unrestricted free agents now there are a couple other names that have some option stuff to go through like uh anthony rizzo

Starting point is 00:25:48 with the yankees and stuff like that but um if the cardinals did feel that they needed like they didn't trust what was going to happen with Berlison or Baker over at first base, but they're not trying to spend a whole lot of money. I think the signing of the twins, Carlos Santana, would make a lot more sense in this particular case. Now, here's the downside. Carlo Santana is 38 years old. He's older than Paul Goldschmidt.

Starting point is 00:26:17 But defensively, he was a plus 14 outs above average, plus eight. defensive run saved. I would assume he's, I didn't look at the AL Gold Glove list. I'm assuming he is up for the gold glove at first base. I would assume that because his numbers are outstanding. Let me double check on that for you here real quick, just to be sure. Yeah. So it's him, Nathaniel Lau, and Ryan Mountcastle from the Orioles.

Starting point is 00:26:49 So, yeah, Santana is up there for that. So he obviously very good defensive. he's a switch hitter, did 23 home runs, 71 RBIs, and has a market value of one year of $5.6 million. And that is where it would make sense because the reason why letting Paul Goldschmidt go is something that makes sense

Starting point is 00:27:14 is because of how much money he was going to make the qualifying offer had to be like 20-something million dollars. Like you're not paying $20 million for what Paul Goldschman is now, but would you pay $5.6 million Paul Goldsmith, sure, that would, that would make sense. If that's what you can get Carlos Santana for, that would make sense if the Cardinals felt that they needed to go out and bring somebody in to fill that first base role or DH and whatnot. So $5.6 million is not all that expensive. But personally, I don't, I don't see them doing any of that stuff. I think,

Starting point is 00:27:51 I think they're going to fill this void internally. I think that is probably going to be the plan. I think if they do spend any free agent money, you'll find that spent on other things, perhaps ballpen, maybe starting rotation, depending on if any deals are made. But I just find it hard to believe that it would be at first base. But let me know you guys' thoughts on what Zach has brought up here, what you think about what I've said about these things. Get your comments down below on YouTube. Make sure you hit me up on Twitter X. I do want to thank you guys for making lockdown kernels your first listen every day. If you haven't followed us, yet on Twitter. Actually, you can do that at L.O underscore Cardinals and a JD Sports Radio.

Starting point is 00:28:31 Like, subscribe on YouTube and help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans of baseball for a reason. And I will see you next time on Locked-on Cardinals.

Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals' offseason: Free agents + payroll reduction plans

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