Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - The St. Louis Cardinals Trade of Sonny Gray To Boston JOLTS MLB — Experts GRADE the SHOCKING move!
Episode Date: November 26, 2025St. Louis Cardinals ignite a bold rebuild with the blockbuster Sonny Gray trade to the Boston Red Sox. Will emerging arms Richard Fitts and Brandon Clarke anchor the next great rotation, or did the Ca...rdinals pay too steep a price by eating $20 million to move their veteran ace?0:00 - Sonny Gray Trade Breakdown11:15 - National Trade Grades & Analysis22:10 - Cardinals Fan ReactionsFollow & 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/Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIOFollow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_CardinalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Sunny Gray's blockbuster move to the Red Sox has sent shockwaves across baseball.
Today, we break down the trade grades, fan reactions, and hidden consequences that could shape the St. Louis Cardinals' future.
You are locked on Cardinals.
Your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network, your team's every day.
Hey, there, Cardinals fans. I'm J.D. Hafford, a former national radio sports anchor,
born and raised in St. Louis and a lifetime Cardinals fan.
Welcome to Locked on Cardinals.
part of the Lockdown Podcast Network.
Now the number one sports podcast network.
Thank you to our everydayers for continuing to be here with us.
And for those of you who are new, welcome, and I do hope that you enjoy the content.
This is a show serving, Cardinal Nation and giving you all the info about the birds on the bat.
Today's episode brought to you by fan.
Oh, right now new customers can bet just $5.
And if you bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app down on the app today.
On today's show, we're going to get some of your reactions as the fans to,
yesterday's big trade involving Sunny Gray going to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for
pitchers Richard Fitz and Brandon Clark. I'll share with you what a lot of the trade grades
are going to be, what I think the future is going to be as far as like who's going to be next
to go off the Cardinals roster. But let's start with those ever popular trade grades,
which is always something that it's hard to judge in my opinion because you have to give
trades a chance to play out before you can really look at it and decide whether it was a good
or a bad deal. I mean, how many times have you looked at a trade? And of course, we're all going
to have like an immediate reaction to it. You know, somebody, you're going to feel one way or
another just right off the bat. You know, people yesterday, family members, we're like, because I have
family members who are Red Sox fans as well as Cardinal fans, obviously, and most of them are Cardinal fans.
but my nephews and stuff because my family lived in Boston for a little while.
Anyway, but they had a reaction like, oh, my gosh, we don't want Sunny Gray.
What is this?
Whereas the Cardinal fan side are like, oh, my gosh, we're losing Sunny Gray.
This is terrible.
It's going to happen, right?
I mean, you got to wait until things play out.
And, you know, maybe you have one reaction at the beginning and then you change your mind later on.
The deal that comes to mind where I was like that was the gym.
Edmonds for David Fries deal. At first you have Edmonds, you know, this guy that's been insane
for you for a very long time. One of your MB3 perennial gold glove winner helped you win championships
and you move him along for a minor league third baseman. What? And at first glance,
you're like, what is this? But in the end, David Fries ends up being a key piece to your championship
team later on down the road.
It's arguably the biggest home running Cardinals history.
And Jimmy Ball game ended up bouncing around to the Cubs, the Brewers, and the Reds before
hanging up his cleats.
So it worked out wonderful.
But at the time, you're like, oh, man, we're losing Jim Edmonds.
But in the end, it worked out.
So we won't know how well this trade works out until a couple of years down the line.
But that doesn't stop folks from giving out trade grades on these things right away,
which is fine because it's fun.
It's entertaining.
I like to hear what other people's opinions are,
what people are saying around the league and keep of mind that since,
you know,
Sunny Gray is the big name that's moving here.
Richard Fitz and Brandon Clark are not the big names,
although they're the ones that we're going to focus on moving forward here shortly,
but Sunny Gray is the big name.
So these grades are based mostly on Boston's point of view for a lot of it,
but also give thoughts on what the Cardinal
got in return. So let's start with ESPN, who gave the trade a B-plus for Heimbloom and
company saying Gray did throw his three fastball variants, 53% of the time. So maybe the Red Sox
suggests a different pitch mix. The four-seamer, while it gives him the one pitch,
Gray throws up in the zone, has been hammered two years in a row now, but was still the pitch
he threw most often in 2025. Overall, Gray plugs a big hole without the Red Sox paying
a long-term contract. And the Red Sox didn't give up anybody who projected to be an impact player
for them in 2026, who and didn't believe that they overpaid with Kylie McDaniel,
raiding Clark is the number nine prospect in Boston system back in August. And while there's
obvious upside, if everything comes together, he's not close to the majors. And the profile
screams reliever risk. So they aren't huge on what the cardals got in return there.
But they think that B plus overall, especially for the Boston side of things.
Now, USA Today gave it a B grade for Boston, but a B plus for the Cardinals,
where they gave off two grades in this one.
So USA Today says, Gray is aging, but he's still a solid veteran starter,
who has won 27 games over the past two seasons.
And who can still have the potential to be a sub four ERA.
Ray pitcher. He'll lead up some innings too. They didn't break the bank and get an upgrade in the
rotation. Seems solid if unspectacular. Plus the Cardinals are paying some money for Gray, which
helps. Fitz, and this is where they go into the Cardinals side of things, had just an okay
full year for the Sox with the 5 ERA and 10 starts, but he's young and there's potential there.
It seems that Clark is among the top five prospects for the for the Sox. So that's a really good
return there. The athletic. They actually had two people chime in on this one. Chad Jennings was the
first one gave it an A minus for Boston and an A grade for the Cardinals, saying the Red Sox are ready to win.
And among their most glaring short-term needs, a problem that already hurt them in the playoffs this season was a number two starter behind Garrett Crochet.
Gray fills that void offering experience and strikeouts without issuing a ton of walks.
He's a rental and not especially cheap, even with the Cardinals covering roughly half of his salary.
But he fits the moment and positions the Red Sox as a team committed to winning.
The Cardinals, on the other hand, are where the Red Sox were five years ago.
They're resetting, and another year of Gray would have been a waste.
They're paying down his enormous salary, but are getting two big arms in return,
one of whom in Fitz, they can immediately move into Gray's rotation spot.
Fitz isn't an ace, but he is a solid option with the raw stuff to potentially fall back
into a multi-inning relief role.
Clark is farther away, but offers greater upside.
and again, has a solid floor as a hard-throwing reliever.
Two big arms are a quality return for an overpaid rental.
So some harsh words there for what Sunny Gray is.
And the other person for the athletic, Zach Myzel, gave it a B-plus grade for both teams,
saying that Sunny just turned 36 posted his highest DRA since 2018.
A peek under the hood, though, suggests there's nothing to a long.
farming. Yeah, his hit rate increased to about one per inning. Again, his highest mark in seven
years, but he still doesn't walk anyone. He was one of 12 pitchers with 200 strikeouts. His FIP of
3.39 alleviates some of the concern with his 4.280 RA. You just need him to keep the ball in
Fenway Park. His 25 home runs allowed were a career high. His hard stuff gets whacked. Hitters
logged a 585 slugging percentage against his fastball, and that's why he only throws at about 22% of the
time. This sweeper is awesome. Hitters at a 239 sluggy percentage and a 42.3%, 42.3% whiff rate against it.
Just throw that, man. His curveball still pretty good, though. And that's something that we've said
many times here at Locktown Cardinals that, you know, Sunny Gray's biggest problem since he's
come to the Cardinals is just keeping the ball in the ballpark. And it was something that he did really,
really well when he was with the Minnesota twins and it doubled and tripled in the next in the two
years that he was with St. Louis. So that was a problem. The long ball kept burning him.
Myzel continues here saying that as for the Cardinals, what were they going to do with a 36 year old
starter anyway? They've been bracing everyone for a rebuild and they just forked over $20 million
to jump started. Fitz can slide right into their rotation and Bloom can start daydreaming
about making its old organization regret bailing on Clark.
These teams were a great match, and it's entirely possible that both sides wind up pleased,
just at drastically different times.
The move is for the future.
What I like about the trade, and it's what I was hoping they would do in a deal with
Sunny Gray, was that they could get somebody that can jump right into the rotation already,
which is what Richard Fitz does, or Dick Fitz, as everyone.
everybody wants to call him. Did Boston have as much fun with this guy's name as we are already?
Like, it's fantastic. Like, I've gotten so many texts and so many jokes sent to me. And it seems to be
one of the things that Cardinal fans are more excited about. Not that he's had a pretty good career in
the minors and he's young and has a lot of talent, but he's got a fun name that we can make jokes about
with Richard Fitz.
But that was one thing that I definitely wanted.
I needed somebody that could go into the rotation this year because they're very thin.
So they needed somebody like that.
And I like the fact that they got a high, you know, big ceiling prospect.
Do we know if he's going to work out or not?
No, we got no idea.
It's 22 years old.
Clearly he's had some issues already.
But it's something that you're willing to take a chance on just so you can clear some
money and move on.
and that's what they've done here.
So I don't really have an issue with the trade.
They got the two things that I wanted them to get.
We knew they were going to have to eat some money.
Not a shocker.
People who are upset that they're spending $20 million,
it's not your money.
What do you care?
Like they wanted to get rid of them.
He wanted to go.
That's what happened.
I've got more trade grades.
A couple more of these that I want to get to that includes another A grade
for the Cardinals return. Plus, we'll get to the fan reactions as well, because not everybody is,
as pleased as some of the experts are with what the Cardinals got and with this trade just in general.
So we'll get into all that coming up next on Lockedown 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. Sometimes live, it just takes over. You've got a lot going on.
You know, it's Thanksgiving time now. So a lot of family commitments that you're going to have to make.
could cause you to miss the start of one of the games on Thanksgiving Day or any of the NBA games in the future.
And with Fandall's live bets, it's not a problem because you can jump right into the action on everything from who's going to score next to fourth quarter comebacks.
Plus, if you're feeling a little saucy, you can even combine your live bets into a same game play play.
For a shot at what we all want, which is a bigger payout, my money, my money.
Live bets is really a lot of fun.
It's where it's at when you're hanging out with your friends or your friends.
your family watching the games this week. You all have those moments where you all think you know
what the teams are going to do next. Put that knowledge, put that hunch on the line and use it
to cash in with Fandall. Right now Fandall is giving new customers $300 in bonus vets when your first
$5 bet wins. So head to Fandall.com to sign up and play your game with Fandle, the official
sports betting partner of the NBA. Thanks for making locks on Cardinals for first list in every day.
Thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network.
You guys rock.
If you enjoy daily Cardinals content, you can follow the podcast on X at L1 underscore Cardinals.
We're available on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Lockdown Cardinals as well.
We're scrolling through some of the national trade grades for the Cardinals with their deal with the Boston Red Sox,
sunny gray going to them, prospects and Richard Fitz coming back.
I should say prospects.
They're both kind of prospects, right?
like Richard Fitz is not some some wily veteran he's 25 so two prospects coming back really from the
Boston Red Sox up next we've got let's see baseball America who did not give a trade grade.
They didn't actually put like a letter grade down but they had some thoughts and things to say about
the Cardo's new acquisitions first talking about Brandon Clark which is the guy that most people
want to talk about. He's the guy that has got the triple digit fastball, the wipe out,
Slider, young, exciting arm.
Baseball America says, Brandon Clark blew away scouts in the Red Sox spring breakout game
and on the backfields in minor league spring training.
After dominating the low A Carolina League to begin the season, Clark was promoted to high
A Greenville.
There he struggled with command and help.
Clark did only one stint on the injured list in 25, but he missed a month at two different
points in the season.
He was shut down in May and didn't return until the end of June.
His season ended on August 15th when the Red Sox.
placed him on the EIL with recurring blister issues,
which was something that Heim Bloom was asked about in his press conference yesterday.
I think it was Derek Gould that asked the question about it from SEL today.
And, you know, Hime was like, yeah, you know,
it's something that when people have these kind of pitches and this kind of ability,
you know, things like blister issues pop up.
And it's something that we have to learn to deal with and figure out a way to avoid them.
So Clark, this is back to baseball America, by the way. Clark possesses some of the best power stuff in the miners.
He mixes both four seam and two seam fastballs with the two seamer, the better of the two.
He generates outlier velocity on both sitting 96, 98, and touching 100 at peak.
Clark's best pitch is an upper 80 sweeper with one of the most outlier combinations of velocity and movement among the sweeper genre.
There are major questions around Clark's strike throwing and durability, making him a likely
reliever long term. Despite this, his raw traits are so exciting, it would be a fool's
errand to ride off his ability to start. And I mentioned this yesterday that he might
like sound like when you're talking about two awesome pitches and then a lot of after that,
that he sounds like he's got the makeup of like an outstanding reliever. But
why would you immediately?
push him into that role. You will try him as a starter and see if you can get more mileage out of him
that way before making that switch to just a relief role. Baseball America continues here over the last
two seasons talking about fits now. Fitz has spent a large part of his year in the majors. He was
shut down in August with armed neuritis, the rare condition affected nerves around Fitz
biceps and avoided any damage to his UCL. The lack of durability has been a concern for
fits as he was held to a total of 75 innings this season. When healthy, Fitz shows a back-in
starter's profile with good enough stuff for his pitch mix to play up if he's moved to the
bullpen long term. He did a good job diversifying his options for generating outs in 25 as he drove
more groundball contact than at any point in his career after introducing a sinker. Mix is a four-seem
fastball that sits 95-97 with a sinker in the 94-96 range, upper 80s slider, lower 80s
curveball and a rarely used change up, FITS should factor into the Cardinals'
rotation plans for the upcoming season.
So they're not the only ones that mention that Fitz is no guarantee that he stays
in the rotation later on in his career.
For 2026, he's going to be in the rotation,
unless the Cardinals end up getting, you know,
another starter in the free agent market and then a trade that brings in another one,
he's going to be in the starting rotation this year.
They didn't acquire him to go down there and be a long,
you know, long relief guy.
That's not the idea.
One last one here.
This one from CBS, who gave the Cardinals an A grade,
saying that Fitz 26 in a matter of weeks is compiled,
it was going to be 26 in a matter of weeks.
Some of the writing on these things are awful.
Anyway, Fitz, who will be 26 in a matter of weeks,
has compiled the 3.97 ERA and a 105.
ERA plus and a 2.13 strikeout to walk ratio in 15 big league appearances over the past two seasons.
His 2025 campaign was ravaged by injury. First, he missed more than a month after straining a
pectoral muscle. Then following his return to the majors, he had his season end after experiencing
neuritis and his throwing arm. I believe I'm saying it the right way, neuritis, I think so.
If I'm not, you can make fun of me in the comments. I'm not a doctor. So much of pitching revolves around
keeping batters honest and creating tough optical angles.
Fitz has both dynamics working in his favor.
He threw five pitches at least 9% of the time last season,
and all of them graded as average or better in the eyes of the analytic models.
We'll get a picture of him back up here.
That group includes a mid-90s fastball and a sweeper that in a smaller sample generated a 40% whiff rate.
Fitz marries that brought arsenal to an interesting release point.
He ranked in the 70th percentile in extension or distance.
from the pitcher's rubber to release.
Yet his higher arm angle enables his pitches to a steeper angle to them or gives the
enables his pitches a steeper angle to them than what is typical for pitchers to get a similar
distance down the mount.
Provided fits is healthy.
Come this spring, he ought to spend considerable time in St. Louis's rotation.
Injury risk aside, he's the stable portion of the return that's ready to provide
immediate production.
The other pitcher is Clark, Brandon Clark, the proverbial.
long-term moonshot who will test the Cardinals new player development staff.
Clark is 22 split last season between A ball affiliates and 14 total appearances,
managed a 4.03 ERA and a 2.22 strikeout to walk ratio, albeit while averaging more than
six walks per nine innings, his arsenal includes a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and
a devastating breaking ball. His low release point fits the modern preference. The drawback is
that Clark's arm action requires a long sweeping stroke and the kind of elbow
creep that may always impact his command and his help.
If the Cardinals can help him make any progress with his location,
he could turn this into a lop-sided swap.
So, an A return there for the Cardinals, according to CBS.
I was also watching videos.
Ken Rosenthal came on and, you know, he talked about both sides where, you know,
he likes that Boston got Sunny Gray is very much skeptical.
on whether or not he is that number two guy that should be sliding behind Garrett Crochet.
He thinks maybe they still look and find somebody else on the market to really be the number two.
And then Gray can be their number three.
And then he thinks they'd be in business.
Gabby from Locked on Red Sox kind of has the same thoughts.
Likes that Sonny gets the strikeouts.
Obviously not a fan of the home run ball, but likes the deal in general,
but is still hoping that the Red Sox will go out and grab.
somebody that's another tier above what Sunny Gray is right now to be the number two behind
crochet and then Sunny be the number three to really give them a top of the line trio.
But Rosenthal also like the deal for the Cardinals.
He likes the upside of Clark, thinks Fitz is going to be a nice, I hate to say it this way,
but Fitz is going to be a nice fit for the Cardinals rotation.
He's young.
He trusts Time Bloom and, you know, thinks that the Cardinals did a good job.
So overall, I mean, and I've been going through a lot of these,
I haven't heard a lot of people talk negatively about what the Cardinals got in return.
There's risk.
There is risk involved.
There's risk involved in every trade.
Anytime you get a young arm, we don't know what's going to happen.
Like any of these guys' arms could blow out at any moment, we don't know.
And the fact that both of them have dealt with some sort of injuries already,
obviously that's a little more risk involved there.
But Heinbloom said it was the best offer.
got, Sonny Gray was willing to wave his trade, is no trade clause, and they were able to work
something out. So overall, it seems pretty, pretty positive. But just because the experts
seem to like the deal, doesn't mean that the fans, the Cardinal fans, our fans,
are all that thrilled about what just went down. I'm going to share some of those reactions coming
up next on Locked on Cardinals. Thanks for making Locktown Cardinals your first list every day for your
second list and check out Locked on MLB hosted by my guy Sully brings you a daily blend of humor
and baseball throughout the offseason you can find locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen
to your favorite podcast. All right, time for the Cardinal Confessions where I read your thoughts.
The Cardinal fans, Cardinal Nation, the ones who are bold enough and have enough courage to
actually write in and let their thoughts be published, if you will. Now I don't call you out by name
because I don't need people yelling at you.
That's not what this is for.
But I love getting the reactions.
And when it comes to hot topics and subjects that are going on,
I want to know what you're thinking.
And the trade on Sunday with Sunny Gray is obviously the biggest topic right now.
Flooded my inbox.
And like I said, the experts seem to be pretty cool with what the Cardinals got.
You know, there's risk.
They like that Boston got sunny, but they understand why.
That's kind of risky too.
you know, is he going to be good enough for them?
But not everyone is chipper about the deal or as chipper about the deal as the national media is.
So let's go through a couple of these.
First one says, had me on the prospects, lost me on the $20 million.
Would have preferred a third name in the deal.
Gray isn't that busted for the Cardinals to eat that much salary.
I'm surprised on the money going back with only two prospects to show for it.
Deep breath.
Trust the process, trust the process.
All right.
So I mentioned the $20 million earlier.
It's not our money.
There's no salary cap.
Who cares?
You were going to pay him $35 million.
Now you only got to pay him $20,
although he's not going to pitch for you,
but you did get a pitcher in return
and you get a prospect with a lot of upside.
But I don't get, you know,
when it comes to like football and stuff like that
where there are salary caps,
obviously with the blues and the NHL,
I worry about the money more because you only have so much that you can spend.
You spend whatever you want in baseball.
So I'm not so worried about the money side of things.
But I see why it bugs people.
I get it.
But I just wouldn't let it bother me that much.
Another one starts off with the money saying we're still paying 20 million of a salary.
This is a poop show of a trade.
And I'm ready to fire bloom right now.
I mean, we drafted a closer in the first round of the MLB draft.
He's talking about Liam Doyle, then traded a.
an ace for basically a bag of balls, but maybe a couple big league
innings from future relievers.
I mean, the ceiling for one of these prospects is a five-hole rotation guy.
Please fire this man before we're two years into his rebuild.
So not trusting the process that Heim Bloom has set in motion here.
I'm willing to give Heim the benefit of the doubt.
You know, his job is to rebuild this farm system and at the same time remain competitive
at the major league level.
but rebuilding the farm system is number one.
And that's what he's done.
He's gotten two prospects in exchange for an older veteran at age 36
that didn't really want to be in St. Louis anymore.
Not because there's something wrong with St. Louis, the city.
Not that he disliked the Cardinals,
but he wants to go somewhere to win.
So why would you keep that guy around?
And what good is he doing?
Like the last two years, they haven't won anything.
They haven't one squat with Sunny Gray there.
What's the point? Another one says they sent his butt and 21 million. F that.
I will burn all my lifelong cardals memorabilia, except for the baseball.
I have signed by Red Shandy's a good call.
That's a good one to keep.
If they get rid of Brennan Donovan and Alec Berluson, that's the secondary part.
He's going to burn all of his stuff except for the baseball.
If they get rid of Donnie and Alec Berluson, I don't give a poop how much they're worth to
another team.
They should be worth everything to our team.
they don't have to trade Donovan and Burleson.
So I don't think Burley is going anywhere.
Donovan, it might happen.
It might happen.
So will you only burn half of it if just one of them goes?
The Cardinals are headed for a horrible demise.
If they don't hold on to two of the hardest working blue-collar players in the MLB,
you're the one with the checkbook.
Your great grandchildren are going to prosper or ask people if they like fries with that,
depending upon where you go with this team,
the most loyal fan base in MLB is tired of it.
Yeah, but as I've said before,
like if you want,
you don't want to go through the rebuild,
and nobody wants to do that, really.
But the other option is just putting band-aids on the problems, right?
And the problem is you need to grow your own stars,
and you need to be able to take advantage of a stellar,
farm system to use not only for your own team, but as trade pieces to go get bigger pieces
later on down the road. It's how they used to do it. And that's where things faltered under the
final years of John Moseilock is that the farm system was not very good. And then the guys that
they did bring up that they thought were going to be good have not been very good. Hence,
where we are at this day and age. These are getting angrier, by the way. Looks like the
pirates won't be in last place this year. Cardinals trade.
real pitcher for Bo Sox trash pitchers. Great way to rebuild. This is not a good deal for St. Louis.
Sunny Gray will win the Sight Young Award in Boston next year. I might want to go to Fandall and put
some money on that one. If you feel that strongly about, because it's in all caps, by the way.
Do you feel that strongly about that? I can't imagine the odds are great for Sunny Gray to win that.
But hey, take advantage. Let's do one more. Fits is Major League ready. Clark looks like crap.
He has injury issues and is wild with his control.
Lots of hit by pitches and wild pitches.
Not a good trade, but I get it.
Dimwit wanted to remove salary.
Let's hope they get more for Donovan.
Now, they aren't all like this,
but I wanted to give you a taste of what some of the reactions were.
I would say the majority of the comments I got about the deal,
people understood.
People understood why it's happening.
They see the upside in Fitz and Clark,
but I think more than anything,
it really is more of a reality,
check for some fans that this is going to be a rebuild and this is going to take a couple years
before we get back to where you want to be. Some fans, I think we're still holding out hope
that the Cardinals would hang on to Sunny and have him lead the young staff moving forward this
year. But like I mentioned, Sunny was clearly ready to move on. You could tell at the end of last
season, he was like, you know, I came here to win and we're not doing that. So yeah, I'm kind of open
to moving on. He didn't want to be a part of a Reveld. I don't blame him to his choice,
his career. He wants to win, waive the no trade clause to do it. Keep your thoughts and comments
coming. We're going to continue to monitor the trade situation with the team because they surely
aren't done yet. Who's next to go? In my opinion, they got to get whatever they are going to do
with Nolan Aronado out of the way and get that done first. That's got to be the next domino in my eyes
just because that involves the money. How much are they going to eat? Which will
let you know what's left over to do whatever Heinblum wants to do at the major league level.
It would also involve opening up a spot on the infield.
Then you can start fielding your calls for Nolan Gorman and Brendan Donovan,
although saw today that Katie Wu from the athletic posted that the Cardinals do not need
to trade Donovan and will do so only if they are blown away by an offer.
That according to a team source, she also reminded folks that there is a lot of interest in him.
So to me, that means that a much better package could and should be in the works and coming back to the Cardinals in exchange for Brendan Donovan compared to what they just got for Sunny Gray.
Sunny Gray was owed a lot of money.
He's older.
He's not under contract after this year.
It's got to be a mutual thing.
So Donovan's in a different boat.
He's also an everyday player.
he's much younger.
Finalist for the Silver Slugger Award this past year.
He's won a gold glove.
He can do a number of different things.
The package is going to be a lot bigger and a lot better in return for Brendan Donovan.
But they don't have to trade them.
They don't have to.
But if they get blown away from a deal,
and that's what Katie Warren is like the way the interest has been and what she's hearing,
a lot of people are after him, which means good deal for the Cardinals should be coming our way if it happens.
So more to come for sure.
Once again, die hard too.
Tis the season.
Comes to mind when they asked John McLean
if this is what he expected
and he just shakes his head and says,
nope, this is only the beginning.
Thanks for making Lockton Cardinals.
First listen every day.
If you haven't already, give us a follow on X at L.O underscore Cardinals at a JD Sports
Radio, TikTok and Instagram at Lockton Cardinals.
Like, subscribe on YouTube and 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 Locktown Cardinals.
