As Spring Training continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Will the Cardinals make a spring trade?
This weekend saw some small signs of movement in the trade market surrounding the Cardinals bubble to the surface. That began with reports of reignited trade talks between St. Louis and Houston regarding Nolan Arenado. While the two teams seem to have touched base again in the wake of Alex Bregman signing in Boston, a trade sending Arenado to Houston is considered to be a “longshot.” Arenado isn’t the only Cardinals player whose name came up as a potential trade candidate this weekend, however; the Cards could be open to late conversations surrounding right-hander Erick Fedde. Trading either Arenado or Fedde before Opening Day would more clearly set the tone for St. Louis’s 2025 campaign after an offseason where the club has signaled they want to focus on the future without many concrete moves backing that up.
2. Madrigal to undergo MRI:
After already losing Frankie Montas to a lat injury, the Mets suffered another potential hit to their depth yesterday when utility infielder Nick Madrigal suffered a dislocated shoulder while fielding a grounder. Madrigal will undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the issue, per MLB.com, which could require surgery if the dislocation is particularly severe. Luisangel Acuña, Ronny Mauricio and Brett Baty give the club some infield depth, but Mauricio isn’t even getting into spring games until mid-March after last spring’s ACL tear (per Newsday’s Tim Healey), and Baty isn’t the backup shortstop option that Madrigal or Acuña would be. As such, Acuña seems likeliest to step up, but it bears mentioning that Jose Iglesias remains unsigned if the Mets want to look outside the organization and focus on getting their in-house youngsters regular at-bats in Triple-A.
3. Will the Twins be sold?
News broke Friday that Justin Ishbia, the reported leading candidate to purchase the Minnesota Twins, had pulled out of the bidding to pivot toward acquiring a larger stake in the White Sox — a club in which he already holds a minority stake. It’s since been reported that “everything is on the table” for the Twins and the Pohlad family, including the possibility that the club is taken off the market. More clarity surrounding the future of the franchise is expected within the next month or two, and it figures to be a top story to keep an eye on given the massive potential impact a sale would have not only on the Twins organization but the AL Central as a whole.
The Cards really need to figure it out!
In fairness to them, they are in a position that they are not used to being in. The Cardinals have been one of the most year-in year-out successful franchises of the 21st century (and the 20th for that matter). This is not the Tigers or the Reds where a rebuild usually comes along every 5 years or so like clockwork. This is not the Pirates or Marlins where a rebuild happens almost every year. This is a team that has to do something they are not used to doing, losing.
It’s bad planning – placing all of your eggs in one basket with an entire offseason hinged upon trading Arenado. Now they want to move an affordable Fedde, with demand at its lowest, with S.T. underway.
Everything I read about Fedde being traded has been speculation by other teams. I think they plan to go into the season with Fedde.
Cardinals need to figure it out. They aren’t going to win this year and don’t plan to extend Fedde so it makes complete sense to get something for him. This is how you do a “reset” that has been talked about but zero action to make it happen. Unless you count doing absolutely nothing as a thing.
John Mozeliak —- as the Nation is finally realizing what Cardinals Fans have seen building up over the past 5-8 years —— has lost his Fricking mind!!!
If a person didn’t know better —— they’d think John Mozeliak has thrown the entire Cardinals Historic Franchise under the Bus on purpose!!!
If they Ever recover from Mozeliak’s error’s of mismanagement of the Cardinals —- it’ll take a decade to do so!!!
I really don’t think the Cardinals’ position is all that confusing. With Gibson, Kitteridge and Lynn gone, they have opened up spots for younger pitchers to get innings (though they need to find a way to keep at least one of Matz and Mikolas out of the rotation; probably both). They haven’t lost anything offensively from last year given that Goldschmidt was a 98 OPS+ last season. The only veterans who are going to start every day are Contreras and Arenado (and Donovon, if you count him). Nobody of note is being blocked by Arenado being on the team (maybe unless Wetherholt forces his way onto the team).
Last year they won 83 games. I actually think as currently constructed the team has a lower floor but higher ceiling than it did last year. The division sucks. Roll with Arenado, Fedde and Helsley until the deadline and see what happens. I have no interest in watching a team lose 100 games.
Being in the NL Central is the one bright spot for them. I would love for my Rockies to be able to be in the Central. Since every team is playing every team now, they need to start some sort of interchangeable divisions. Keep it at 3 divisions per league, but in one division put the 5 teams with the best record the year before. In the second, the middle 5 teams. In the third, the worst 5 teams. You could guarantee at least one losing team per league from last year a postseason spot this year. And you would guarantee that at least a couple playoff teams from last year would miss out this year. Then you could just do the schedule as you would any other year.
How much better for the fan bases of the Nats, Reds, Pirates, Rockies, and Marlins to know they are competing with each other for a division instead of the Dodgers and Mets of the world.
I wouldn’t mind some kind of realignment since the leagues don’t mean anything anymore anyway. I think it would make the most sense to just get rid of the divisions altogether. Or maybe do two divisions per league. I don’t think I like the idea of reorganizing them by record every year, though.
I stuck with the division alignment simply because you could keep the identical schedule arrangement. Instead of Braves v Dodgers it could just be Division #1 Team #1 vs Division #3 Team #1 and then just fill in the teams after the record is known.
I just like reorganizing by record because it really does give every team a chance. For the Rockies, why spend money when you are in the same division as the Dodgers and Padres and you realistically have zero chance for several years. But pitted against the Marlins and Nats and other rebuilding teams, it makes sense to spend a little more because there is opportunity. Once you get into the playoffs, everyone has a pretty equal chance. Any team can win a series.
Y’all get your wish when the Lords of Baseball impose a salary cap, even if it means going without the major leagues in 2027.
If there is a strike that cause them to cancel ANY baseball games, I walk away forever and never look back. I left baseball for 3.5 years after the 1994 strike. But I am older now and far less forgiving.
@hiflew perhaps the teams you mentioned should look at the Rays, Brewers, Guardians, Twins and the A’s. They’re “small market” teams and figured out how to win. Same with STL. Strong FOs do just that. Cubs and White Sox are in the 3rd largest market and??
Win enough in the regular season you mean.
It’s not that hard to make the postseason anymore, or to win the Central Divisions.
@Barstool – Of the teams you mentioned, 4 of them are in division without a monster payroll (ie Dodgers, Mets, Yankees). Central division teams don’t have to deal with a large payroll in either league and the AL West only has the Angels that always spends money but don’t know what they are doing. The Rays are a complete outlier and that is just because they got really lucky with development in a few cases. And people often forget that they were perpetual losers for the first 12 or so years of their existence. I have a feeling with the bad luck of the Franco situation, they might be headed for a few more bad years .
There is an outside chance that every team in the NL central finishes below .500 this season.
Cards seem to be half a**ing this rebuild. I get keeping a “winning” product on the field but they can easily get stuck in the at or near being .500 cycle for quite some time. Need to tank one or two years and completely retool the farm, which is mid tier. They have some top end talent in the farm system, but will need to supplement that down the road.
This isn’t football or even hockey, and there’s no cap. They need to do a better job at player development, which they used to do without ever picking in the top 10. They don’t need to tank to find young talent, and they can supplement the top-end talent in the farm system with free agents if ownership ever spends money again.
They’ve done a smart thing to this point, which is not to go buy a bunch of mid-tier free agents to try and field a team with a ceiling of 85 wins. And if the team is bad they obviously should move veterans at the deadline, just like they did a couple years ago. But I have no problem with how this has shaken out so far, other than I wish they had found a way to unload Matz and Mikolas. You can’t tell me that nobody in the league would take either of them if the Cardinals at 80% of their salaries. Just do that. The roster spots are more valuable than the money.
They didnt have to make the decision to go out and get mid teir players becuase the roster is chalk full of graduated or just about to graduate prospects. And that seems to be the direction the FO wants to go in. Some will pan out and some wont. The real decisions come after the 2025 season. 3 out of 5 SP are free agents and Helsely is gone(all barring trades at the deadline), and this is in addition to what other roster spots need to be filled by underperforming prospects. Thats a tremendous amount of innings to replace. There is some serious growing pains for this roster the next few years. Luckily, they only have $69 million dedicated to next years payroll, so they are going to have to go out and get some bigger names next offseason and have plenty of flexibility to do so.
baseballpun: What ever happened to Jordan Walker? I thought he was supposed to be the next third baseman for the Cards.
I think he’s going to be the every day right fielder, regardless of how he performs.
He is Jo Adell-ing his way in the outfield. Too hyped a prospect to send down, but not good enough to really be a starter. Even though he is a starter.
Not a White Sox fan, apparently.
At a payroll level of $125M for 2025, the Cardinals will never be able to compete with the Dodgers, Mets, Yanks etc. The days when clubs like the Cards, Rays, Twins could compete are fading fast. And it’s not just FA contracts but International $$$, facilities etc. Al.
I’m not saying I agree with this condition. I’m simply saying it is what it is.
If the Pohlad’s pull the team off the market that is my final straw as a Twins fan. Crazy how just 18 months ago fans were as giddy about the future as they’d been in over 2 decades.
Withhold your fandom until the Pohlads are gone. Their stake isn’t in putting a quality on the field, it’s in making a profit. What they did last season is unforgivable. Don’t give the team any of your ad or merchandise dollars until Pohlads are gone. Let their broadcast numbers plummet so they see ownership is not tenable for them any longer
I don’t think so. I’ve been a Twins fan for 60 years and I’ve seen some crappy product over the years. Twins will have a competitive team this year IMO.
The injury hex of the White Sox has followed Madrigal to the Mets (and cubs). Hopefully he won’t need surgery this time.
Surgery it is
The problem with keeping Arenado is Gorman will be at 2nd instead of 3rd, moving Donovan to LF, Nootbar to CF and keeping Walker in Left. (Most days) Sure players will rotate and Donovan will get some infield, Nootbar will get some left, and Burleson will get some 1b and LF etc, That outfield is atrocious defensively. Adding to that, they have a catcher playing First. Seems crazy to have all those players play everywhere but their natural position(s)
Yes it is crazy and it didn’t work last year. They need to hit the reset button and let the kids play. Yes trading Arenado is necessary and hope it happens.
Just spit balling here could Fedde have asked for a trade? Maybe I’m reading him wrong he doesn’t seem excited about being in St Louis.
The Cardinals rumors this offseason have been very tiresome for two reasons: they keep changing directions on what they want to do, and they haven’t ACTUALLY DONE anything.
My sense is that their ideas are mainly “pie in the sky” ideas.
– Let’s trade a starter with a no-trade clause and a $65 million remaining on his contract. What, nobody wants him? What, he doesn’t wanna approve being traded?
– Let’s unload an aging and declining star with 3 years and $74 Million left AND a no-trade clause while unloading most/all of his contract. What, nobody that wants him is on HIS magic list?
– Let’s cash in on Helsley before we lose him. What, the A’s don’t wanna give us Mason Miller with years of control and a better fastball? Why not?
– OK, let’s trade our best hitter, who we’ve moved off catcher and onto 1B. Wait, that no trade clause thing again. Why did we give all these guys no-trade clauses????
The Cards remind me of that annoying owner in your Roto league that constantly sends trade offers that require your best player for a couple of guys that are borderline keepers at price. Bottom line is that none of their ideas/options are based in the real world. And operating with a lame duck GM doesn’t help. No lipstick available for this pig.
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Arenado is really the only one that they said they were trying to trade. Most of the rest of this has been speculation about what people think the Cards should be doing.
I think it has more to do with this site (and others) not wanting to understand what the cards are really doing. This site wants it to be a rebuild and it’s not that at all, but they write daily articles as if it’s a rebuild. At least in the chats, the writers have acknowledged they don’t understand the cards strategy.
Agreed. It’s part of a lazy idea that has permeated most sports that every team who isn’t a superpower on paper should just try to be as bad as possible, so that only 4-5 teams are really competing at a given time.
Bill isn’t spending, but he would like a strong first half before the deadline, at the gate, with no additional investment to the budget.
It’s still about the money. Dump any value at the deadline and let attrition wash Mikolas, Matz, etc. off the roster.
Wow, so many negative post here from people that probably can’t even with their fantasy baseball seasons but whom clearly know how to run an organization. Clearly if the cards had a good offer on the table they would have taken it by now, for either player. I think it’s pretty obvious they are trying to get the most the can for Fedde which they were not able to do during the off season. No one here has any patience at all.