Right-hander Andre Pallante won his arbitration hearing against the Cardinals, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. He’ll be paid the $2.1MM sum he and his reps at Wasserman requested rather than the $1.925MM figure submitted by the team. Pallante was one of three Cardinals players to go to a hearing; the team won its hearing over utilityman Brendan Donovan and lost a hearing versus Lars Nootbaar. Both results were handed down yesterday.
Pallante, 26, worked his way into the St. Louis rotation last year and looks ticketed for a starting role again in 2025. The right-hander logged a 3.78 ERA with an 18.5% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and enormous 61.8% ground-ball rate in 121 1/3 innings over 29 appearances (20 starts). That 3.78 earned run average is a dead match for his career mark in what’s now a total of 297 1/3 innings.
This was Pallante’s first trip through arbitration. He’s picked up 2.145 years of big league service thus far, making him a Super Two player who’ll be arb-eligible four times rather than the standard three. The Cardinals can control him for four more years, all the way through 2028. He still has one minor league option remaining, though as long as he continues at the pace he’s established in his first three MLB seasons, that’s not going to come into play anytime soon.
Pallante figures to join Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, Miles Mikolas and Steven Matz in the Cards’ Opening Day rotation — provided all are healthy. The Cardinals bought out 2025 club options on Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn but otherwise haven’t made any changes in the rotation — or really to the broader roster at large — despite a stated goal of getting younger and focusing on player development this coming season.
With Pallante’s salary now set, the Cardinals’ payroll checks in just shy of $148MM, per RosterResource. That’s a reduction of about $35MM, all of which was accomplished by parting with Gibson and Lynn and letting Paul Goldschmidt, Andrew Kittredge and Keynan Middleton walk as free agents.
I’m over Mikolas.
We should all write or email the FO telling or asking yhem to pay Donovan what he asked for.
I mean WTF? Why argue over the last 10% with a guy who delivered fantastic value in 2024 and should be a midrotation mainstay for years to come.
I mean, I know that 10% becomes a multiplier through all his controllable years, but why not make the guy feel valued for what he’s done? And show everyone else that’s the culture around here?
I know its a business, but better to spend a few million on the guys you’re relying on for the foreseeable future than waste it on washed-up roster filler like they tend to.
200k difference today could be a 700k difference next year, 1.5m difference after that, and 3-4m difference in the final arbitration year. Those aren’t inconsequential numbers. It is likely both sides explored what a longer term deal would look like to avoid arbitration, and neither were satisfied enough to make that deal. Its easy to be unsatisfied with everything the Cards are doing right now, but this is just how it works. They’ll get their pay days.
Thank you FrontOfficeMan
Tell me what is the advantage of Keeping Mozeliak on as President of Cardinals Baseball Operations for 2025????
Is Mozeliak’s job description, for his final year, to completely obliterate the Historic Cardinals franchise????
Mozeliak’s Flushing the Cardinals best players just as Fans thought. But ——- where are his young Quality players rebuild he raved about??
Firing Mozeliak immediately and letting Bloom take completely over right now would be a blessing!!!
It would also Increase Fans in the Stands for 2025!!!!!
Bloom has to love this as there is no way he can do any worse next year than Moz has done this year.
I believe this is by design. Mo is staying so they can focus on other areas without Bloom’s clock ticking away.
Talk about a team in purgatory
Technically, the back end of the rotation is younger than last year with Gibson and Lynn being 37 but Mikolas is 36 and Matz is 33. Ha!
Goldschmidt is 37 and Contreras is 32.
With Contreras moving to 1st, the Cards get younger behind the dish as well. It may not be a radical youth movement but…
Now if we could get a more seasoned manager and a younger (or merely competent) GM, we might be able to field a competitive team and fill some seats.
Not sure that’s what BDW wants, though, based on the past couple years.