St. Louis Cardinals’ Roster Overhaul IMMINENT as Chaim Bloom Eyes BLOCKBUSTER Trade Scenarios

St. Louis Cardinals’ Roster Overhaul IMMINENT as Chaim Bloom Eyes BLOCKBUSTER Trade Scenarios

The 2025 season has come to an end and a new man is taking over the St. Louis Cardinals. His name is Hyen Bloom and we have got some questions for him on today’s episode of Locked on Cardinals. You are Locked On Cardinals, your daily St. Louis Cardinals podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hey there Cardinal fans. I’m JD Hafford and I am your host of Locked on Cardinals. I’m a former national radio sports anchor born and raised in St. Louis, a lifetime Cardinals fan and uh we’re here on the Lock On podcast network covering your team every day. It’s a show that serves Cardinal Nation, specifically Cardinal Nation, and gives you all the info about the birds on the bat. Today’s episode brought to you by 5Hour Energy. Enough with boring, flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5-hour energy shots. Go to www.5hourenergy.com or Amazon today. Now, the off season is officially here. We’re in it for the St. Louis Cardinals. Whether you like it or not, it drives me nuts that they’re not there, but we’re starting to get used to it, sadly. uh a season that began with little expectations and ended on about as sour of a note as you can by losing four in a row, getting swept by the Cubs at Wrigley, getting shut out in the last game. But this off season is something we’ve been trying to get to for a while now. And uh it’s going to be an interesting one. It’s at least it should be, right? Uh we enter year two of the rebuild. We get year one of Heim Bloom, the Heim Bloom era who is taking over for John Moak. He’s got his work cut out for him, though. No playoff win since 2020. Three straight seasons without a playoff appearance. Two losing seasons in the last three years, record lows in attendance. It is dark times for the Cardinals and their fans. And this is a guy that is supposed to be the savior and turn it around. So, naturally, we’ve got some questions for him. And to help with those questions, a man that needs no introduction, but I’m give it to you anyway. His name is Thomas Coain from redrants.com. Welcome in, Thomas. And uh welcome to the off season, brother. How are we feeling now that the 2025 season is over? Are you feeling a sense of relief that it’s finally kaput? I am. Yeah, a sense of relief uh sense that I know I don’t have to watch the Cardinals get beat more often than not every night of the week. So, yeah, it should be an exciting one. Yeah, this off season, uh there’s a lot that we’re going to have to go through and um at least we should. That’s the thing is like last offseason I thought was going to be more interesting than it was and nothing happened. Like nothing ever really came about of all of the expectations that we thought might happen. This year feels like it’s going to be a little bit different. There’s a a little more uh momentum as far as turnurning some things over. You know, Heimloom is taking over. It’s not this waiting period with with Mosa still in charge for one more year, which you know, in hindsight, you look back and like, why the hell did we do that? Like I guess Mo wanted his his last harrah, I guess, but it just feels like it was a wasted year where we could have, you know, really kicked this thing into gear and get it going and uh instead nothing happened. You know, we just watched below average baseball for most of the season. Uh you recently dropped an article with some questions for him uh on how this turnaround is going to take place, what needs to be done to to get the Cardinals back to where we want them to be. Uh let’s start with your number one question uh which has to do with trades, right? Yes. The first one is all about trades. There’s two names that we’ve seen pop up a lot the last week or two. It’s Nolan Aronado and Sunonny Gray. Both those guys have said that they’ve been willing to entertain trades even with their no trade clauses. I think with ownership wanting to cut money more even further than they did last year. Those two are probably the most likely trade candidates to get out of here. the returns won’t be too too much, especially for no one auto. I think Sunny Gray could get a surprisingly positive return depending on whether the Cardinals go for lottery ticket prospects or MLB ready guys. It depends on what they’re looking for in return. And then the others would be from their depth. The catching core is pretty pretty deep. I mean, we have four catchers on the roster right now in the majors, plus two top 100 prospects potentially in Reneiel Rodriguez and Leonardo Bernol. Uh, you could also trade from the corner outfield depth, first base depth. That means Lars Nupar, Alec Berles, Nolan Gorman, Brendan Donovan. If Heim Bloom has seen what he wants to see out of Jordan Walker, I think that’s a potential wild card trade as well that we could see it. It’ll be probably I I would expect four or five guys being moved this off season, maybe even as high as six. Training Brendan Donovan, fan or foe? And I know it always depends on like, okay, what are you gonna get in return? You know, and if you get, you know, awesome stuff back, you’re like, yeah, I guess that’s fine. But like, are you a fan of moving a guy like Donnie off this roster when, you know, you’re as young as you are already and he’s one of the more stable guys and you know how good he is as far as like uh his versatility, being able to play basically any infield position. He gives you the corner outfields if you need him to do that, left-handed bat. Uh do do you feel like because that’s going to be a hard one for fans if he does get moved because everybody loves him. Uh but do you think that’s the right thing to do if uh if that is something that becomes available? I would prefer we keep Donnie and if we do keep him I think we need to extend him. Give him a five-year contract. So he’s here sorry he’s here for the next run the next playoff window that we have. If you don’t extend him and you don’t trade him then you get you waste the final two years of Brendan Donovan on the team. And I don’t I don’t think that’s the best way to go about it. What’s ironic is like you said, he will probably get the most usable return for us. It will probably be a major league pitcher who’s been in the league for three years and we know what to expect out of him if we trade Brendan Donovan. So that’s the tough part. They fight. Yeah. Um, you brought up Alec Berles, too, because uh, you know, it was weird because you looked up at the end of the season, you’re like, “Wait, what the hell? He’s up for a batting title.” Like, because the this year was cra the NL’s batting average this year was was kind of crap. 30 304. Is that who won it? Yeah. Trey Turner wins it and uh, barely played in the final month and barely over 300. So, it wasn’t uh wasn’t the sexiest of batting title races this year, but there he was. Alec Burlesson in the end was up in the top five. Uh you mentioned him like that’s back-to-back seasons that that Burley has proven that he deserves an everyday job and should be in a lineup each and every day, even against lefties. Uh he he kind of, you know, he worked on that and got got a lot better against left-handers this year. Are you a fan or foe of moving Alec Burles? I think the other guys that you brought up, you know, the new bar, I think people are worn out with those guys anyway and that that’s not going to hurt him so much. But, uh, Burley, another one of those stable bats that that’s there just about every day, has been pretty good the last couple years. Um, are you a fan of moving on from him? Yeah, I think if you’re going to trade two, my preferences would be NAR and Berles. Nar because he doesn’t serve as much benefit. Just clear some space via him. I think Alec Brosen might get a decent return. And I also think that we’ve seen his peak for the Cardinals. So this would be a case of you trade a guy at his highest value, something they haven’t really done in the past. We don’t need first base corner outfield DH guys. We have those spots filled. I think you can get a decent return for Alec Burles. And I think that we’ve gotten the best out of him or would you agree on those two guys Berles and New Park going? Yeah. Yeah. No, I totally would. And uh again, this is not because we don’t like Alec Burles or something like that. you’re trying to rebuild and you’re looking at what what we hear this word all the time with the Cardinal there’s a log jam we got we got too many of these guys to that are in spots that we have depth at so um yeah and if you’re looking for the best return I I agree with you I I kind of want to keep Brendan Donovan uh you know how they were talking you know how Wilson Cateros just stated where he was like well they’re going to need somebody they’re gonna need some sort of veteran leadership to lead them into this rebuild he gets it he does he’s like yeah I’m open for it But, uh, I I’d like to be around, which, you know, I cool that that that’s cool of Willie to say that. Uh, but that does block Alec Berles. And then you also got, you know, Bla1 Jordan in the minor leagues. That’s, uh, somebody that I think they’d be interested in, uh, you know, taking a look at a little a little longer. So, um, yeah, you know, are people going to be upset about a burly trade? I doubt it. I I feel like that uh that’s one of those guys where we get it, you know, and like you said, trade him when he’s worth the most that he’s gonna his biggest trade value because years and years we hang on to dudes when we’re like okay and now we want to get rid like newar you know the stock on Newar was very very high you know especially after the world baseball classic remember everybody was like oh Lars Nubar leading Japan uh and everybody’s like this guy’s gonna be so good and then it’s the same stuff overnight you No, he’s really not as good as everybody wants him to be. Um, and then they hang on to him and then it doesn’t work out. So, yeah. Right. But the unfortunate part is like you mentioned like you trade these guys but there’s just not some of these dudes just don’t have that much value. So, as you mentioned veterans like Nado, good part about Natto is his contract like it’s getting cheaper these last couple years. Sunny’s is way expensive. I’m really curious how that’s going to work out. how much the Cardinals are going to have to eat on that 35 million that they’re going to owe him in this upcoming. He’s still kind of a top 10 pitcher in some aspects though. Like you look at his his strikeout to walk ratio, you look at his fifth, like there’s still top 10 quality in him in the league. It’s just a matter of what do team do teams like that? Do they see the actual results? What what do they weigh more? Yeah. And uh we we brought up your uh your article about the some trade destinations for Sunny in our last episode and uh like the Atlanta Braves like that’s just it it seemed like a great fit for him free agencywise and it still seems like a really good fit as far as a trade. Uh I feel like that would make a whole lot of sense for everybody involved. So I don’t know that’s just that’s just one question that that we that we could talk about. Another question is going to be who’s going to lead these men? the people who are left over, who’s going to lead them in 2026? We’ll tackle that next here on Lockdown Cardinals. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade. Five energy shots deliver tasty caffeine in 17 bold flavors. Each 2 oz shot packs the caffeine of a premium 12 ounce cup of coffee. Plus, you’re going to get the B vitamins. You’re going to get the nutrients. No sugar, zero sugar, zero crashes. is what I love most about these things. Not only the flavor because they’re good. Not only because they’re quick, but because they’re very portable as well. Big taste, tiny shot. You can take it anywhere. Get the boost when you need it. I always reach for the peach mango because I just love things that taste like peaches. It’s my favorite. 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We’re also on YouTube, Tik Tok, and Instagram at locked on Cardinals. Thomas Goane from redwoodrants.com with us here today. You can follow him on X as well, ThomasGovane. He’s always inside the uh the Cardinal Chatter. You’ll see us uh busting each other’s uh balls a little bit online and uh it’s just hey, it’s a good community online. We have a good time. We’re we’re all in this together, guys. You know, it’s it’s been rough. We get it. Um Ali Marl has been there through the rough times. Uh, he’s been the man. Crazy to think he’s been the manager for four years now, Thomas. Hard to believe it’s been that long. The managerial record is about as meh as you can get. 325 and 323 for one. Ali Marmal. Uh, I’m someone who tends to blame those in charge of constructing the roster uh more than the manager for this level of mediocrity that the Cardinals have been in. But, you know, he’s got to shoulder some of the blame as well. It’s not entirely uh just on John Mosak in the front office. You know, he’s the manager and he’s got to get the most out of these players. We’re we’re seeing managers do a lot with little in other areas like Cleveland, like Cincinnati and uh they’re going to the playoffs and the Cardinals are back home again. So, that’s another question you have for him. Is Ali still going to be around for 2026, right? Yeah, that’s that’s on the list as well. coming in. New management will al often replace who was there before them with a guy they prefer. So Ali would fit that bill exactly. He’s got one more year in his contract after that extension. So it is officially up after 2026. Uh I think something that Hine needs to seriously consider is who leads his team. It’s probably not that his most pressing question. Like that’s something that can wait after he fixes the roster, but it’s definitely something that he’s gonna have to think about over the offseason. Now, in this article, which we have linked in the description, uh you brought up a couple of names because it’s, you know, we’re speculating because we don’t know who’s going to be moving on from other places or who’s still going to be available. Obviously, we’ve got names, you know, that we’re familiar with like Yier Molina and Albert Pooh and Skip Shoeacher, but you also listed a couple other names in there that, you know, might want to, you know, just keep an eye on. Yeah, there’s Alex Cora. He’s with the Red Sox. I think he just signed a new contract, though, so he he probably wants to stay. and Boston made the playoffs, so may not want to leave that comfortable environment. Don Madding, he’s out there, too. You could even go as far back to Bloom’s time with the Rays and bring up Joe Madden, who could be interested in coming back. The the list of coaching replacements is probably seven, eight deep. It’s just a matter of whether or not Bloom wants to keep Holly. So, you’re going to be we’re going to put you on the spot here, Thomas. All right. You You get to be behind Bloom here. Ali, in 2026, yay or nay? What do you think? I’d keep him to start. Honestly, it you don’t want to rock the boat too much with everything else that’s going to be happening this off seasonason with the roster. Uh Ali has a reputation of being a players manager. He had the possibility of being a farm director at one point. At least Mosa Lock said he could see him in that role. I think with the young roster, with the way the organization is right now and the place it is in its history, you kind of got to keep the manager where he is. That’s not me saying that Ali is the best manager out there. We just went through his record over the last four years, but it’s a guy that keeps things consistent in a place where you probably need the most consistency right now at the top. Yeah. And um and I know that with the one year left on on his deal, you know, people are like, well, they’re going to keep him because of that. I don’t think that’s the, you know, he’s either the guy they want or he’s not. If he’s not doing the job you want done, then move on. I would love to see a clean sweep and just move on from everybody, but it doesn’t necessarily Next year is not set up to win anyway. So, I don’t you’re just kind of setting up the new people to have to go through a crappy year in 2026 where it’s probably and I shouldn’t say crappy. This is We’re not the Rockies, okay? It’s not that bad, but a not so fun year. Yeah. Yeah. I think the other part of Go ahead. Yeah. where it’s just where it’s just like a middle of the road kind of we’re just kind of going through the motions type of year. Um it just it’s not set up it’s not like how it was set up for when Larusa came in back in the 90s where it was just like all right we’re going to sign these three dudes we’re getting Tony we’re bringing in uh Dave Duncan and we’re going to revamp this whole thing. It’s not going to work that way. That’s not that’s not what they’re shooting for next year. So, I don’t know how much bringing in a new guy right now, I don’t know what how much sense it really makes because you’re setting them up for for just another meh year. Yeah. And I think it with that me year, if Ali does or if he does replace Ali, I think Yachti and Albert are probably one and two on his list. And do you really want their legacy as Cardinals being tarnished by a 75 to 80 win season right off the bat? Probably not. Like you almost want Olly to take the punches that will be in 2026 and then come back in fresh the next year. And that sucks for Ali too because I like Ali. I don’t think he’s as bad as I do. It’s just my problem is just he’s synonymous with losing right now. Like he’s not he’s the guy that’s in charge when they’re not doing very well. And again, it’s not all on his shoulders. I put a lot of blame up into the front office. But, uh, that’s one of the things like if when you’re touring this thing around, it’s not going to be him who’s leading the lead leading the way when it when it happens. So, in a way, it’s kind of you feel bad for him, but he also gets to be employed for another year as a manager in the Major League Baseball. So, um, do you worry that like if you wait another year that maybe Yachty and Albert and Skip and any of these they move on, they find other jobs and then you’re left just like, uh, what do we do now? Are you worried about that at all? Especially with Yachti and Skip. Skip primarily. I think he’s got a lot of offers out there. He’s in a front office job right now, too. So, he may not want to move, but I think that he there’ll be teams wanting him. Yachti seems really ready to manage. He’s been in the Cardinals dugout twice this year. He’s a lot more present at least now. I think Albert’s fine waiting until something he really wants comes through. So, you run the risk with two of those three probably find another job, but there’ll be at least one left at some point. Yeah, that’s, you know, these are just things that we worry about. You know, you just, you never know what the timing is going to be on these things and it’s um yeah, like I said, I I wish we could make sweeping changes and everything would turn around right away, but that’s not that’s not how this thing’s going to get done. It’s not why Heim Bloom is here to uh make a splash and start just, you know, that’s just not how it’s going to work. It’s just not. So, um yeah, that’ll be interesting. And I’m sure plenty of fans are going to be like, “No, you got to fire him. Bring in somebody cool.” And that’s how you start winning again. You’re going to get those arguments, but uh I tend to lean with you where it’s like, “I just don’t think that I think they give him his last year.” And then then it changes and then they move on and find somebody fresh for uh 2027, which unfortunately means that 2026 is going to look very similar to what we just saw in 2025 and uh and 23 and 24. Yeah. Same thing, different day. Um, one thing that might change though, one thing that might change, and I’m looking forward to this, if there is something to be excited about when it comes to this Cardinals organization, it’s the crown jewel of their prospects, and that’s JJ Weatherhold. We’re going to talk about how he might fit into things for the Cardinals coming up next season. We’ll do that next year on Locked on Cards. You’ve probably seen a million ads for hair growth products and thought, “Yeah, right. Sure, that actually works. Uh-huh. There are a lot of products out there. We know this. 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Uh, no matter who’s in charge, you need good players. That’s the bottom line. You got good players, usually you got a good team for the most part. I mean, don’t ask the Mets. Don’t ask the Mets about that. Most teams are able to get it done. Uh, the Cardinals appear to have a pretty darn good player coming up through their uh through their ranks, and that’s JJ Weatherhold. Uh, won the MVP award in the Texas League. Uh, ranked number six overall MLB pipelines top 100. Fair question is how does he fit in in 2026? That’s something that you want to know and that you would ask Kim Bloom, right? That is. Yeah, that’s on my list. Um he is their top prospect. He’s one of the top prospects in all of baseball and he’s done everything that you could ask of him in the minors this year. He’s he came out of college polished. He’s got a year and a half under his belt as a prospect. It’s probably time to give him the call, bring him up, especially with the rebuild that the Cardinals are in. This is what you do with your young players. You see if they have the chops to make it to the majors. Will he start at the majors at the beginning of the season? That’s my big question. I think part of it hinges on who is traded. Like we talked about earlier. If it’s Nolan Gorman and no one Aronado, that’s two spots in the infield that now open up for him. He’s probably going to get the call. If it is just Aronado, I think there’s a little bit of hesitancy there. You could put Corman at third. You have Thomas to JC as utility. It it all depends on the trades that happen this winter. I think there’s also an argument if he falls flat in spring, put as much stock into spring training stats as you want. It there’s something about seeing a 300 batting average with a couple home runs in spring training that just looks better than a 190. That kind of thing. So, it’s it’s probably time for him to get the call up at the beginning of the year. Will he or will he not? That’s a question for him. Yeah. And one of the things about JJ, too, is that um you know, we’re not talking about a kid coming from high school. You know, you brought up that you know, he’s coming from college. He’s 23. Like, is this not like he’s a 19-year-old prospect where you gota All right, we got to handle him with kids. This is a He’s a man. He’s ready. He’s older than Jordan Walker. He’s older than Jordan Walker. So, yeah. And Jordan Jordan’s 23 now. That’s one of the my things with Jordan, too, is like, let’s quit treating him with like he’s a child. No, he’s grown up now. Like, you know, that’s it’s time to to put on your big boy pants. Um with JJ I I wonder if so my I what I think is going to happen and dep unless he just goes bonkers in the spring unless he you know he’s hit 500 with five bombs or unless he does something like that. I am predicting that he starts at Memphis and I think they do that just for like the first month to kind of figure things out. Like you said depends on who’s still around. You know if they ship a lot of dudes away then obviously you need somebody to play these positions. But they they’ve got so many guys still there when you talk about the infield with you know Mason went at short and Donnie and Gorman at second or Nado and Gorman at third and then you’ve got S. So you got some dudes uh depending on Jose Fine too. Jose Fine had a pretty good year in the majors like you got to put his name in the bucket now. Yeah I I don’t mind for being on this roster at all. Is he a capable starter? It doesn’t seem like they think of him that way. Uh but sure I mean you got to have some bench bats. Um, my question is too is where would you prefer to see JJ Weatherhole play cuz he’s been playing shortstop for the most part in the minors. We’ve seen him, you know, scoot around at second and third base. Where do you think would be the best spot for him? And I know the question it’s because who gets traded? I don’t know where is he going to play. Uh, but where would you prefer him to to start at if you had your choice? Probably third base. I think that might be a good fit for him long term. He’s pretty athletic. I mean, clearly he showed that by playing shorts stop. You could put him over at third. His arm is probably a little bit better than Nolan Gorman. Maybe not with as much pace behind his throws, but hopefully hopefully they’re more accurate at least. I I think third base would probably be his best spot, but he can float anywhere. I mean, he could be an off day for Mason Moon here and there at shortstop. He could play every day at third base, get some spells at second base, whatever, whatever they need. But I think third base is probably his long-term home. Where do you see, and this is just me peeling off into another question, but like the where do you see Thomas and JC? Where do you where do you like him? Obviously, a utility role is kind of his thing, but uh where do you prefer him at? I think he should be the super utility guy. He gets 125 games. He still sees around 500 at bats, but he he he just gives guys breaks here and there. If he’s on a heater, let him play five days in a row, see how he does. I think that’s probably his best role. I maybe an everyday guy at second base, but Nolan Gorman’s power is just so enticing. And we really don’t have anybody else besides maybe Ivon Herrera, Wilson Contrarus, but you need left-handed power in this league, and Nolan Gorman can provide that. Yeah. Yeah. That’s the hard part about if you were to trade him this off season, you’re like, h, we’re giving up on this dude that has something that we don’t have a lot of, which is the prop. Um, but I I understand because people are frustrated with watching him and Jordan fail over and over and over. So, they’re like, “Move on.” But it’s it’s hard to move on because you’ve seen us move the Cardinals move on from guys before. And what happens? They go off and they start for other teams after they uh they figure things out and something clicks for them and uh you know, you don’t want to fall into that routine again because it’s something we’ve gone through the last couple years. So, I don’t know. A lot of questions, man. A lot of questions. We don’t have any of those answers. I know we’re having press conferences over the next couple days with Mo and Heim and you know maybe we’ll hear something from them. Probably not. It’s going to be most of that stuff usually happens after the the World Series and everything finishes up before they start really moving stuff around. But I don’t know. It it like we said before, it should be an interesting off season. It there’s a lot of possibilities of things to happen. um some good, some are not going to be so good that people aren’t going to want to to to see and it’s going to be some tough pills to swallow if some of these fan favorites have to be traded away. But, uh part of the process of rebuilding this whole thing and if you want to get good players, you got to give up good players. That’s usually how it works. So, uh maybe the days of Donnie and Burley and N. These are some names that may not be here in 2026. Uh but uh we’ll we’ll we’ll find out. Now, there are more questions that you have for Him Bloom. So, we didn’t get to all of them because that would be foolish. You go check out Edwardrance.com and you go see what else he brings up. Do you want to give him a little teaser about what your other questions are because you you had five for him. We covered three here. I did. Yeah. So, one of them is a question that’s been plaguing the front office for a while or ownership at least in about the fans. And then the other would be will we spend more than $2 million like we did last year in free agency. Over under over under $2 million that’s the bars. So, who are we right now? Are we the pirates? Are we pirates? Thomas, what happened? I don’t know. Well, we’re going to keep it optimistic and we hope uh everything gets turned around sooner rather than later. And uh poor Hind Bloom’s got his work cut out. That’s for sure. All right, check out Thomas’s work at uh redrance.com. Obviously, give him a follow on X at Thomas Go Veain as well, spelled G- AU V A N. I know it’s not an easy one. It’s not GO and then spelled like the vein in your in your body. Uh but go check them out. Give him a follow. We’ll be uh we’ll have them on throughout the entire off season and uh they’re always posting good stuff over at redrants.com. So uh make sure you guys uh check it out as much as you can. Thank you guys for making locks on Cardinals first listen every day if you haven’t. Give us a follow if you haven’t already on X at l_cardinal at JD Sports Radio, Tik Tok and Instagram and Lockdown Cardinals. Like subscribe on YouTube. Help our channel and love for the Rebuilding Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We’ll see you next time on Lockdown Cardinals.

Cardinals’ 2025 Disappointment Sparks Offseason Overhaul. Will St. Louis Trade Arenado, Gray, Donovan, Nootbaar?

JD Hafron and Thomas Gauvain dissect the St. Louis Cardinals’ underwhelming 2025 campaign and potential roster shakeups. The duo explores trade scenarios involving Nolan Arenado and Sonny Gray, while debating Oli Marmol’s future as manager. Top prospect J.J. Wetherholt’s role in 2026 takes center stage, with his defensive position and MLB readiness under scrutiny. Can the Cardinals navigate a rebuild without alienating fans?

Tune in for expert analysis on St. Louis’ critical offseason moves and their impact on the team’s future success.

https://redbirdrants.com/5-questions-chaim-bloom-must-answer-in-his-first-offseason-running-the-cardinals

0:00 New era for St. Louis Cardinals

5:34 Trade possibilities for Cardinals players including Brendan Donovan

13:50 Discussing Oli Marmol’s future as manager

20:55 JJ Wetherholt: Cardinals’ top prospect

30:20 Chaim Bloom’s challenges ahead

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