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The STL Cardinals Thread - Is It The Offseason Yet?


CWood21

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1 hour ago, twslhs20 said:

How the hell do you fix this team?

Not sure you're going to fix it with a single move.  You start by hoping that Arenado opts-in (likely), re-sign Quintana, and see what Waino wants to do.  Unless you're confident in Andrew Knizner, you're probably in the catcher market.  Unless you're paying big bucks to Wilson Conteras (not opposed), you're probably overpaying for a mediocre backup catcher.  1B is Goldy, 2B is Edman unless you're moving him to SS, and Arenado mans 3B.  OF is likely Nootbar, Carlson, and O'Neill.

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Well DeWitt certainly got what he wanted. Made a ton of money this year without actually improving the roster. Not sure he can get away with that next year without the farewell tours. Maybe finally use the money you made to improve the roster. If Waino returns, he shouldn’t be relied on as a top end starter again. Flaherty damn sure shouldn’t be relied on to start a full season. We also shouldn’t be experimenting with the whole Hicks as a starter thing again either. Hudson? Eh but he’ll likely be in the rotation. Unfortunately, we’re stuck with Matz as well. That leaves us Matz, Hudson, Monty, and Mikolas as starters. I don’t know what’s available in FA but if there’s a top end starter available, we should be going after him. Definitely should try getting Quintana back as well and put Hudson in the bullpen. The lineup I have no clue about but they should be doing everything they can to get rid of DeJong. TON, Carlson, Noot likely start the season as the OF trio. Yepez/Gorman the DH duo? Goldy, Edman, and Arenado in the IF. Edman playing SS and we find let Donovan/Gorman start at 2B? Edman at 2B and we find a SS? Catcher definitely needs to be addressed but is Contreras worth what he’ll likely want? I think Knizner showed this year, he shouldn’t be starting everyday. We need a 3rd star and hopefully all 3 don’t go in a damn slump come September and the postseason because Goldy and Nolan have been pathetic for the last month plus. Your star players should never have slumps that long.

Edited by ttitansfan4life
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C - ???
1B - Paul Goldschmidt [$26M]
2B - Tommy Edman [Arb 1]
SS - ???
3B - Nolan Arenado [$35M]
LF - Tyler O'Neill [Arb 2]
CF - Dylan Carlson [MIN]
RF - Lars Nootbar [MIN]

SP - Miles Mikolas [$16.75M]
SP - Jordan Montgomery [Arb 4]
SP - Jack Flaherty [Arb 3]
SP - Steven Matz [$10.5M]
SP - Dakota Hudson [Arb 2]
SP - Alex Reyes [Arb 3]

RP - Giovanny Gallegos [$4.75M]
RP - Ryan Helsley [Arb 1]
RP - Chris Stratton [Arb 3]
RP - Jordan Hicks [Arb 3]
RP - Drew VerHagen [$3M]

C - Andrew Knizner [Arb 1]
SS - Paul DeJong [$9M]

Anyone not listed is set to make minimum, so you're probably talking about $15Mish combined at most.  Right now, they're just over $105.16M in salary.  They should salary dump DeJong and VerHagen if they have the ability to do so.  The biggest question are going to be the arbitration cases.  Edman, O'Neill, Montgomery, Flaherty, Helsley, Hicks and Knizner are probably no-brainers.  Alex Reyes seems like a foregone conclusion to get non-tendered even if he's probably not due for a sizeable pay bump.  Dakota Hudson probably gets offered arbitration, since he's still relatively cheap.  Chris Stratton probably gets non-tendered, but I could see them trying to re-sign him for cheap.

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The biggest thing facing the Cards is obviously Arenado's option. I dont think its anything to worry about necessarily, but they may have to give him an extension.

After that, the next question needing answered, is Adam Wainwright coming back? Theres a chance he takes a long time to decide this, so unless he knows right away, you have to operate like you dont have him. We are locked into Mikolas, Monty, Matz and Jack for now. With some other young arms that can fill in the 5th spot (Hudson, Liberatore Thompson, Woodford... Reyes?) but we shouldnt limit ourselves here either. Would love to have Quintana back, and that would be a very nice rotation with some young arms who could supplement when the inevitable injury happens.

But the biggest hole is obviously at Catcher. Knizner is fine, but thats about it. According to a tweet out there, Contrares has started his research on the Cardinals, and that would be the best move. You would then trade away Knizner, and hope Herrera is ready in a couple of years. Other than that move, just role with Knizner and hope the bat comes along.

As for the OF, feels like that hinges on if we pay up for Contrares. If thats the case, maybe we package Knizer and DeJong to swap for someone else's under preforming bat, or we just roll out the Carlson/O'Neill/Noot/Yepez group again, until Walker is ready to be called up. 

I dont think its going to be some crazy active offseason, but if you could bring back Quintana and add in Contrares, I think that would be a productive offseason, setting up this team for success again. You have the Walker card to play when hes ready, as well as plenty of options to trade away and add talent throughout the season

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15 hours ago, kgarrett12486 said:

The obvious holes in this roster are SS and C heading into the offseason, but I think there are changes coming to the OF. 

We had some of the worst numbers among starting OFs in all of baseball the 2nd half. 

It's also a lot easier to find OF talent vs. C and SS.

They're not going to do anything to block Jordan Walker, and after not willing to move Dylan Carlson in a potential Juan Soto deal he's probably cemented into one of the OF spots.  Given the season that Tyler O'Neill had in 2021, he's probably going to get every chance to cement one of the cOF spots.  Nootbar probably holds down one of the OF spots until Walker is ready.

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10 minutes ago, CWood21 said:

after not willing to move Dylan Carlson in a potential Juan Soto deal he's probably cemented into one of the OF spots.

I’m not calling you out here, and I agree they truly see him as a pillar going forward, but I really hate seeing the narrative that we wouldn’t trade Carlson for Soto, because that is so far from reality 

We wouldn’t trade Carlson, plus Walker, plus Winn, plus plus plus

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2 hours ago, MOSteelers56 said:

I'm excited to see how Noot and Donovan look with a full season. Gorman is interesting for next year too. Where's he going to play? Donovan should be our every day guy at 2nd. 

Agreed that both Donovan and Edman should be our everyday Middle Infield.

And right now Gorman should be looking like our regular DH as well

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4 hours ago, StLunatic88 said:

Agreed that both Donovan and Edman should be our everyday Middle Infield.

And right now Gorman should be looking like our regular DH as well

IF (and that's a HUGE if) we could sign one of the SS, I'd do that in a heartbeat and use Donovan as a super-sub.

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