Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - St. Louis Cardinals PREPARE for MAJOR Changes After Cubs Series! QUINN MATHEWS is coming!
Episode Date: July 31, 2026St. Louis Cardinals gear up for major changes as the trade deadline nears, dropping a hard-fought series to the Chicago Cubs. JD Hafron spotlights Ivan Herrera’s walk-off heroics, Andre Pallante’s... steady pitching, and questions swirling around Lars Nootbaar and Luis Gastelum after costly mistakes. With the offense struggling—just six home runs in 14 games since the All-Star break—this episode explores the root of St. Louis’s scoring woes and the challenge of staying above .500. Quinn Matthews’ upcoming MLB debut against the Toronto Blue Jays headlines a detailed rundown of prospects, trade rumors, and roster shakeups. Are players like Ryne Stanek or Nootbaar on the move? JD Hafron dissects potential first base solutions and managerial decisions, all while answering burning fan questions. Can the Cardinals turn things around on their road trip? 00:00 Cubs Series Recap & Cardinals Offense 10:50 Quinn Matthews Call Up 17:23 Cardinal Confessions & Trade Talk Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-st-louis-cardinals/ Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/ Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonstlcardinals.supercast.com/ Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Amazon This Back To School Season, spend less on your kids, with Amazon. With Amazon’s low Back To School Prices, just spend less on your kids. Because every dollar you don’t spend on them, is a dollar you haven’t spent on them. Stance Check out the ICON collection from Stance—premium comfort, performance, and durability designed for whatever your day brings. Use promo Code LOCKEDON at checkout for 20% off your purchase. Learn more at https://Stance.com. Stance. The Official Sock Partner of Major League Baseball. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at https://Indeed.com/podcast KALSHI For a limited time, Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get up to $500 in bonus credits when you trade $25. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM to play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season. 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 #stlouiscardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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The St. Louis Cardinals dropped the series to the Cubs, but appear to be preparing to make some moves as to trade deadline inches closer and closer.
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 today's episode is brought to you by Calci for a limited time.
Download the Calci app and use code locked on to get up to $500 in bonus credits. When you trade,
$25.
So the San Luis Cardinals dropped the final game of the series against the Cubs in extra
innings by a score of four to two.
Now this series as a whole, I think was better than I originally gave it credit for.
I was really demoralized by that game two, which really put me in a bad mood.
I know we aren't in the business of handing out participation trophies.
But other than the blowout loss in game two, I believe this series was pretty competitive.
I know the Cardinals dropped three or four, and I understand that.
The Cubs are a better team.
Let's just be honest.
I mean, we can admit that and it's okay.
We know where these teams stand at the moment.
Game one's final, though, seven to three, but it was a five to three ball game until the ninth inning.
So not a complete washout by any means.
Game two, trash.
We know that from start to finish as the Cubs pummeled our boy, Michael McGreevy,
and the Cardinals tended to.
But Wednesday night, you get the pitcher's duel that started with Dustin May,
looking outstanding and what is probably his final start as a Cardinal.
You go scoreless, toe to toe with the Cubbies and that really good offense until the 10th inning when PCA rips the two-run shot that at the time seem like the game winner.
And we're all like, oh, no, out of all the people, don't let PCA be the guy that beats us.
But the Cardinals, thank God, they battle back in the 10th inning and they went it on that walkoff to run double by Yvonne Herrera.
the celebration there following that walkoff obviously was a lot of fun.
You can tell these guys are frustrated.
We're all frustrated.
We know this team plays better than this.
And to see them struggle as much as they have out of the All-Star break,
it's been a bummer.
It's been a downer.
And it's kind of readjusted the trajectory of what they're going to do here at the deadline.
Because I do believe that, yeah, they were probably going to sell some people.
But I think they would also have.
probably looked into more creative ways to add pieces that might have been able to help here in
26. But at this time and the way things have gone, it doesn't feel like that's something that
needs to happen anymore. You just kind of work with the guys that you got in your system already.
But final score in that one, three to two, obviously the Cardals needed that one. Losing a lot lately,
three and nine since the All-Star break going into that game. And to win one against our
rivals in comeback walk-off fashion. That's pretty cool. So Thursday, you had the finale with the
Cardinals starting arguably their best pitcher this year, which is unbelievable to say, but
Andre Palante was on the mound and the Cubs went with Javier Assad instead, who had pitched really
well against them back when they played each other in Wrigley on July the 5th. Remember he was like
four innings, something like that, but he was pretty good in that game. Cardinals looked to have,
at least to me, I test. It seemed like that.
they had a little more a little more pep in their step.
A little extra jump after the win on Wednesday.
Brian Torres gets him going with a one-nothing lead in the second inning
following back-to-back walks to Newt Mason win.
Torres two for four on the day, has been hitting 4-17 over his last six games.
He's certainly a guy that I think we'll get more playing time if Ler's Newport
gets dealt at the deadline.
Because if Newt gets dealt, I don't think there's just automatically Joshua Baez
comes up to the big leagues.
I think that you still have to think about the clock.
and him being able to still play during the lockout next year when that happened.
So I think that's certainly something that you got to consider.
So I think Torres will probably get some run there for a little while.
And we'll see how we can handle the rigors of playing every day.
If that's indeed what happens, obviously Jose Fermin is still going to have a role with what's going on.
Well, Nelson Velasquez be traded.
I don't know.
We'll see.
But Andre Palante was, as he has been most of the season, solid.
You scatter seven hits over six and a third.
First run comes on that brain fart by of all people, Lars Dupar, who forgot how many outs there were.
And after realizing it, made an air and throw over the head of the cutoff man, which allowed Bregman to score.
And that tied the game up at one.
And I know, last year, it's like deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would say.
But rolls were reversed.
Last year, it was PCA, who did the same thing at Bush Stadium.
and we all clowned him for it.
Turn around his fair play.
So, Newt, you deserve all the smoke after that one.
And that just can't happen, especially from one of your veteran guys.
It shouldn't happen ever.
It shouldn't happen ever.
But it did.
Tied the game up.
Palante leaves the game with the tie still intact following the walk to Danesby,
Swanson, who then steals second base because just about everybody steals against
Dibon Herrera.
Soriano, who would come in.
he strikes out PCA, but then he uncorks a wild pitch.
And that was on ball four to Suzuki.
So now he got first and third.
Michael Bush slaps one to left field on a pitch.
It was well outside the zone.
It's not like Soriano missed over the heart of the plate
and Bush did something special there.
That's not a pitch that he's supposed to be hitting.
But give Bush credit, man.
He went out there and got it and laid it out there into left field,
gave the Cubs the lead.
Soriano then walks Bregman, but got out of the bases loaded jam.
So, you know, it was good to,
at least see him do that battle back, but not the most efficient of innings for one George Soriano.
JJ Weatherholt, though, like, you know, he's been struggling just like everybody else,
but he's rolling over everything right now.
Everything thrown at him these days.
It seems like he's hitting a ground ball to second base.
If he's got five at bats in a game, four of them are ground balls to the second
basement.
Like he's got to start looking towards left field again.
That's when he's at his best.
And I don't know how I'm sure his people have told him.
that it's not like he's not working on it. But in this situation, he's got a lefty, lefty.
And he stays back and launches that game tag solo home run to tied in the bottom of the
seven. So a huge clutch at bat. He's been really good against the Cubs so far this year.
And that obviously makes all of us Cardinal fans very, very happy.
Ryan Stanit comes in, works the eighth. Riley O'Brien got the ninth before Luis Gastalum
came on yet again in the 10th inning and gives up two more runs for the second consecutive game.
And I know people are upset and they're calling for his head.
They're like, this guy sucks.
What are we doing?
Why is he ending the 10th inning?
I get it.
Back to back games where he comes on in literally the most unenviable position
where you automatically have a runner on second, nobody out.
He's a rookie, for God's sake, had never pitched above AA until this year.
So he's taken his lumps and hopefully learning from them,
but have a little bit of grace for the key.
kid who is being thrown in very tough situations.
Okay?
You know, those are the types of situations that you bring closers into normally.
You know, guys that have a lot of strikeout and have a lot of experience with runners on.
And it's been guest stay loom instead.
And it hasn't worked the last couple times.
But again, we're learning right now, right?
This is the learning situation that is St. Louis Cardle's baseball at the time.
Pitching was not the issue here, though, overall.
You know, four runs over 10 innings against.
that offense, which is a top three offense, you know, that's nothing to be ashamed of.
The offense is still the real issue here. Yeah, they had 10 hits in this game, but they only
scored two runs. They go one for 12 with runners in scoring position. And in their 14 games since
the All-Star break, they have a combined six home runs and almost 500 at bats, which is
tying them for the Angels, at least last time I checked, this was last night, for the least
amount of home runs since the All-Star break. The offense just, it's got to do more. It just has to.
They got to figure it out.
And hopefully they will on the road where they've been a much better offense all around.
They do not hit well at Bush Stadium.
That's a problem.
You play half your games there.
So they got to figure something out on how to conjure up some offense when they're playing in front of the home crowd at Bush Stadium.
But on the road, they've been a very good offense.
So hopefully they'll be able to do that when they get to Toronto.
You know, other things in this game, you give them that run on the Newt Bar mistake.
You give out free bases in that seventh inning with walks.
by not being able to control the running game,
which has been a problem this year.
You get the wild pitch.
Wild pitches have been a problem this year.
And that's how you lose games to good teams like the Cups.
They dropped the five and five against Chicago on the year.
But more importantly, they're back to a game below 500 on the season.
And I really, really wish that they could get out of this year above 500,
at 500 or better.
That would be a success.
That would be this working this year.
And I hope that they're able to turn some things around.
with the trade deadline on the horizon, it appears that some changes are coming.
It's been announced that one of the Cardinals' top pitching prospects will make his
major league debut on Saturday in Toronto.
We'll talk about Quinn Matthews coming up next on Lockdown Cardinals.
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It was announced after the game last night that Quinn Matthews is coming up and he's going to make his highly anticipated major league debut on Saturday while the team is in Toronto facing the Blue Jays.
Now two years ago, if you're not familiar with the Quinn Matthews story, two years ago, Quinn was one of the biggest stories in the organization.
One of the biggest stories of minor league baseball, really got drafted in the fourth round out of Stanford, 2023 draft.
He was 10 and 4, 3.75 ERA and 19 games, 18 of those starts with Stanford.
Then in 2024, when he starts his pro career, he goes through all the levels in one season,
which is not normal.
Began an A ball at Palm Beach goes three and one with a 1.47 ERA.
Then he goes, and that's in six starts, gets promoted to high AP oria, three and one again,
2.68 ERA and seven starts.
Like, all right, moving on up, goes up to AA Springfield.
Two and one, 2.41 ERA and nine starts before finally getting promoted yet again to AAA Memphis,
which I was a little surprised they did,
but they wanted to see what he could do,
maybe give him a taste of the highest level of minor league baseball.
And he was a little bit gassed at the end of that season,
finishes O and Sue with AAA, 6.480RA and four starts.
Again, that's like the most he's ever pitched in a calendar year.
So to see him struggle a little bit when he got AAA,
it wasn't, I would say, a surprise.
But at the same time, you were like, okay, well,
That didn't end well.
And, you know, any golfer knows, like when you go to the driving range,
you want to end on a good one.
And to end with things not going so well at AAA,
probably wasn't, didn't leave the best taste at his mouth.
But for the season, combines to go 8 and 5, 2.76 ERA at a very impressive,
202 strikeouts in just 143 in a third innings pitch.
He got named the minor league pitching prospect of the year,
got the minor league debut of the year honors as well.
His star had never shined brighter than where he was.
So everybody was excited about.
about 2025, so was I. And that did not go well, did not go smooth at all. He would struggle with
a shoulder issue that put him on the shelf for a little while. Control issues really became a
thing, did not have control issues at all, really, in 2024. And then probably because of the
shoulder injury, things got a little wild for Quinn. He goes four and seven. Still a respectable
3.73 ERA, but the strikeouts fell to 119 and 99.
innings. Again, he's at AAA now, so he's facing better competition. But K per 9 to 12.7,
the previous year falls to 10.5. And the biggest issue, again, control, the walks per 9 jump from
3.1 to 6.7. That's disgustingly bad. The whip skyrocketed from 0.977 to 1.545. And no,
the AAA people didn't all of a sudden get incredible Tony Gwyn like batting eyes. Like he was just all
over the place. If you go back and you watch games, like he's, it's everywhere. Like, he just had
no idea where the ball was going at times. And we got a chance to see him at spring training
this year. And you can see the potential. Like, you understand why he's difficult to read. You know,
he's got a corky wind up, hides the ball very, very well. He's got a really good change up.
But the control issues, they continued this year, at least at the beginning of the season.
And at Memphis in April, he goes 0 and 2, 4.580 ERA and five starts,
28Ks, but 17 walks in 19 and 2 thirds innings.
In May, he goes one in one and five starts, the ERA at 5.85, 24 strikeouts,
16 walks again, though, in 20 innings.
So we're still kind of dealing with the same issues here.
You're getting the swing and miss.
You're seeing the strikeouts, but you're also seeing them putting a lot of free people
on base, which is never a good thing.
Things started to turn around for him when you got to the month of June.
3 and 0, 2.05 ERA and five starts.
His strikeouts go up to 31, but the walks, which is what we're keying in on here,
they drop significantly to 13 and 26 in the third innings.
And they continued to go well in July for Quinn when he goes 1 and 0, 1.04 ERA and 4 starts,
28 whiffs, and only six walks in 26 innings.
So whatever adjustments, whatever, whatever he figured out, it started working.
And he wasn't walking people anymore, which made him obviously,
way more efficient and the numbers show that.
Now it's time to see what he can do at the major league level.
And with the impending trade of Dustin May coming that is going to open up a rotation spot
that will be filled either by Matthews or Hunter Dobbins.
You know, Matthew Libertor is set to make his next start.
They've already announced that that, yeah, he's going to make another start despite
the struggles.
And I've said this before.
As much as I would love to see Matthew Libertory in the bullpen where he has found success
in his career, I just don't think the team.
is going to punt on them this year and do that right now.
Now maybe they do out of necessity,
but I think the idea is like,
dude, let's give him one full year
and let's see if he can work through this and figure it out.
But obviously, it's got to be in the back of everybody's mind.
We got guys who need to get starts as well.
You know, Dobbins deserves to be in the rotation.
If Quinn Matthews is something you want to see here at the end of the year
and legitimately face Major League batting,
you need to give them starts.
Like you can't, you're not going to throw him into the bullpen.
So it's something they're going to have to figure out.
And I don't know if this is just going to be a spot start for Quinn Matthews.
It could be.
He could get one and then go right back down to Memphis and they just let him right out the season there.
But we'll see.
We don't know how many trades are going to happen.
We don't know what's on the horizon for the Cardinals at the deadline here.
Blue Jays, though, as far as the matchup goes, they've been a massive disappointment this year
after reaching the World Series last year and almost pulling off that upset against the Dodgers.
but they are much better, a much better team against right-handers than they are against lefties.
Righties, they're hitting 253 against lefties.
They're hitting just 216.
So that is something that should play to the advantage of Matthews when we get to Saturday.
And he makes his major league debut.
So setting them up for some success in that first game, which I think is really smart.
Up next, we're going to do some cardinal confessions before we wrap things up here on Locked on Cardinals.
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Thanks again for making Lockdown, Cardinals, first listen of the day.
and thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network.
Time for Cardal Confessions.
This is where I read your thoughts and comments about the team.
And there's a lot of questions.
There's a lot of disdain for members of this organization right now.
First one, though, is a trade deadline question.
J.D., would you trade Burley straight up from Seattle's Gilbert, Kirby, Miller, or Hancock?
And if so, who plays first base next year?
Here's the thing.
I like Burley a lot.
Great clubhouse dude.
obviously a silver slugger winner last year.
He's been great this year.
Defensively, I think he's been strong at first.
Offensively, I think his numbers would be better if he didn't have to play at Bush Stadium.
But if you can get a premier starting pitcher, no matter what the team is,
you got to seriously consider it because it's one of the more difficult things to find.
Seattle just gave a bunch of money to Nailer, who's playing first base for them now.
so I doubt that they're interested in that kind of a deal,
but you could always put Blaze Jordan over at first base,
or maybe Yvonne Herrera, if he's still with the team,
he learns how to play there.
I believe Ivan Herrera is a pretty good athlete.
You've seen him play some left field before.
You've been able to move Wilson-Kittreras to first base in the past.
Why not?
Why not give it a chance?
You know, that's something I'd be looking into
because I just don't see Yvon Herrera being behind the plate
for the St. Louis Cardinals for that much longer.
I think there's just better options that are back there.
And he just hasn't shown me enough.
And I know it's only been one full year of being a catcher,
but he's also only catching a couple days a week.
This is not a guy that's catching four or five times a week.
And there's a reason for that.
And part of it is that he is not very good at throwing runners out.
When you can't control the running game,
that's a big disadvantage for you.
And I think that's something that has to be remedied.
but that would be something that you can come up with.
But you could also find guys.
Like there have been for Spaceman free agents
that you could find somebody to put over there
if you wanted to do that free agency as well.
That's two games in a row that Gastalum gave the lead to Chicago.
Today's game was on Ali.
Also tell Newpar to get his head out of his arse,
allowing a run, runner tagging from second to score.
Yeah, I couldn't believe it.
When it happened, I was like, no, no.
You know, there are scoreboards all over the,
stadium with the out showing. I don't know how that happens. And after every play,
you'll see the outfielders and the infielders. They all put up how many outs are they?
One out, one down, two down. They remind each other. And it blows by mind that stuff like that
actually happens at the big league level or any level of baseball. Because literally you're talking
all the time, one down, two down, like you're doing it after every out. You'll see it all the time. So
very frustrating for something as dumb as forgetting the amount of outs there are still
at left in the inning for that to happen. And when a veteran does it, it's even more infuriating.
As far as the gas stay loom goes, again, he's a kid, he's learning on the job.
I'm willing to be a little bit patient with him as he comes to the big leagues for the first
time. Again, hadn't pitched above AA until this year. Pitching in those 10th inning spots,
I mean, that's got to suck big time to go out there.
have somebody on base and you're a rookie and you're facing the Cubs who again one of the best
offenses in baseball like that's not an easy spot to be put in and to do it to them back to back
days it's either Ali has a lot of faith in him or Ali is like look you need to get used to
situations like this because we want to be able to rely on you for the rest of this year and
moving forward in your career to get out of spots like this and again this is the season where
you know, now we're at a point where the playoffs are, yeah, we're on the outside looking in.
So it's time to start learning lessons with younger guys.
And so I kind of get it.
At the same time, I'm like, I want to beat the Cubs.
So I get your frustration there.
New Bar has no upside.
It needs to be traded for a bag of sunflower seeds.
I think most teams would accept that trade.
If you could trade seeds for Lars Newpar, you do that.
And we've hit on the new bar stuff plenty over the years.
I respect the guy.
Love the energy.
I know he's a good ball player.
his OPS plus over his career is above league average.
But if someone is willing to offer something decent for him,
I'm not going to complain if he gets traded.
You know, I would like to see Joshua Bayos up on this team.
There are other avenues to go with in the future that don't include Lars Newpar.
And I think personally, he'd be an excellent addition to a playoff team.
Like if I had a roster and was in need of a left-handed bat,
I would sign up in a heartbeat to get a large new bar.
just because I know he can play all three positions in the outfield.
I know he's got a good eye.
He's going to work counts.
He doesn't have the power that, you know, many thought that he might achieve.
But I just, he takes very professional at bats and I think he'd be a good piece.
He's not going to somebody that you're just going to plug in and he's going to be your,
your number one dude starting in a position day in and day out for a playoff contender.
But he'd be a really nice piece for somebody who's in need of a left-hand bat.
It seems like a lot of people are in need of right-handed bats.
though, so I don't know what the market for me is actually going to be.
They need to fire the manager.
The season is over.
I know it's only July, but the season is over.
Ollie got an extension, my man.
They believe he's the guy that best suits this transition period.
So do not get your hopes up that he will go anywhere.
Personally, I think he's done a pretty good job,
considering they traded his starting first and third baseman and his best starting
pitcher, barely signed anyone of significance of this offseason to help this roster.
youngest roster in the league, at least at one point.
I don't know if they still are or not.
And he knew it was going to be tough.
And I was thrilled to see them, you know, exceed expectations in the first half.
And it kind of gave us as fans some false hope that way, wait a second.
Maybe we're actually a playoff team.
And I think we're learning that they're, they're much better than anybody thought they
were going to be, but they're not there yet.
They're not there yet.
and to add at the trade deadline this year instead of trading away assets to add instead would be a mistake
because you are building for what they deem the winning window, which is 2027, 2028,
2029. That's when they think their window of being back to being the Cardinals where you used to is going to be.
And you're not going to blow that up and start trading away guys that you think are going to be huge pieces in that window
to help you limp across the finish line and just barely make the playoffs in 2026.
So I just hope, again, I really thought, I shouldn't say I thought,
I really hope that they're able to stay either at 500 or at least better than 500.
That would be impressive to me, considering what this season was about.
You're welcome, Cubs.
Good God, this team has choked since you all start breaking Walker.
Yay, home run derby champ.
Woohoo.
Has it done anything since.
It's been a tough go for Jordan.
He's hitting, what, 196, no dingers, four ribby, 16 strikeouts since the break.
But, you know, it's not just on him.
He's not the only one.
JJ had the big knock on Thursday, but hitting 216 since the break.
Newts at 195 with just three RBIs.
Herrera starting to heat up.
But overall, since the break, 232, 15 strikeouts.
Nathan Church is a ghost out there offensively at 121.
The Lasquez hitting just 77.
I know unlimited plate appearances, so it's hard to knock a guy.
who's coming off the bench all the time, but no RBIs either.
For means at 182, crooks at 190, Pahez is batting zero.
Again, limited at bats, I understand that, but still, zero.
It's been ugly for a lot of guys.
So again, maybe they all got cold together.
Maybe they all get hot together at the same time and go on some tear.
Better place to do it is not at Bush Stadium.
So going on the road and going to different ballparks,
where offense is a little bit easier to come by, can't hurt.
At least I hope it doesn't hurt.
So we'll see how they fare in Toronto tonight and over the weekend.
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