Locked On Cardinals - Daily Podcast On The St. Louis Cardinals - Trick or Treat

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

- Cardinals Decline The Club Options On Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn And Keynan Middleton - Trick or Treat - Infielders - Outfielders - Pitching Staff Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms… 🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSTLCardinals?sid=YouTube Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More 🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLB Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! PrizePicks Download the app today and use code LOCKEDONMLB to win $50 instantly when you play your first $5 lineup. PrizePicks. Run Your Game. Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONMLB Gametime Download 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. FanDuel You can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) #ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The St. Louis Cardinals make a decision on Kyle Gibson and others. Plus, on this Halloween edition of the show, we decide who were the tricks and who were the treats for the Cardinals in 2024. You are Locked-on Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast, part of the Locked-On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey, their Cardinals fans. I'm Jady Haford and I'm a National Radio Sports anchor. Born and raised in the Lou and a lifetime Cardinals fan. and I'm your host for Locktown Cardinals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, covering your team every day, even on Halloween. You can follow me on Twitter X at JD Sports Radio.

You can follow the podcast at LO underscore Cardinals. I want to thank those of you who make Locktown Cardinals your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever we get your podcast. You can also find us on YouTube. 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 brought to you by GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account, use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase.

All right, happy Halloween to everyone. I hope you all get the candies that you wanted and enjoy what is easily my favorite holiday out of all of them. Yes, I enjoy Halloween even more than Christmas or New Year's or Fourth of July. Something about dressing up in costumes and having a good time. It's just something I grew up with by family and stuff. they take Halloween very seriously. So I enjoy it. Poll question is up right now on Twitter X,

which chocolates are the best? Reese's pumpkins, Hershey bars, Kit Katz or Twix. Make your choice. Hard to go against Reese's pumpkins, but I like all of them. Those are the four we're handing out at the house this year. So I thought those were the ones that we could go with.

But I'm sure there's other ones. Feel free to ride in your favorites, whether it's like Snickers or Butterfingers or Milky Way. go ahead and put those in the comments. And I know we got a lot of them out there. There's a ton of them. Let's get the business stuff out of way first, though. Let's talk about some Cardinal baseball.

According to STL Today.com's Derek Gould, the Cardinals have to climb the options on pitchers, Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, and Keenan Middleton. This is no surprise. This is something that we all expected. In Gould's article, he says the job those daylock said that the team seeks maximum flexibility and added that the Cardinals aren't closing the door to further discussions with any of the three players. Now, the team will have to pay their $1 million buyouts,

but Gibson's club option was worth $12 million. Linz was worth $11 million. Keenan Middleton was $6 million. So we're talking about after you do the $3 million payouts, we're talking about a savings of $27 million. So nothing to sneeze at, specifically for a team that is trying to cut costs. Okay. We know they're moving on for Paul Goldschmidt. Don't want to pay his salary anymore. You've got these savings right here. These were easy cuts. These were easy cuts to make. Now as gold mentions, it doesn't mean they can't try to sign them to smaller deals.

And there's been a lot of discussion about which one of these guys, if any of them, if they decided to try to bring them back, which one would make the most sense. Kyle Gibson is the one that most people have pointed their finger at is the one that they might want to try to bring back. Not that Lynn didn't do a solid job last year when healthy, but Gibson was a rock, man. and he made 30 starts, which marked the eighth time in his 12-year career that he's made 30 or more starts in a season. The other four included the COVID year. So we're going to throw that one out because nobody made that many starts. He made 29 starts in 2017.

So we fell just one short then 25 and 2016 and then 10 in his rookie year back in 2013. Kyle Gibson's been a pretty reliable guy his whole career. Nothing great, but not anything horrible either. You know, there are going to be those games where he gives up seven runs and it does happen. But last year he was 8 and 8 with a 4.24 ERA with an ERA plus of 90s right there in the middle of the road. One of those veteran guys at the back end of the rotation that you can trust to take the ball every fifth day. July and August were his toughest months. Combines to go three and three in those months, ERA was over five at 5.40.

But in the other four months of the season, the ERA for Kyle Gibson was below. low four in all of them. And if he wants to be with the Cardinals, then he probably can be. They're just not going to give him $12 million to do it. Gould says Gibson, who turned 37 this past week, expressed an interest in returning to the Cardinals for the 2025 season. He makes his offseason home in the St. Louis area. And this past week, he helped raise more than $40,000 for Franklin County School Meals program at a charity event that teammate Paul Goldschmidt and former Cardinals, Kyle McClellan, and Brad Thompson attended. And I know many fans want the team to just clean house.

Like don't dilly-dally. If you're going to, if you're going to get rid of all these guys, then just do it all, right? Clean them all out and just go with the kids. But you're still going to need some veterans. Like not every one of these young guys that you bring up is going to work out or is going to stay healthy. Like there's going to be issues. And so you kind of need a guy like.

Kyle Gibson. It's kind of be, you know, on the back burner here just in case things don't go the way you want them to. You've still got Miles Michaelis. You've still got Stephen Matt's. You've still got Eric Fetty on the roster and penciled in for rotation spots. Sunny Gray is still a Cardinal for now. So it will depend on if any of those guys get moved. And if they don't, then there's really no need to sign a Kyle Gibson for anything because you've also got. Michael McGreevy and Andre Palante and maybe Quinn Matthews or a Gordy Grecepho or a Zach Thompson ready to roll for much, much cheaper. But if they trade any of Michaelis, Matt, Fettie, or Gray, then maybe a spot opens up for Kyle Gibson. Kind of depends on what other teams, you know, are going to be after him. How popular will his name be in free agency this year? I think there's plenty of teams that would be interested in having a Kyle Gibson at the back.

end of their rotation. I don't see all that much wrong with the guy. Depends on how much money he wants, right? You know, that's another thing. Gould says that Len intends to pitch next year and that Middleton, who missed all of this past season with an arm injury, unfortunately, did remain around the clubhouse and present for home games during his rehab. Late in the season, Middleton expressed an interest in reworking his contract so that he could return and pitch for the Cardinals, though he said he had not held any conversations with the club about it. I also saw it today that the Braves made a deal with the Angels trading Jorge Salar to L.A. for pitcher Griffin Canning. Braves are looking for pitching.

They've got Max Fried and Charlie Morton becoming free agents. Sunny Gray seems to be a good fit there. It makes a lot of sense for the Atlanta Braves if the Cardinals end up trading him. And if he wants to go there, but clearly Atlanta is on the move quickly here as the offseason begin. So, you know, we'll see. There's going to be a market for Sunny Gray. What would a market be for Miles Michaelis or Stephen Mass? There's going to be a market for Eric Fetty. If they want to trade them, people will take Eric Fetty.

Like, you may not have been all that impressed with him in his time with the Cardinals at the end of this past year. But there are people who would love to get an Eric Fetty on their team at his price at $7.5 million. So the Cardinals will have options. It's just we'll see what they want to do. We'll see what they want to do. We're going to get into some Halloween fun next. All right. Who are the tricks and who were the treats for the Cardinals in 2024?

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The most famous phrase at Halloween is trick-or-treat. Trigger-tree. You hear it all the time, right? The kids are going trick-treating tonight. Although, did any of you actually have a trick ready to go if whoever was his house you knocked on the door and you're like, Trigger-tree? Did they ever say, nope, no candy, but we'll take a trick. What do you got? Did you ever have a trick ready? I never did.

You know, I wore this riddler outfit. Talk about being unprepared real quick. So I wore this riddler outfit the other night when me and the wife went out for, it was a Halloween party. It was an all-ages thing. So people had their kids and stuff with them as well. And one of the kids asked me, you know, they like tugged on my jacket. And he's like, can I have a riddle, please?

And I did not have one. I was completely unprepared, just bad form on my part. You can't be wearing the riddler outfit with the jacket and the gloves and the tie and the hat and everything that I got going on here. I have a riddle ready. It's just bad, bad on me. So here's my riddle for you. Riddle me this.

What belongs to you, but others use it more than you do? Give up your name. Your name. And now we're going to drop some names. You guys take that riddle if you want. Now we're going to drop some names of our own from the 2024 roster. We're going to put them in one of two categories, either trick or treat. So let's start with the position players and make our way around the horn.

We'll begin at the catcher position behind home play, Wilson Contreras, only appeared in 84 games, but hit 262. 15 home runs was sixth on the team and had an OPS plus of 136, which led the team, although, you know, obviously he didn't have as many of bats as a lot of the other guys. It was a shame that he got hurt so much this year. What could the offense event with a healthy Wilson Contreras throughout the entire season? Even with Goldianado having bad years, what if, you know, Wilson Contreras continued to do what he was doing, which would have been an outstanding year right there in the middle?

How would that have changed things for Goldie and Aronado? We'll never know. We'll never know. But I'm going to say Willie is a treat. Willie was a treat this year. The injuries, not his fault. Nothing he can do about it. It's not like he was doing something stupid and got the injuries.

Just playing the game, man. It happens. The backups, Pedro Pahez and Ivan Herrera. I'm going to go treats for both of them as well. Let me explain it to you. They both showed me things that are going to be useful for this team moving forward. I mean, Pedro Pahaz, he had a knack for some clutch hits this year, but defensively, probably the best defensive catcher the Cardinals had, right?

And then Ivan Herrera, defensively, plenty of shortcomings. And we know this. And he's going to be working on it in Winterball this year. But with the bat, he hit 301, which was tops on the team, and an OPS plus of 124, which was second on the team behind Wilson Contreras. Now, because Pahez and Herrera did a pretty darn good job filling in for Wilson this year, kind of makes Wilson a little more expendable considering his contract and how things are going with the Cardinals and how they want to spend money. So I give all three of them treats.

I think there was something about all of them to take with you and to like this year in 2024. Over to first base we go where we had Paul Goldschmidt and it was a rough year for Goldie. No denying that we were all quite aware of how disappointing things were for Paul Goldschmidt, 245. 22 home runs, not bad. 65 rbis not enough OPS plus below average at 98 hit 203 with runners in scoring position, which was just brutal. And it seemed like every time, it felt this way, every time the Cardinals had something going, it didn't matter where Ali batted, Goldie, the ball found him.

Like, you know, it was him that was going to be up in a key situation. And more times than not, he was unable to come through. So sorry, Goldie, but you are a trick. this year. The team needed more. They expected more, and it just never clicked. Lucan Baker became a weapon against lefties and might have earned him a role as a part of this first basement rotation that they might go with coming up in 2025. It's a shame we didn't get a chance to see more of him to really make a judgment call. But just looking at the overall numbers, I see 175 betting average. I see two home runs 10 RBI. So I'm going to go trick because we

still haven't seen Lucan Baker do what he's done in Memphis. You know, he had a pretty good year at Memphis this year. It was incredible the year before. Still haven't seen that at the major league level yet. But again, he hasn't had a lot of opportunities. And maybe he will just be that for a player that people label him as already. Maybe he's too good for Memphis, but not good enough for the major leagues in a full-time role.

But so we're going to go trick. We're going to go trick that. Next, we're going to move on to second base, Nolan Gorman, who, I mean, Speaking of scary stuff, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this year for Nolan Gorman, or you can call him TwoFace since, you know, I'm rocking the Ridler outfit. We're thinking Batman right now. We can go with Two-Face with Nolan Gorman because it was all or nothing. And sadly, too much, there was a lot more nothing near the end there.

They got him sent down to Memphis in August, and he never returned. He had 19 home runs and 50 RBIs, but 151 strikeouts at an OPS plus of just 8. 85 full on trick for Nolan Gorman. And it's just for 2020. I'm not giving up on Nolan Gorman. Again, I think people really move on from prospects a little too fast. Like, I'm not giving up on him. I stuck up for Jordan Walker yesterday.

I think they both have a ton of potential here. Hopefully, with a new voice in the clubhouse, a new hitting coach in Bram Brown, hopefully they can help figure things out here and make him a better all-round hitter. He's always going to have the power. It's not like if he adjusts his swing a little bit. He's not going to have 30 home run pop. Like he's just built that way. He's going to have it, unless he starts hitting balls on the ground all the time. But I don't know why they would make him do that. He's just got to put the ball play more is really the problem here. But we need to get

him back on the right path. And hopefully Bram Brown can do that because if Nolan Aronado ends up getting traded away, I would suspect Nolan Gorman would be the guy that would move over to third base and be your starting third baseman. Thomas and Jacey obviously could be somebody to do that too, but Nolan Gorman would make a lot of sense over at third base, right? Speaking of Aronado, third base we go, where Nolan Aronado at his worst offensive year as a Major League Baseball player hitting 272, 16 home runs, 71 RBIs, OPS plus of just 101. For normal, third basement. That's not a horrible year. Most people are like, yeah, that's a pretty solid year. Not for Nolan Aronado, not for one of the highest paid players in the game. The defense was good.

He's a finalist once again for the gold glove, but he like Goldie were huge letdowns at the plate. So Aronado, you are a trick this year, my friend, and what might be his final season in a cardinal uniform. So sucks that he might go out like this, but what are you going to do, man? Got to move on. And that's what they plan on doing. So we'll see if Aronado ends up being one of those guys that gets traded away this offseason. Shortstop, we got Mason win. After struggling offensively during his month call up at the end of 2023, he arguably became the face of this franchise this year.

Like, think about it, whose name was plastered and whose face was plastered all over stuff this year. Yeah, you saw Sunny Gray. Yeah, you saw Goldie. in Aronado still. But who was it like of the young guys? You know, this was who we thought Jordan Walker was going to be, right? He was going to be the new face. Didn't happen this past year. Mason Wynn comes in and just takes over. He hits 267, 15 home runs, 57 RBIs, 11 stolen bases, OPS plus of 102, as a rookie, mind you, and is a finalist that might win the Gold Glove Award in the National League at shortstop. I would love to see him walk more.

if he's going to stay in that lead off position. He doesn't do that a whole lot. That would be something he needs to work on. And I believe he's far too fast to not be running more. I mean, 11 stolen bases for a guy who was on base as much as he is seems a little ridiculous. Like take advantage of this athleticism, you know. But Mason win obviously treat for sure, for sure.

All right. We're going to switch over to the outfielders and the pitching staff coming up next on on Cardinals. Thank you for making Locked on Cardinals your first listen today for your second listen. If I'm locked on MLB, baseball guru Sully brings a daily blend of humor in baseball, keeping you updated on all the teams during this offseason, even the ones who are going to be kind of silent like the Cardinals by Locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts. All right, let's move into the outfield. We're going to start left field with Brendan Donovan, Donnie out there patrolling more times than not, even though he wasn't supposed to be. the main outfielder this year. Injury said, hey, Donnie, we're going to need you to be out there. You cool with that?

And he's like, of course, you can put me anywhere you want, coach. I'm a badass. I pulled it off just fine. Also spent time in the infield, of course, is up for the utility gold glove award again this year. And also hit a respectable 278, 14 home runs, 73 RBIs. Very quiet, 73 RBIs this year for Brin Donovan, the OPS Plus of 112. We love us some, Donnie. He is the kind of player that Cardinal fans adore.

Not the most athletic guy, not the most gifted guy, but he works his tail off. He plays ball the right way. And Cardinal fans appreciate that. They love that. Brandon Donovan, a treat, bow shower. On the center field, we got my guy Michael Ciani, my man crush from 2024. Started as, what, fifth? sixth maybe guy on the outfield totem pole in spring training and due to injuries ended up having

to take over the center field job and ran with that sucker and had it under full control until he got hurt until he ended up with the injury and he was right there with in the running for the gold glove award and you know i'm sitting here thinking like do the way he's at platinum are we thinking platinum like he was so good this year. in my opinion, the best offensive center fielder we've had in St. Louis since Jimmy Edmonds. The bat, not so good. The bat was not very good. That is his issue, right? He's never been the biggest offensive threat even before he got to St. Louis when he was in the Reds organization. And then he comes to St. Louis. And it started to turn around a little bit and he was getting a little bit better and then he got hurt. but how are you not going to give Michael Siani the treat label this year?

Definitely a treat just for the defense alone. Also led this team and stolen bases with 20. He was 20 out of 23 attempts. Like had the speed, used it. I want to see the team do that more with some of these guys. You know, I want to see Mason win run more. Keep Siani running. I want to see Jordan Walker run more.

Obviously, you got to get on base. if you're going to do it, clearly. But I just, I want to be, I want to see more aggressiveness on the base pass, you know. I want, I want to take it to the other team. I don't want to just sit around and wait for another single or a home run. Like, it's boring. Like they made stealing bases easier for everybody in the league. I don't understand why the Cardinals don't take more advantage of that, you know,

and Victor Scott's on there. I want him running every time. There should never be just sitting over there at first base, wait, and waiting and waiting. No, move your butt. Let's go. Yeah, definitely a treat for Michael Ciani. I don't see him as your everyday center fielder. I think he was thrust into that role. Needs to add more with the bat if he's ever going to be a full-time starter in the major leagues. But certainly a solid bench guy at the very least for the Cardinals. And he's cheap, which they like to. On the right field, we got Lars New Bar. Now, this one is a little bit tough for me.

because I look at the OPS Plus. Remember, 100 is average, league average. Lars Neupar was at 111. So he was above average. The numbers, 244, 12 home runs, 45 RBIs, on base percentage, strong, 342, led the team in walks with 52. But once again,

only got to play 109 games. Got more injuries, continued to just nag at Lars Neupar. in his career. And I feel like newt's been built up to where we expect more out of that. Maybe this is who he is. Maybe 245, 15 to 20 home runs, 60,

maybe that's who he is. But it seems like there's more there than that, doesn't it? And I think we've been taught that the Cardinals feel there's more to offer than those numbers. And, you know, when you're hurt three or four times a year, it's hard to stay consistent, you know, but we saw him at the back end of this year, and it was pretty good. It was pretty good. He's got to stay healthy.

290, 4 home runs and 16 RBIs over his last 88 plate appearances. Like, that's amazing production. But the rest of the year, it just wasn't quite there. So, Lars Neupar, you're a trick. You're a trick in 2024. I hope you're not next year because they're going to need you. you. D.H. Outfield, their first baseman, Alec Berlinson. Biscuits. Coolest to the team, right? He was a treat. He was a tree. We're giving biscuits the treat. I know he went ice cold at the end of the year and I wish he was better against lefties.

But the man was mashing for most of this season. He finished a 269. Nice. 21 home runs. Team leading 78 RBIs, OPS plus of 104. or this was a guy at the beginning of the year where we didn't know what the heck he was going to be. Was he just going to be a bench guy? We didn't know. We didn't know. Nobody was really sold on him after his rookie year in 2023. But he proved a lot of us wrong for anybody who was a doubter on Alec Berluson. I'm not going to say I was a doubter.

But I was questioning whether or not he was going to be a decent hitter or not at the major league level. And he showed up here in year two because we forget because it feels like, Alex Burleson's like 28, 29 years old. And it feels like he's been in the league for like four or five years. No, last year, 2023 was his rookie year. So this is always his second year in the major leagues. And he comes out with 21 dingers and 78 RBIs. You hope that he continues the trajectory that he's on.

And he continues to get better. Will he be good enough to be the full-time first baseman next year? Or is he going to have to do something platooning-wise? Are they going to use them in the outfield? still like we don't know yet, but the bat plays. So he's going to be in that lineup. The bench overall, we're not going to go through every one of these, but the bench overall, absolutely a trick, absolutely a trick.

Brandon Crawford, Matt Carpenter, Dylan Carlson, Tommy Fam later on after the deadline. Those were the most like constant guys that were on the bench. And, you know, carp was fine in his role. I'm not saying carp did anything wrong. But Crawford and Carlson were huge. Disappen did his best at a hot first couple of games and then he went ice cold ended up playing for the Royals in the playoffs and not the Cardinals. So the bench, a trick.

That was a trick. Young guys like Jordan Walker, Jose Fermin, Thomas Adjacy, Victor Scott. It's hard to judge these guys. It's kind of an incomplete season for them. If there's one that you could judge, we'll say Jordan Walker was a trick because he was supposed to be your starting right fielder. and was supposed to build off of his monster rookie season and did the exact opposite. So we can label him as a trick in 2024 if we want to.

But the rest of the guys, you know, they weren't around long enough or got enough playing time to really make a judgment call on what they wore. But I look forward to all of them being around more this year and making a bigger impact in 2025. The pitching rotation, Sunny Gray, I might get some pushback on this one, but I'm going to go treat. I thought he was exactly what I thought he was going to be. What was the old line, they wore who they, who we thought they were. That's Sunny Gray for me. You know, I knew what he was. Some people were underwhelmed by what he did this year. And I think those people's expectations

might have been too high. You know, when a guy finishes second in the ALSight Young Award, you think, oh my gosh, this guy is just one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. And that's really not the case. Sunny Gray, He's a very good pitcher, has great, you know, strikeout potential and stuff. You know, he's able to do that. But he's never been, like, named one of the top 10 pitchers in baseball. So for him to not be mentioned with all of the top tier aces is not a shock to me. But I thought he was really good.

I thought he was really good. Talked about it yesterday. Kyle Gibson, I'm going to go treat with Kyle Gibson as well. He was exactly what I expected him to be. Nothing special, just solid, just dependable. Lance Lynn, I'm going to give him a treat as well, and he deserves it with that physique that Lance Lynn rocks. Got it would appreciate it. The injury sucked for Lance Lynn this year, but he was a warrior, gave you as much as he could until the knee finally.

It just had to be stopped and he had to go on the sideline. But he was much better than I anticipated. I'll eat crow on this one for sure. You know, he was 7 and 4, 3.84 ERA. same as Sunny Ray, by the way, with the ERA, had the ERA plus of 109. It's hard to get upset about what you got from Lance Lynn, knowing he was going to be, you know, one of those back into the rotation guys, a four and a five.

And had his season not been interrupted with that injury, his numbers might have even been better. It might have been worse. He could have got worse. But overall, you got to show some appreciation to Lance Lynn. Miles Michaelis, you are a trick. I don't think that surprises anybody who listens to this podcast. There are some good things about Michaelis, and I don't always like saying bad things about

him because he did have 10 wins this year. He had a team leading 15 quality starts this year. But the ERA is at 5.35. The ERA plus is 78, way below average. Opponents hit 284 against him. That's crazy. He's one of the most hittable pitchers in baseball. baseball. It's him and Patrick Corbyn the last two years, by far, the two worst starting pitchers in baseball,

like who've played complete seasons. And when you go look at how many hits they gave up and what their ERAs are and what their batting averages against are, they're just not good. And then you couple that with the salary that both of these guys are making. At least Miles Michaelis isn't making what Patrick Corbyn is making, but it ain't much better. So it's just frightening. For Halloween purposes, frighteningly tricky is Miles Michaels. Andre Palante, you are a treat. Congratulations. Started in the bullpen. Look like things weren't going to go so well for him this year and he was turning in the wrong direction. Go to the miners. Becomes a starter again, works on some things. They bring him back up and he goes eight and seven. ERA, 3.56, the ERA plus of 111, now set up to be one of the five

starters next year, barring whatever moves are going to be made in the rotation. but obviously he is a guy that should be in this rotation. After what he did this past year, he certainly earned it. And it would be weird if he doesn't get a chance to do that. So Andre Palante, you're a treat. Eric Fetty, Eric Fetty, you're a trick. You're a trick because we needed more out of you. And you didn't come through when you got to St. Louis.

We needed you in the month of August to be that one and two with Sunny. Gray and you didn't deliver. You just didn't. Did not look like the guy he was in Chicago, started to look like him a little bit in that final month, but by then it was too late. So that trade did not work out. Tommy Edmund goes on to become the NLCS MVP and just want to ring with the Dodgers. Yeah, that trade, when you look back at it now, sure, complete bust of it right now.

Eric Fetty comes back next year and wins 13 games with the Cardinals with an IRA of like three and a half. Are you that mad? You're still probably that mad, though, because Tommy Edmund went on to do some great things. And we all love Tommy Edmund. So Eric Fetty, you are a trick. Stephen Matt's trick, always hurt. Not much more to say about that. Michael McGreevy. We're going to go treat, certainly open some eyes over his four appearances in the big leagues and those three starts that he made. We'll be in competition for a rotation spot in the spring as well. Zach Thompson. Zach Thompson, Trick. Not sure what future with the club is right now.

They just, you didn't hear much about him this year. Gordon Grecefo, incomplete. Not much to talk about there. I hope to see more this spring. In the bullpen, Ryan Helsley, obviously a treat, set a record for saves and a season for the Cardinals with 49. It was so good. It was so good that he might have played himself out of town with the money he's

going to get an arbitration and on his next contract. Matthew Libertor, you're a treat after getting comfortable in his role in the bullpen. One of the best we had out there over those final two months. Is he the closer in waiting? If Helsley gets moved, possibility. Andrew Kittred, Jory Treat. I love Kit.

And his nickname is like a chocolate bar. Kit Kat, I love Kit. I loved him. Wish they were going to keep him. Five and a five, 2.80 ERA, the ERA plus 150. I don't know what his contract demands are going to be. I wish he was going to be a cardinal again, but it's probably not going to happen. and he's going to make another team very, very happy.

Jojo Romero, I'm going treat with you too, bro. Another possible closer of Heldley gets moved. Seven wins this year for Jojo Romero, went seven to three, had a bunch of blown saves. I realized that, but also 3.36 ERA, ERA plus of 125. He was much better than we thought he was going to be. You're a treat. Ryan Fernandez, you're a treat.

Rule five pick turned out quite nicely. That was a good move by Moe and company, or should we give credit to? behind Bloom since he was coming from the Red Sox organization. Was one in six, which I know not beautiful, but ERA 3.51, ERA plus a 120, 71 strikeouts in 66 and two-thirds innings. Just for comparison, Ryan Halsley, who we know is a fireballer, strikes out a lot of people, 79 punchies in 66 and a third innings.

So just a tick or two above what Ryan Fernandez did this year. Who saw that coming? Not me. John King, you're a treat. 2.85 ERA, 56 appearances out of John King. He's a guy I thought I was going to get DFAed. Ends up being very, very good for the Cardinals. I hope he sticks around. ERA plus 148. Riley O'Brien, you're a trick. Injuries robbed him of his season. Trying to be nice about this and not judge him too hard. But remember, we just had so much hype for Riley O'Brien. in spring training. The hype was through the roof. And then he pitches one game and then he's gone for almost the entire season.

Big disappointment. Hopefully he's healthy, ready to come back and do good things in 2025. But a trick. Kyle Leahy, Chris Roycroft. I'm going treats with them because I see the potential for both of them. So that's something to build on. Giovanni Gallegos, trick, duh, had him well after he wasn't productive anymore. probably should have been gone more than a year ago.

If not, it was bad. Shot Armstrong, only here for 11 games. It wasn't bad. Hard to believe that's all they got for Dylan Carlson in the end. So I'm going to say trick because that's all we got for them, okay? Because it was just a sad trade. Nick Robertson, another trick because of the trade was in the deal for Tyler O'Neill. another most special that stings right there.

Yeah, Nick Robertson, Tyler O'Neill. 30 plus home runs again and left field for the Boston Red Sox. Oh, gosh. Anyway, so that pretty much does it. So those are the tricks, those are the treats. Agree, disagree. Let me know down below in the comments section, or you can hit me up on Twitter X.

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Happy Halloween, everybody.