New Yankee Andrew Benintendi indicated he might reconsider his vaccination stance if his team faced Toronto in the postseason. I imagine others may make the same call.
Once Doug Armstrong got Pavel Buchnevich and Brandon Saad on the payroll with cost-efficient deals, it became far less likely that Matthew Tkachuk would be a a real possibility here. And the iffy Nick Leddy contract really slammed the door. Armstrong spent the last of his cap flexibility. I tried to warn you people. I rained on that Tkachuk parade over and over, but fans still believed it would happen.
Right now Luis Castillo is pitching well. And he has another year on his deal, so he would be my pick. As noted earlier, Nolan Gorman would be a killer in that park. Malcom Nunez and Moises Gomez has come on as power hitters as well, so maybe one of them could sub for Gorman as the hitter piece if the Reds want Michael McGreevy or Matthew Liberatore as the key pitching piece coming back. I'm guess a package would include at least one of the top few young pitchers and at lease one young power hitter among four or five pieces.
Independent analysts seem skeptical. I have seen at least one suggestion that perhaps he could reinvent himself as a lefty reliever, but he has crazy money left on his deal.
Niko Mikkola is in the same boat on defense now that Leddy is back. He fell out of the mix last season when the team got healthy and that could happen again this season.
Krug seems happy here. And he fits well. The issues with him on this roster is the development of Scott Perunovich as a similar talent and the salary cap crunch that awaits this team after this season. Krug's name came up earlier in trade speculation because Armstrong was trying to free up cap space so he could work on other things.
The taxi squad exists so a player can step right in if somebody gets hurt or falls ill. Otherwise, getting that player from the minor league team to the majors can take time and leave the team short for a day. Also, DeJong's presence allows him to jump right in if another player is traded away. That gives Edmundo Sosa and Nolan Gorman something to think about.
DeJong would replace Gorman, but Carlson is the team's center fielder. Who knows when Harrison Bader will return and putting Lars Nootbaar in center field doesn't have a championship ring to it.
I believe Matthew Tkachuk would have been glad to come here, although the Blues might have had to kick in more salary to offset the tax. There just wasn't a trade fit.
Never. I mean. Albert is having fun with this and it's turning out better than I expected. But . . . let's be real.
For a host of reasons Gorman has become an obvious target for other teams and more expendable than other Cardinals. Brendan Donovan is a different type of player, but a useful one who take over at second base and handle third should Arenado pull the chute after this year. I've always seen Gorman as a DH going forward, but right now Oliver Marmol likes spreading those ABs around.
The Memphis Redbirds say Molina will take today off, then play Saturday and Sunday. If that assessment holds, that is certainly good news for the Cardinals. The replay of him getting hit was nasty.
He would put up some numbers here. And St. Louis has survived the Harrison Bader Show when it comes to swagger and such. The big issue with Soto is he can't pitch. This team is down two starting pitchers and it could use bullpen upgrades as well.
The Cardinals reached the 2019 NLCS. Reaching the Final Four counts as serious. Unfortunately they got caught in the Washington Nationals whirlwind that year. The Nats were a Team of Destiny, just like the Cardinals in 2006.
This has been a topic of discussion over the years. But like the International Draft, another idea with merit, that change hasn't been made. MLB is trying to make it's draft more of a thing, so I agree that it be more like every other pro draft.
Or John could just decide he's had a enough of the grind. This is all-consuming work, especially if your owner won't let you tank multiple seasons while making the sort of veterans-for-prospects swaps that any moron could make.
It's true that Doug Armstrong has maintained a pay structure here in the STL and Tkachuk would have altered that structure. I believe he was open to making that deal anyway, but obviously he did not put himself into the best position to make this trade despite knowing last summer that Tkachuk could end up on the market.
After the first failed bunt attempt, the other team is better prepared for the second one.
I'm skeptical that he can hold up well there, especially after reading some of the stuff the analytics people are saying about him.
Well, there was a pandemic that cost the Cardinals a nine-digit total in revenue. That helps explain the lower budget this year. In his role, Mozeliak's job is to keep the Cardinals in the chase year after year after year while peer franchises come and go from the playoff race. Mozeliak has met that objective and kept business brisk in non-pandemic seasons.
You had your vacation so where's your levity? Joviality? After all it's just sports! So what do you think of Army's sad offer for Tkachuck? It doesn't look like he was serious. It was like here's Scandella who we like to get rid of--and here's Vladi who's leaving after this year anyway. That's not serious. A serious deal involves Kyrou.Army has done this before he pretends he's interested because the fan base is emotionally involved. He did this with Petrangelo as well fakes being serious to appease the fans. Just so he can say "we tried"!!