St. Louis Cardinals Should Target This FREE AGENT to BOLSTER Rotation—Why This Makes Sense

St. Louis Cardinals Should Target This FREE AGENT to BOLSTER Rotation—Why This Makes Sense

The Cardinals are eyeing a rotation upgrade and rumors are swirling around one surprising veteran starter. Is St. Louis ready to make the move though? This is 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 Hford, a former national radio sports anchor, born and raised in St. Louis, a lifetime Cardinals fan, and welcome to Lock On Cardinals, part of the Lock On podcast network, now the number one sports podcast network. Thank you to our everydayers for being here with us. Thank you to all of you who are new. Welcome in. We hope you enjoy the content. This is a show serving Cardinal Nation and giving you all the info about The Birds on the Bat. Today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanol.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. On today’s show, we’ll take a look at some of the rumors swirling in regard to the NL Central. Could the Reds really really land one of the top free agent hitters on the market? We’ll discuss the latest on the Wilson Contrus situation and uh how that could benefit the Cardinals and why they would make such a move as you know trading Wills Contrus why they would do that. But we’ll begin today with the starting rotation which as of today doesn’t have a whole lot of experience going into 2026. Will that change? I would think so. It would shock me if the Cardinals didn’t bring in some sort of veteran presence onto the team to compete for a spot in the rotation, if not be handed a spot in the rotation, depending on the level of that veteran that that they sign without Sunny Gray. You are now looking at newly acquired Richard Fitz who has 14 career starts. Matthew Liberator 53 career starts. Michael McGrevy 19 career starts. Kyle Ley has one career start and then Andre Palante by default has 61 career starts as your top options for the starting five in your rotation. Kind of lean kind of lean. Uh last year study Grant Miles Michael is combined to give you 63 starts together which is more than the most experienced starter that you have in the rotation right now when Andre Palante has had in his entire career. And 31 of those starts for Palante just came last season when he was a dreadful six and 15 with a 5.31 erra. Most teams would never have let that guy get to 31 starts. The Cardinals n we’ll stick with it. What what do we got to lose? Let’s keep him going out there. Why not? Now you do have some guys in the minor leagues that could be ready to step up at some point in 2026. Quinn Matthews, Bryson Mottz, Max Ratchik. Uh, all three of them have been the Cardinals minor league players of the year the last three seasons. According won it in 2022. I’m assuming he’s going to remain as a bullpen guy. I don’t know that, but I would assume that’s what’s going to happen. But, uh, it could change. It could change. But, um, they’ve got guys that have shown the ability to be pretty darn good in the minor leagues. Can they finally make the push and make it up to the major leagues this year? We’ll see. Uh, Cooper Jerpy. People are excited about him. He’s coming back from his injury this season, though. He’s never pitched above double A. Tink is always dealing with something, so it’s hard to trust him at this point. Note Takoma Roby, he’s down with an injury from last season. So, you can see why finding the right fit with a veteran would make a ton of sense for the Cardinals. And the Cardinals on their side, they’re not looking to break the bank, right? They’re they’re they’re not trying to just go out and spend a ton of money on a starter. Although, they’ve said that if the right fit made sense, they would entertain a longer deal, but I’m not going to get my hopes up on that whatsoever. I would not expect that to happen. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it does, but I don’t expect it. So, a likely target for this team would be someone that is looking for a short deal, one-year deal, maybe two with an option, uh has a history of success at some point. All right. You’re not trying to just get some guy who hasn’t shown the ability to do anything at the major league level in the first place. That’s not going to help you, Winnie. But you want somebody who who’s got a track record, has done some good things, and perhaps is coming off an injury and looking to resolidify himself as a viable starter in the major leagues, and would find a place like St. Louis comfortable that it would be used to something like that. maybe a Midwest type of guy, maybe somebody who’s pitched in the Midwest a few times in his career. And the name that is circulating as a top match for all of those things is right-hander Tyler Mi. Now, not that long ago, if you’re unfamiliar with who Tyler Mley is, not that long ago, the now 31-year-old Mi was a valuable trade deadline piece for the Cincinnati Reds, which is who he got drafted by. Got traded to the Minnesota Twins in a deal that netted the Reds prospects from the Twins at the time. They were Spencer Steer and Christian Incarnation Strand. Now, Steer has been a big piece uh for the Reds in their recent success over the last couple years, while Incarnasion Strand has shown plenty of power, but he can’t seem to stay healthy. The point being that he was a wanted commodity. Like, people really wanted to get their hands on Tyler Mali. In 2021, he had a 4.9 war with the Reds in one season. So, he was pretty darn good. Was having a good season in 2022 when he got traded and the Twins paid a decent price for him. But then the injuries began. He had Tommy John surgery in 2023 which ended his tenure with the Twins. Uh he became a free agent, signs a two-year deal with the Texas Rangers because he’s coming back from the injury. Uh shows back up in August of 24 only to go back on the IIL right away with shoulder issues in that same month which ended that season. Comes back last season, makes 14 starts. Looks pretty darn good. Goes six and three with a 2.34 RA 3.41 fifth. So everything kind of lines up and once again the injury bug bites him. This time it’s a rotator strain which knocks him out again until September when he’s able to make two more starts. Now he doesn’t pick up a win in those two starts but he ends up throwing nine and two/3 innings. Got a 0.93 RA only gave up one earned run. Strikes out 10 to end the season with a 6 and4 record, a 2.18 RA and 16 starts. ERA plus at 168. So, there’s a lot to like there about those numbers and what Tyler Mi can do when he’s healthy, obviously. And it kind of sounds like the type of the type of guy that the Cardinals would be willing to kick the tires on, doesn’t it? Has pitched in uh Cincinnati, has pitched in Minnesota, who’s somebody else that had played for the Cardinals that did that? Oh, his name was Sunny Gray and was pretty attracted to coming to St. Louis. Felt comfortable there. Then he go, you know, Mi went to the Texas Rangers, but you know, we also had Sunny Gray going to it was in Oakland and then he was with the Yankees. So, but the Midwest seems to suit him. Uh Tyler Mi seems like he’s pretty darn comfortable in the Midwest. Now, there certainly will be other suitors who will be intrigued with Tyler Mie’s upside. And so it’s going to be on on hind bloom if this is somebody that they they target as somebody that would look good for the Cardinals that they’re going to have to woo him and pay him to get him to St. Louis. But the relationship, it just makes sense. It makes sense on the surface here for what the Cardinals are trying to do in 2026 and where Tyler Mi is is at in his career. Find a guy with top of the rotation ceiling that can be an anchor for this young staff willing to be moved at the trade deadline if things are good. But, uh, you know, we would love to get a crack at a spot in a rotation on a team like the Cardinals at this time. Uh, in a recent write up at MLB.com, they have Mali as a free agent match with the Cardinals as well, saying the Cardinals are clearly in reset mode after trading Sunny Gay with more deals likely to come this winter. But St. Louis is in need of rotation help for 26. And with long-term deal seemingly not in its plans, the club could look to starting pitchers willing to sign for a year or two, which I have said for a while now. Uh they point out Mie’s stats last year. Says, you know, be be aware he has not reached the 100 inning mark since 2022. So that’ll be uh four years come this season. So he could look to take a one-year deal with the hopes of putting together a healthy year before testing free agency again next off season. It fits. It makes sense. There are other names out there, solid names that you might be more familiar with. The Cardinals should have interest in that aren’t top of the market guys. As much as we would love to see them talk to a guy like a Michael King or Zack Gallon or a Ranger Suarez, I I’m just not going to get my hopes up for that. I don’t believe that that’s what they’ll do. I don’t think they’re in the mindset of looking at those guys and saying, “Yes, we should throw a bunch of money at them right now.” It doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me. Uh but looking at the rest of the free agent list, you’ve got other names that are a couple tiers down from that. Uh a Zack Efflin, uh a Zack Latell. Apparently Zachs are are in this year. Zack Gallen, Efflin, Latell. Um they’re all spelled differently, too, the way they spell Zack, which is a little weird, but Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, are you willing to talk to them at their age? Uh Michael Lorenzen uh who was with the Royals. Would you would you roll with a Jos Canana at his age? 37 pitched pretty darn good with the Brewers last year. Uh we brought up Dustin May before. We brought up Walker Buer who pitched well when he got to the Phillies but was awful in Boston. So um these are guys that I I think would be intriguing. None of them are sure things by any means. There’s obviously some alarms that will go off about a few of them, but this is kind of the area where the Cardinals are going to do their shopping this year and you know with any extra money that they save from, you know, some gray trade obviously they they they didn’t they don’t have to pay him his full deal anymore. Uh what can they recoup from trading Nolan Aronado? How much they have to eat there? Perhaps even a Wilson Contreras trade. So let me know your thoughts below. We’ll talk about Wilson Contreras and what former Cardinals writer, that’s right, former Cardinals writer Katie Woo had to say about his situation coming up next on Lives on Cardinals. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play, suddenly everything just feels different. That’s what makes live betting with Faniel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. Exciting things are happening and it makes you want to get up on the app and start placing your bets with FanDuel. You can place bets as the action unfolds. It’s great. Every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment, you can be in on it. New week is upon us. Thursday night, we’ll have a huge matchup between the Cowboys and the Lions. Stars galore for you to uh place live bets on. Whether it’s uh Jir Gibbs, Pickkins, Lamb, Prescott, golf, not sure if I’m on R. St. Brown is going to play this week, but Jameson Williams filled in quite nicely uh for for the Lions had a big week against the Packers on Thanksgiving. Although my Packers won, let’s forget that. But live betting is best when the game starts to shift, when a receiver gets hot, when a defense tightens up or the momentum flips after a turnover. FanDuel will let you jump into the moment with the live spreads and money lines. They adjust instantly. The player props, which are awesome. You can bet next touchdown scores and a whole bunch more. So, if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fandal.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. FanDuel, the game moves fast and so can you. Thanks for making locked on Cardinals first listen every day and thank you for making Locked on the number one sports podcast network. If you enjoy daily Cardinals content, you can follow the podcast on X at l_cardinals. We’re also on YouTube, Tik Tok, and Instagram at Lockdown Cardinals. Now, in case you guys haven’t heard, Katie Woo, who’s been covering the Cardinals for the Athletic for the past 5 years, is moving on to cover the Dodgers next season. Not sure who’s taken over for Katie yet. Haven’t seen an announcement on that, but we’ll find out soon enough. Like the winter meeting is coming up. Somebody’s going to have to do it. So, we’ll see what happens. But anyways, congratulations to Katie Woo. She’s been on the show before. Fantastic reporter. And uh you could just kind of tell that she was starting to um progress past the Cardinals uh was doing more national stuff. You could just I could just sense that something was going on. So uh Katie to LA. Uh she’s from California, I believe. So congratulations to her. But anyways, she wrote an article about the state of the Cardinals ahead of the winter meetings which will begin on December 7th. Most of the stuff we kind of already knew. If you’re an everydayer here at Lockdown Cardinals, you know, almost all the stuff she brought up in this article. Uh we’ve discussed it tirelessly because that’s what we do here at Lockdown Cardinals. Uh she writes that St. Louis has established a clear line of offseason priorities. Now it’s more pressing than trading Nolan Aronado, which we’ve said after the Sunny Gray trade went down. What do we say? Nolan Aronado is the next domino that needs to fall first. It’s got to be. you got to move on from him so you can figure out what the hell you’re doing with the other guys on your roster because everything kind of hinges on him to see where the infield shifts. Donovan Gorm, what what are you going to do with these guys? Um, she continues saying that the Cardinals are committed to increasing roster flexibility, are actively listening on left-handed hitters because they got a bunch. Uh Donovan continues to garner the most interest but rival clubs are also engaged on Lars Newar and Nolan Gorman to a lesser extent but not a bombshell announcement but significant was that she brought up Wilson Contrarus and Katie said that despite saying at the end of last season that he prefer to stay with the Cardinals Wilson Contrarus is now more open to wave his full no trade clause for the right fit. Multiple league sources told the Athletic Contrera has two years and 36.5 million remaining on his 5year $85 million deal that he signed ahead of the 23 season along with a club option worth 17.5 in 2028. This will not necessarily change the Cardinals order of operations, but they will continue to gauge interest on Contrarus and present the 10ear veteran with the option to approve a trade should one arrives. Now, yesterday my crossover with Sully from Locked on MLB. Give him a follow if you haven’t already. Um, and thank you to those of you who watch that one or listen to it. I said to him that Willie may not want out at this moment, but certainly needs to keep his options open. And why would he? As much as he may like it in St. Louis and like the organization and like playing with the Cardinals and enjoy the fans, does he really want to be on a team at this point in his career at age 33 that it seemingly has no shot at winning a World Series in the foreseeable future? They just don’t. It’s not expected. Sure, we could get surprised and, you know, a bunch of these prospects come up and all of a sudden they’re awesome again. It could happen. What’s the likelihood of that happening? Slim. Slim. Uh, and I know that that Willie is a great guy and he’s a loyal guy and said that he wanted to help see the franchise through this stage of their rebuild, but if there’s ever a time to be a little bit selfish and think about yourself, this is the time, Willie. And I don’t think there’s a single fan out there that would blame him for wanting to explore a better situation for himself and his family. Just like we we didn’t blame Sunny for wanting out and saying, “Yeah, you know, I get it. Well, I understand.” And same thing with Aronado. Wants a better fit at this point in his career. It’s not personal. It’s business. They’re not mad at the Cardinals. Cardinals aren’t mad at them. It’s just where they are in their careers. Having a veteran who’s making a solid chunk of change at this point probably doesn’t want to be around where the Cardinals are because they are in this transition. And the market for Willie might be pretty good considering his numbers offensively. hit the 20 dingers, career-high in RBI’s last year in 135 games. Uh the fact that his transition to first base went over so well last year. Defensively, he was more than capable of manning the first base bag, you would think he’d get even better. Most of the errors that I remember seeing from Willie over at first base had nothing to do with fielding the ball. It was about throwing the ball in certain situations, specifically the double play balls over to second base. like, you know, uh remember when he was a catcher and he would, you know, he throw it from the outside, outside of the bag or inside of the baseline and that’s how you got around. Well, at first you just pivot and you got to find that spot real quick. You got to move so much quicker and uh it was a little tough for him, but I thought Willie was fantastic at first base last year. Um more than capable, much better than I thought he was going to be after seeing somebody like Paul Goldmith play first base so well over the last few years. And you look around the free agent market at first base and as far as like right-handed hitters go, you’ve got Pete Alonzo who, you know, obviously huge bat, slugger, not great with the glove, which is one of the reasons why the Mets are kind of like, do we really want to bring him back? Do we can we make up for his offense in other ways and have somebody better playing first base? Um, and then like it kind of falls to guys like Paul Goldmid and Reese Hoskins from the right side. So, not a ton to choose from on the free agent market. Uh, left-handed hitters a little bit better. Ryan O’Harn’s out there, Nathaniel Low, uh, Luis Arise, who has no pop whatsoever, but is a pretty annoying batter at the top of the order, but still not a lot to choose from that that would wow you, right? If you’re shopping free agent-wise, like, are those the answers that you would want if you’re somebody trying to to win a title? So Contrarus might be a guy the teams turn to. Uh Katie continued saying the Cardinals do not view trading Contrarus as something they must do. They do not nearly they are not nearly as motivated to move him as they are Aronado. Uh trading Contrarus would open up first base full-time for Alec Burles and could alleviate some payroll concerns. If suitable partner does not jump out, St. Louis could hold on to Contraras to open the season then pursue moving him at the trade deadline. Still, he’s got a no trade clause. So, if he doesn’t feel like leaving at the trade deadline, he doesn’t have to, just like he doesn’t have to leave now if he doesn’t want to. Um, if you did move him though, like ramifications wise, that would be yet another right-handed bat that you’re you’re moving on from that you’re losing. An extremely productive one at that. You know, with Aronado more than likely gone, that’s two right-handed bats as you’re moving away in uh in what was your starting lineup last year. So if you take them away from the right side, you’re left with Mason Wen, Ivon Herrera and Jordan Walker, with Pedro Pah, Thomas Jaci, and Jose Famine as the backup guys. You know, I feel like you got to go look at another right-handed bat somewhere, specifically in the outfield, if you can, because if Jordan Walker doesn’t work out again, you’re going to be a poop creek without a paddle. So, could that person be acquired in a deal for Willie or Natada or Donovan or Gorman or New Year? Sure. I suppose they could, but we’ll have to wait and see. We’ll have to wait and see. We don’t We don’t know yet what they’re going to do. So, um let’s take a look at the latest rumors involving the NL Central. I thought this was I My wife is a Reds fan. God bless her soul. And all they’re talking about right now is this certain free agent. Do the Reds really have a shot at one of the biggest free agent bats that are available right now? A guy that hit over 50 home runs last year. We’ll talk about it. And the Brewers coming up next on Lock on Cardinals. Thanks for making locked on Cardinal your first listen every day. For your second listen, you can find Locked on MLB podcast where there is no offseason. Sle keeps you up to date on the contract negotiations, rumors, and everything you need to be the most informed MLB fan out there. Find Locked on MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. So, we know the Cardinals are not likely to be big spinners in free agency. Sure, there’s that percentage that, hey, if we find the right fit, whatever, I’m not expecting it. But the rest of the division outside of the Brewers have been rumored to be in on multiple big-time free agents. Obviously, you have um the the the Cubs still entertaining whether or not they’re going to bring back Kyle Tucker. Um the Pirates name has been thrown around, although I’ll believe it when I see it. But their their name has been like, “Hey, we want to spend a little bit of money this year.” I don’t know who they’re going to talk to and, you know, get them to come to town to Pittsburgh, but we’ll see. We’ll see. I mean, the the it’s the the struggle is real. Same with the Cardinals, like trying to get a free agent to come to town in a not so winning situation. I I don’t know how that how that works, but the Reds and the Brewers are who I want to talk about here. The Reds stuck into the playoffs last year, as we know, got thumped by the Dodgers in the wild card. They got a solid young pitching staff, some pretty big arms in there, some good arms, a lot of upside. Going to have to rework the bullpen a little bit, but their sights uh as far as offensively are currently set on trying to bring Kyle Schwarber back to Ohio. For those of you who do not know, Kyle Schwarber grew up in Middletown, Ohio, which is about 35 miles north of Cincinnati. So, the appeal of playing at home is clearly something that they’re hoping will intrigue the soon to be 33-year-old power hitting left-hander. Same way Cardinals fans are hoping that maybe Max Scherzer might have an interest in returning home to play with the Cardinals at some point. Uh, Reds fans are pleading that Kyle Schwarber, please come home is what they’re saying to to team up with their young core that that’s got some good pieces. LA de la Cruz obviously Noel Marte, uh, Sal Stewart was very good at the end of last year. Uh, will Matt Mlan come back and be the guy he was his rookie year? They got this, you know, Spencer Steer is there. Um, is it a fantasy or a reality though that Kyle Schwarber could end up in the NL Central again? The Athletics Ken Rosenthal reports that Schwarber is interested in a possible homecoming and that the Reds are serious about signing him. Although he brings up the financial stuff here and and it makes me shake my head a little bit because uh according to Rosenthal, he brought up that Nick Crawl, who’s the guy that runs things for the Reds, said that the team’s 26 payroll would be about the same as it was in 25. If that remains true, the Reds have about $20 million to spend according to Rosenthal. All right. You don’t think another team can beat 20 million for Kyle Schwarber? Unless they’re gonna do the the new cool thing and do the deferred money and stuff. I sure maybe. I don’t know. But I still find it hard to believe that the Phillies will let Schwarber get away. I mean, he’s such a big part of their culture with Bryce Harper and Trey Turner. He fits so well there. Like, he just makes sense there. And it’s been reported that he is a priority to the Phillies. But that no deal has been closed between the two sides yet. According to Jeff Pass at ESPN, the Mets are in the mix. John Paul Morosei says the Giants have checked in. We’ve also seen the names of the Red Sox, the Orioles, and then there was the Pirates as well. Their names have popped up in the Kyle Schwarber discussion as well. I know as a Cardinal fan, I don’t want to see Kyle Schwarber back in the division anytime soon. I don’t want him on any of the teams. So, uh, I certainly hope that he does not decide to go home and I do not want to see him in a Reds or a Brewers or a Pirates or a Cubs uniform ever again. No, keep him out of here. So, Phillies, can you can you just get this over with and and bring him back already? or go to the west coast, but stay out of the central shorever. I don’t need to see you that much cuz even though I was looking up his stats against the Cardinals, I guess his career batting average against the Cardinals is only like 177, but he’s got 14 home runs and 37 RB. He always seemed to come up in a big situation and hammer the Cardinals, especially when he was with the Cup. So, uh I I don’t want to see that anymore. And finally, uh the Brewers apparently might be open to trading their ace Freddy Peralta. That could happen, too. Apparently, Rosenthal said he’s attracting significant interest from teams looking to trade for the right-handers. So much that the Brewers are now considering cracking the door open for trade discussions. The right-hander is due to earn 8 million in 26, his final year under team control, making him a cost-effective alternative to the top starters on the free agent market. You just saw what guys like Dylan CE just made. Uh, yeah, that’s a lot of dough. We know the Brewers aren’t afraid to deal away guys before they hit the free agent market. You’ve seen them do it multiple times. Corbin Burns, Josh her, Devin Williams. They do it because they’re smart. So, they’re not left with nothing to show for them knowing that they are not going to compete with negotiations to bring those guys back. They’re not going to be able to beat these other teams. Or maybe they don’t want to beat those other teams. I mean, some of these guys have gone on to other places. I mean, has Corbin Burns look the same since he left Milwaukee? No, he hasn’t been as good. Uh Josh her has found success with the Astros. Remember he struggled when he was out there with the Padres’s right away. Devin Williams just struggled mightily with the New York Yankees. So the Brewers have been able to cut ties with people at a very good time. They just have been able to to find that right moment where they say, “Okay, bye-bye.” and reap the benefits by getting the prospects in return. So, um, as far as what the Brewers will look like without Peralta in their rotation, the Brandon Widuff is appar he signed that that uh that one-year deal. Uh, so he’ll be back. How healthy is he? I I don’t know. A lot of injuries recently. Uh, Jacob Miserowski obviously is in the mix to be one of their top guys. Quinn Pester was an awesome pickup for them last year. Chad Patrick is back. I’m sure they’ve got other dudes waiting to get in there and be a part of that rotation and they’ve been able to be really good at identifying guys to bring in that will be serviceable for them. So, um, you know, the Brewers have been doing it right. The Cardinals want to be more like the Brewers right now and make smart decisions about guys like Wilson Contrarus and Bernard Donovan or should we tra should we be trading them now, you know, before the decline starts or before they become expensive? And that’s what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to trying to figure it out and make smarter moves. Um, obviously the Brewers rotation wouldn’t be as empty as the Cardinals is right now. Uh, after trading Sunny Gray, if they traded Freddy Peralta, they still got some pretty good ammunition in that rotation already. And maybe that frees them up to go look at other people. So, um, it’ll be interesting to see if they move on from a Freddy Peralta. Uh, but I’m kind of glad that the Sunny Gray deal has gone down now. So that, you know, we’re not waiting around for people to start bidding on him instead. You know, you don’t think the the the Red Sox be like, “Oh crap, we could have got Freddy Peralta instead of Sunny Graves. Shoot, we should have waited.” I’m glad the Cardinals didn’t. I’m glad he blooms been aggressive and was able to to move him right away. Uh, it’s probably not going to be as easy with the Nolan Aronado. U, we’ll see what kind of market Will Contras has. Obviously, Brennan Donovan seems to be a pretty good one. Uh we’ll see how it all shapes out, but uh winter meetings coming up in four days. So, uh it’s about to get it’s about to get real exciting up in here. Thanks for making locks on Cardinal first. Listen every day. If you haven’t already, give us a follow on X at Cardinals at JD Sports Radio, Tik Tok, and Instagram. Locked on Cardinals. Like, subscribe on YouTube. Help our channel and love for the Cardinals grow. You guys are the best fans in baseball for a reason. We’ll see you next time on Locked On Cardinals.

St. Louis Cardinals target a bold rotation upgrade as whispers grow around veteran starter Tyler Mahle. With the 2026 pitching staff light on experience, can St. Louis find the right veteran presence to steady the ship, or will their reliance on prospects like Quinn Mathews and Cooper Hjerpe leave them vulnerable? JD Hafron explores the front office’s strategic focus and why a short-term deal could lure Mahle to the Midwest.

0:00 – Cardinals Rotation Rumors
10:12 – Willson Contreras Trade Options
20:10 – NL Central Free Agent Chatter

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-st-louis-cardinals/

Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More
🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/

Follow on Twitter/X: @JDSPORTSRADIO
Follow the show on Twitter/X: @LO_Cardinals

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.

FanDuel
Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

#ForTheLou #stlcards #mlb #lockedoncardinals #stlouiscardinals