Cardinals Hot Stove: THESE Teams Are in Play for Willson Contreras! | The Randy Karraker Show

Cardinals Hot Stove: THESE Teams Are in Play for Willson Contreras! | The Randy Karraker Show

Great to have you with us for a while here in the Randy Carricker show on STL Sports Central presented by DraftKings where the crown is yours with Matthew Rocko. I am Randy Carricker. Good to see you, sir. You as well and the crown is yours and we got a lot of cool stuff coming up. Don’t forget that you can join us as a member of the STL Sports Central Insiders Club. And all you need to do is head on over to STL Sports Central and you’ll get the opportunity to have more engagement with Bernie and with Brendan Schaefer and with Kareem Rush and me and Matthew. Monthly giveaways for tickets. There’s going to be incredible merchandise available, quarterly STL sports experiences that you’ll be able to join us for. and you get all of Bernie’s columns and uh there will be some other stuff that you’ll get an opportunity to participate in when you become an STL Sports Central insider. Do so at stlports central.com. Yeah, a lot of great stuff to check out. And of course, uh one of the big things is going to be the Randy and Bernie video. It’s going to be one of the things where you can watch the first half of it here on the YouTube show. No problem there. for that second half, that coveted second half, usually where the fun stories and and the big topics get discussed. That will be uh for our insiders only. So, jump on right now to stport central.com and uh join that insider. It’s going to be a lot of fun. All right, let’s talk a little bit about the St. Louis Blues. They have Jake Neighbors back in the lineup now. He has been activated and the card or the Blues have taken Alexander Texier off of the roster. Neighbors I would think will slide seamlessly into the top six wouldn’t you think and with the way D’Vorski is playing maybe a move BHIC down out of the top six. Yeah. So that’s a possibility. So this will actually be BJ’s second game. They they they it was kind of a covert slide but he slid down to the third line um for that game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and it it was a better overall game. So maybe that’s a start there. Uh so third line for the second straight game for BH Nevich. is going to be on the line now with Pew Sudter and Jimmy Snugerude. I I wonder about the combination of BJ Nevich and Snugroot as the wingers because there’s just not a lot of uh fast skaters who are going to forche a ton on that line uh for a third line. That’s a little worrisome to me, but hey, sometimes you have a third scoring line that can work out. And then like you said, Neighbors is going to reenter the line um re-enter the lineup, excuse me, top line alongside Holloway and Thomas. And uh Nick Boostad is still the healthy scratch. Uh Sunny is on the fourth line with your boy Nathan Walker and Torpenko. And yeah, I love I love D’vorski uh centering his line as well. And that’s that’s been the case for the last week or two. Uh but I really like what they’re doing there. So, I’m interested to uh go back to Jeremy Rutherford’s piece at the Athletic about Pavlbuch Navich and uh where he stands right now. Right now, and I I’ve always said and I I will continue to say right now on this team, I think their most gifted, most talented player is Pavlbuch Navich, number 89. I also think because of that right now he’s the biggest waste of talent on the roster because it doesn’t appear as if he’s using his god-given gifts. Yes, this was JR writing in the athletic today and I thought this was was was very good and also was very topical considering our conversations about BHV yesterday. Um and talking about BJ Nevich potentially being being sat he doesn’t agree with the idea but he said that said BJ Nevich may need a personal reset for his own good. I’ve covered a few players in the past. I I’ve covered a few players in the past who care more about helping the I I’ve covered a few players in the past who care more about helping the team than he does. When I watch practice, Montgomery and Buchvich are constantly having conversations on the ice about what to do in specific situations. It usually ends with Bhnavich nodding his head, okay, and applying what he learned. This is from Montgomery now. He wants the Blues to win and he wants to be an impact player for us. There’s no doubt about where his heart and his head is, but right now it’s a tough time. It’s a tough time for the team and a tough time for him. Okay. So, if so, we’re suggesting that the guy has a heart. I I I I believe consistently from the man who covers him every day and the guy who coaches him, they say that. I will not argue against that. But it’s uh so the the the quote was u there’s no doubt about where his heart and his head is. Well, then where is his heart? Like is he Tin Man? Uh, no. Well, Tin Tin Man needed a brain. No, Scarecrow needed a brain, right? Oh, yeah. My bad. I’m sorry. You’re right. Scarecrow needed a brain. I really encourage. Yes. Yeah. Tin Man needed a heart. My bad. Yeah. So, he’s he’s basically Tin Man. If his heart is I mean, he’s not playing with a tremendous amount of heart. You know, they used to say back in the day that the Cardinal or the football Cardinals had a little running back named Stump Mitchell who was great. They said, “If you’d put Stump Mitchell’s heart in OJ Anderson’s body, it’d be illegal.” Put Nub’s heart in Pavlich Navich’s body and it would be illegal. That would be pretty special. You’re not You’re right about that. I just listen when you watch him play, it’s hard to not have these kind of criticisms. But it was interesting, you know, we we talked about Boots yesterday and then we have not direct, you know, refuting from the coach, but very coincidental refuting from the coach and from the writer kind of, you know, pouring a little water on our criticisms of Boo because there’s no doubt about the criticisms on the ice. He’s not playing well. How you how you get to why he’s not playing well is is is where things can get a little tricky. And to your point, all right, fine. If it’s not an effort thing, if it’s not a If it’s not a dedication thing, then what does it come down to? If it’s not a talent thing, I think we can all agree it’s not a talent thing. All right. Well, I don’t know about you, Randy, but I’m running out of things on the checklist. I I am too. I am with you there. I’m getting to scheme and coaching now. Like that’s that’s that’s pretty low on my checklist. It’s always low on my player checklist. I don’t want to blame coaches for things, but if we’re going to check off everything else and the coach himself is saying that’s not an issue, well then I’m going to get to scheme in coaching eventually at some point. Right. One of the things that former Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock used to say about David Bakis, because David Bakus presented consistent effort, he said he drags people into the fight and especially if you’re playing on a line with the guy and he’s trying hard all the time and going to the net and doing the little things necessary to win hockey games, winning puck battles, which the Blues are not very good at these days. If you have a guy online and you’re not doing it and he is and then you watch tape the next day, makes you look bad. And my hope is that Jake Neighbors will drag some people into the fight with the way that he plays the sport, with the way he goes to the net, with the way he uh battles for the puck, with the way he gets back in a 200 foot game. I’m not, this isn’t across the board criticism, but there are obviously selected Blues players that could use the idea of being dragged into the fight. I hope that Jake Neighbors is with players that will perform better because he is healthy now. Yeah, I I I think getting that that little jump again, something that that that J.R. points out in that article as well, they played better against the Maple Leafs. they were in that game, you know, they they haven’t had, you know, the the consistent, you know, or the huge mistakes that happened later still opened up. But the consistent little mistakes where they’re getting outplayed, that was a little bit, you know, better. And overall, if you look at the the numbers for the Blues, one of the more inexplicable things is that the majority of these games, they’re actually outshooting and out chancing their opponents. They’re just they’re just not scoring at all, and they’re letting in uh bad attempts and bad chances and things like that. So, there are some numbers that tell you they can even things out. So, is it something as small as for the first time this season really having a fully healthy and locked in Robert Thomas or fully healthy and locked in Jake Neighbors, a Jimmy Snugroot who’s getting better, a Dialavorski who clearly has a a an NHL level shot? Is it just getting all these guys in on the margins that then, you know, coaleses, works with the the coaching and gets the scheme right? That would be the answer. That would be honestly one of the only kind of answers that I have left for the Blues season because if this doesn’t coales now we’re left with a lot of you know kind of blow it up nuclear options I think. So one of the issues the Blues have of many by the way is that there are several areas where they’re going to have to load manage and they’re going to have to deal with lesser talent. Nick Bugstead has been a nice winning player over the course of his career, but he’s not a guy that you can play 82 games and he’ll be scratched again. And he’s not a guy that is going to deliver much more than a fourthline guy. Now, he does have what’s he got? Four goals, four rolls and assist, four goals in 18 games. He uh he’s doing fourthline things, but I think he’s maxed out. I don’t think that there’s much more that Bug’s dad can deliver than he already has to the Blues. And I don’t think I think you could probably have said the same thing about Rodic Foxa last year. The difference is what does Bugstad bring? Like what is the what is the maxed out profile for Bugstad? What is the maxed out profile for Foxa? And is that something where the Blues are losing games this year? Is not having that profile even though it’s not as important. I know that the four the bottom six has been arguably better than the top six this year. So maybe that wouldn’t matter. But is it getting a guy like Bugstat who’s a little bit more of a skilled player and losing some of the grit in Foxhood? Because have the Blues just kind of, you know, gone too much in the middle where they don’t have the big hitters, they don’t have the they don’t have a lot of speed, but they don’t have either of enough of the either or to really make an impact in today’s game. Radik Foxa is a 53% faceoff guy in his career. Bugstad this year is 47. uh for his career. So Bug’s head’s career high for a season is 55%. The career average in faceoffs for Rodic Foxa is about 53. And so that’s one thing the Blues are lacking this year is puck possession. And that’s thing a thing. And he got more Fox got more minutes on the third line than Bug’s dad’s getting on the fourth line. I think that’s a big thing that the Blues lost that they really didn’t I don’t know if they didn’t appreciate it, but they didn’t replace it in 2025 2026. That would be a thing on the margin. Puck possession. You have to get the puck. And that would be a thing on the margins. It’s one of those things where it bitching about your team’s face off percentage is probably a deadend thing for most teams, but it’s one of those little things where if you fall off and it does affect your puck possession, it can be a material thing down the road. Absolutely. It’s just probably not usually the big thing. But in your case, I think isolating that make does make some sense, especially I mean, obviously in the in the Toronto Maple Leafs game, puck possession wasn’t the issue. They had it for the first 245 of that overtime. you’ve heard that sad, I’m sure, if you’ve been paying attention to the Blues over the last three or four days. Uh, so it wasn’t that issue, but there’s been a lot of times this year where it has been the issue. Um, because the especially in those first three or four weeks when they were getting, you know, drugged by five goals, teams were just living in in in the end and they were peppering Bennington and Her and again, it wasn’t good shots, but at this point, you don’t need good shots to beat the Blues, it appears. No, you no, the goalending has not been great. By the way, Fox uh Bugstep first five last six years he’s been under 50% in the faceoff dot and in the last five year last six years Foxa has been uh well 55.8 55.1 56 54.4 57 55.9. So you’ve had one guy who’s consistently been under 50%, another guy who’s consistently been over 55%. So pretty substantial difference in those two guys. And um just looking right now uh Dalboard Devorski 50% to start his uh to start his career. 44 wins, 44 losses. He’s had a couple big games. He’s had a couple bad games, but I mean they have kind of traded that as well by moving D’vorski inside, Sunny inside as well instead of being out on the wing. So they kind of in a lot of ways have have sacrificed some of the the possession from faceoff winning and and we’ll see if maybe that’s something that kind of gets the the ball rolling down the hill in a bad way or a good way. Blues had a couple of uh two-goal leads over the Flyers when they played them last week at Enterprise Center. See if they can get a couple of two-goal leads to blow tonight. Maybe they’ll turn it into a four-goal lead, though. You never know. Hey, Missouri, big news. It’s almost your turn to get into the game because DraftKings Sportsbook is coming to the Show Me State on December 1st. Soon, you’re going to get fast payouts when you win, a safe and secure app that’s easy to use, and promos that keep the action going all season long. No wonder it’s America’s top rated sports book app. The countdown is on. And new customers, when you use that promo code right there, SDL Sports, the one on your screen, sign up right now and get $300 in bonus bets on launch day when you just make a $5 bet. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. And again, use that code STL Sports. New Missouri customer, sign up today and score $300 in bonus bets once we’re live. That’s code STL Sports. The crown is yours in partnership with DraftKings Sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1800 gambler. 21 and over. physically present in Missouri. Eligibility and restrictions apply. Subject to regulatory licensing requirements. Bonus bets are non-withdrawable and expires 7 days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. After the 2024 season, the Cardinals went to Wilson Contraras and said, “Hey, would you be amunable to a trade?” And Contra said, “No, I love being a Cardinal. I want to be a Cardinal. I want to help this team win.” After the 2025 season, as the season was closing down, rather than John Mosaic, Hine Bloom went to Wilson and said, “Hey, uh, would you like to be moved or do you want to stay here during our rebuilding?” Contra said, “I love being a Cardinal. I want to be here. I want to be here during the rebuild.” So, the question is, uh, right here and now, is Wilson Contrarus a possibility for a trade? Is that better for the 2026 Cardinals? Where do you put the chances that it happens? Uh, these are the teams with a bottom 10 war at both first base and designated hitter. These teams need bats. Rockies, no. I mean, if if you if you have a choice between the Cardinal Rockies, right? White Socks, no. No. Marlins, no. Reds, no. Angels, no. And you don’t think you don’t you don’t think he thinks about the Reds? You don’t think he would think about the a Reds trade? I mean, there who’s who’s going to win more games over the next let’s let’s assume there’s two baseball seasons in a row. Uh who would win more games over the 26 and 27 seasons, the Red or the Cardinals? And I know his thought process is going to be a little bit biased because he’s his mindset is I want to turn this team into a winner, but if we’re being realistic, which team’s going to win more baseball games? Well, the Reds are going to win more. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, there’s no doubt about that. So, those are the worst teams. But if you go through uh and you look at ops and war for DH and and first base, there are a ton of teams that could use a 120 130 OPS plus guy in those spots. Diamondbacks. Diamondbacks just traded when they made the Naylor trade. They got a young first baseman from Seattle that they’re going to play. They did. They have um they have Paven as well who Yes. who who um uh very one-sided at the plate. So maybe you you get Wilson in there for if to get experience if your first baseman can’t can’t play out of the and Smith was hurt last year too. He was as well, but you get you get a little DH option. You get some first base uh a veteran in there. I the Padres is another one I I wonder I know the the the payroll is going to be a big thing, but I they obviously were not happy with Luis Ais’s defense at first base. Wilson showed he’s a good defender at first base. You add a 130 OPS bat to that lineup. That’s cooking for the Padres’s. And another one I I think is the Giants. Now, a big a big one with a lot of these teams you’re going to say is, well, they’re going to be they’re about to be in on Kyle Schwarber if you know for a couple of these teams. They’re going to be on on a big bat here. But if you’re the Giants, you have Devers at first and Bryce Eldridge is your DH. They can they can move out. I guess Eldridge I wonder I wonder about whether or not they could they would view that as a as a improvement. I think that’s Buster Posy’s guy. That’s probably that’s that’s probably true. Um but a lot of these teams um because I I threw out uh um another one would have been the Pirates who apparently according to Jeff Pastton were right there on Josh Naylor. Well, you can’t get Josh Naylor. You want to spend some money on a first baseman. I can give you 130 ops spots right there to that first base spot if you really want it. But again, if you’re Contraras, do you take the Pirates over the Cardinals? That’s that’s a big question for him. I mean, who would you rather miss the playoffs with? That’s that’s what it comes down to. And that’s why a lot I think the big thing with the contraras is that there are teams that will have spots available. But this is probably a deal that does not happen until late January, early February after a bunch of the other chips have fallen and a team like the Pirates, maybe they sign somebody big who’s not a first baseman and that shows somebody like Contras that they’re actually legitimate about winning or maybe a team like the Giants or somebody like that who who try to get a big bat are are left, you know, without a chair after the musical after the music ends and they say, “Well, there’s one way for us to do this.” My bottom line is there are teams available, but this trade is going to be a late late offseason thing. The early stuff that could happen is going to be Nolan Aronado. Um Brendan Schaefer just had a great piece on stcentral.com breaking down the sunny grade to the Mets rumor and why it’s probably not the most realistic thing in the world. But this is something that happens way way down after every after all the chips fall where they may. There’s going to be three or four teams that say we still need the boost at DH or potentially first base. Wilson Cadaras is going to be sitting there and maybe later on after everything else happens, maybe if the Cardinals have already ditched some of their money as well, so now they’re looking at things a little bit differently from the financial side, maybe a deal gets done later on, but then you have to get a Contras on board. Then that’s always going to be the hardest part about it. But that’s going to be the part that we can’t control and and that other teams can’t control either. The the thing that we can actually see is does it make sense because they’re a winning team and does it make sense because they have a spot where they would want to trade something and it makes sense for all parties involved. The the personal factor of Wilson Contreras in the I want to be a winner here. How much that affects his mindset that is unfortunately an very important and completely uncontrollable variable. Yeah. And I I wonder also in if we’re talking in a situation hypothetically like this, for example, the Yankees are losing um Paul Goldman, but they have a young hitter like Ben Rice that they like a lot. Uh the Mets, uh they are losing perhaps Pete Alonzo, but they really like Mark Ventos. Do they like a guy like Contas better? And does a guy like Contas have any desire at all to go to New York? Uh, I I think there’s a lot of ifs here. I I think that if you’re going to be able to make a move like this, you’re going to have to really thread a needle. The thing, but and I actually think he fits really well with those situations because it’s a two-year contract, the third year is a club option. So, you’re you’re looking and saying, “Yes, we like VJOS, but is he ready? If if we’re going to be a playoff team right now, is he ready to be a 500 atbat hitter? If he’s not, well, then you get Contrarus for this year and then next year there’s a thing has a bad one-year deal. Contrarus is a bench player. He’s he’s a super sub. Maybe he catches a little bit if you have a little bit. I think that’s also something we’re not looking at. There is there a team that would be willing to say, will we let Wilson catch for 30 games because it fits into our rotation. I don’t I think that’s that that Yeah, that ship is sail out of the barn. Fair enough. That toothpaste is out of the tube. Fair. But my the only having two years and it only being 18 million per year, it’s a it’s a deal that teams again, even if you have a young talented player, you’re still looking and saying, “Look, I mean, look at the Cardinals. They they they thought that second base was going to be locked up with Nolan Gorman three years ago and look where they’re at now. They thought right field was going to be locked up with Jordan Walker. Sometimes it doesn’t work with a young player. And so having an option that isn’t that much that isn’t uh in term that long or that much money and can play multiple positions that’s a useful thing for a winning baseball team which is it’s going to have to be if Wilson’s Contrarus is going to agree to go there. Okay. If you are thinking about doing this if you’re trying to convince Wilson Contrarus and probably give him a few bucks to go away why are you doing it? Who do you want to get in at first base? That’s the one question I I I I I think we might have to leave for another show because is the flexibility of adding of getting rid of Nolan Arnonado is is apparent and and obvious. Getting rid of the money of Sunny Gray is obvious. Why you want to get rid of Wilson Contras is a little less obvious because if you if you clear up some of the outfield um clutter by clearing up left field, that means that technically worst case scenario, you you you aren’t locked in right now. You can play multiple people in the outfield. You can play Berles. You can play Walker. So, but you could also, if you’re keeping Nbar, play him in left and move Berles to first if you if that’s your thought process. Or you could try to get out because at some point you’re going to have to get a position for Ivon Herrera, right? So, you teach him how to play first base. That’s that’s the long-term one. Yeah. Unless Walker’s offense comes and I don’t know if Walker will ever be a corner infielder type power guy, but they did play Gorman at first base a couple of times last year as well. So, it did give them some flexibility. Uh, I know uh you and Bernie talked about it in in the video that people can see uh tomorrow. A little bit of a of a taste here. You guys mentioned, yeah, what if Nolan Gorman’s best spot is DH? It would open up DH at bats sooner uh for Nolan Gorman, which would then give you a chance to find out more about him and maybe a better avenue for him. So, maybe that’s why and that’s where the flexibility comes for the 26 Cardinals. And we should also point out that the Cardinals are going to have within three years major league ready catchers in Crooks, Bernal, and in Rodriguez. And you can always move a catcher to first base. We know that even Yachti went over and played some first base. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t I wasn’t going to bite any on the Wilson Contrera stuff, but with both Bo B uh Bowen and sorry, Bowden and uh Passen mentioning it pretty prominently in their Cardinals write up, I guess there’s a lot more talk about a potential Wilson trade than I thought there was because I thought this was just going to be Aronado and Gray and and any Wilson trade was pretty much just a fly to fancy, but it appears like there’s some some run there. And so what we’re going to do is we’re going to try to figure out where he might go. Make for a fun offseason. It’ll be great. Great job as always, sir. Thank you, sir. That is the one, the only, the great Matthew Rocko Wilson helping us get on the air. And we thank you for checking in here on the Randy Carricker Show on STL Sport. Don’t forget you can sign up to be an insider. All you need to do is go to stlports central.com and you can sign up there and get all of our extra info and extra knowledge. Uh, we are brought to you by DraftKings, where the crown is yours. And we’ll see you next time here on the Randy Carricker Show.

Randy Karraker and Matthew Rocchio are back on The Randy Karraker Show on STL Sports Central! Today, they dive deep into the frustration surrounding the St. Louis Blues and the surprising trade rumors swirling around the St. Louis Cardinals.

Randy gives his unfiltered take on Pavel Buchnevich, questioning why the team’s most talented player isn’t delivering. They discuss the faceoff issues with Radek Faksa and the lineup changes involving Jake Neighbours and Alexandre Texier.

Then, the focus shifts to baseball. Could Willson Contreras actually be traded? Randy and Matthew look at the teams desperate for a bat at 1B/DH, including the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres. They discuss how moving Contreras could open up roster flexibility for the Cardinals’ rebuild and solve the logjam at DH.

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