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Nolan Arenado is a ... St. Louis Cardinal? · Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Nolan Arnado, after months of trade speculation, is a Saint
0:11
Speaker 1: Louis Cardinal. What a wild ride it was. He's Trevor
0:14
Speaker 1: Rosenthal and Katie wou welcome to Cardinal territory. At long last, Trevor,
0:19
Speaker 1: we have some clarity. Nolan Arnado arrived to Jupiter, Florida
0:24
Speaker 1: this morning around seven am. He reported to Cardinals camp.
0:27
Speaker 1: For the time being, at least the immediate future, he
0:31
Speaker 1: is a Saint Louis Cardinal. What do you got, Trevor?
0:34
Speaker 1: Did you see this as a possible reality for this organization?
0:38
Speaker 2: I was leaning more towards him getting traded, just because
0:41
Speaker 2: that was the narrative for such a long time. I mean,
0:45
Speaker 2: this started as soon as the twenty twenty four season ended.
0:49
Speaker 3: But as time went on. I mean, I think we
0:51
Speaker 3: talked about it.
0:52
Speaker 2: I mean, it's really all we've had to talk about,
0:54
Speaker 2: because the Cardinals have said all off season our plans
1:00
Speaker 2: hinge on the destiny of Nolan Aeronada. We will not
1:05
Speaker 2: make any moves in any additions until we have some
1:08
Speaker 2: of that payroll relief.
1:10
Speaker 3: And so here we are. Aeronado is in camp.
1:14
Speaker 2: I guess the coin flip our fifty to fifty coin
1:17
Speaker 2: flip has finally finally.
1:19
Speaker 3: Landed and now here we are not a bad thing.
1:23
Speaker 2: Nolan Ernado great third basement, definitely makes the team better.
1:27
Speaker 3: Whether or not the priority of.
1:28
Speaker 2: This team being the best it can be is at
1:31
Speaker 2: the top of the list. I think, you know, we
1:32
Speaker 2: have some stuff to talk about there, but at least
1:35
Speaker 2: we have that clarity.
1:37
Speaker 1: You know, you're exactly right. We talked to Alimamo this
1:39
Speaker 1: morning and he said, we have the one of the
1:42
Speaker 1: best third basemen to ever play the game walking into camp.
1:44
Speaker 1: I'm super excited he's here. John Mozelock said, you know,
1:47
Speaker 1: simply put, Nolan makes us a better baseball team. And
1:51
Speaker 1: we had a chance to talk to Nolan this morning
1:54
Speaker 1: outside of the media complex and he said, you know,
1:57
Speaker 1: pretty much all they needed to say that he's a
1:58
Speaker 1: Saint Louis Cardinal and if he's going to be here,
2:00
Speaker 1: he's going to commit to being here. While neither him
2:04
Speaker 1: nor Mo ruled out revisiting a potential trade maybe later
2:07
Speaker 1: in the season, right now, the Cardinals are moving forward
2:10
Speaker 1: with Nolan as their third basement. Let's talk about how
2:14
Speaker 1: they got here in the first place, though, Because some
2:15
Speaker 1: events transpired over the last four days that really slolidified
2:19
Speaker 1: Arnado's place in Saint Louis. So let's see reported to
2:24
Speaker 1: Cardinals camp. He said, I'm a ballplayer. I'm really focusing
2:27
Speaker 1: on getting ready for the season. The one thing about
2:29
Speaker 1: this place, I'm very comfortable and that's going to help
2:32
Speaker 1: me get ready for the season. He is comfortable as
2:34
Speaker 1: a Saint Louis Cardinal. This will be his fifth season. However,
2:39
Speaker 1: up until Wednesday, whenever Alex Bregman signed, there was virtually,
2:43
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of speculation on where he was
2:46
Speaker 1: going to go. So we talked to Moe on Tuesday
2:49
Speaker 1: with pictures and camp pictures and catchers officially reported, and
2:51
Speaker 1: he said, you know, hey, we're still open minded. There
2:53
Speaker 1: are some places that we think we can put like
2:56
Speaker 1: trade Nolan. And without naming it was pretty clear that
2:58
Speaker 1: it was Bregman or Boston because we've spent the last
3:01
Speaker 1: eight weeks talking about how Alex Bregman more or less
3:04
Speaker 1: is controlling Nolan Arnado's destiny. Late Wednesday night, news breaks
3:08
Speaker 1: from the athletics Chandler Rome, host of Crush City Territory,
3:11
Speaker 1: that Alex Bregman is signing with the Boston Red Sox
3:14
Speaker 1: on a three year, one hundred and twenty million dollar deal,
3:18
Speaker 1: and that pretty much put the cabash on any Nolan
3:20
Speaker 1: Arnatto trade because Boston at this point seemed like the
3:24
Speaker 1: last option. So we know that Nolan gave MO a
3:28
Speaker 1: list of five teams. We don't know all five teams
3:30
Speaker 1: on it, but we know the Red Sox, the Yankees,
3:32
Speaker 1: and the Dodgers were all destinations that he would look
3:35
Speaker 1: to approve and wave his no trade clause should that happen.
3:40
Speaker 1: And obviously Boston is off that list now with Bregman
3:43
Speaker 1: signing there. So now Nolan's here, he told he said
3:47
Speaker 1: that he had plenty of time to prepare and talk
3:50
Speaker 1: and think on his cross country flight from southern California
3:53
Speaker 1: to West Palm, and now that he's here, he's ready
3:56
Speaker 1: to go. Is this an ideal situation for anyone? I
4:00
Speaker 1: wouldn't say that, just because both sides were pretty clear
4:03
Speaker 1: that they agreed moving on was the best possible outcome
4:06
Speaker 1: for both parties. Isn't a bad thing to have an
4:10
Speaker 1: eight time All Star, ten time Gold Glove Award winning
4:12
Speaker 1: third baseman back in camp right now? I don't think
4:15
Speaker 1: so at all. And I can tell you walking into
4:17
Speaker 1: that clubhouse today. Every player and coach was very excited
4:20
Speaker 1: to see him.
4:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's it's definitely not not a bad thing,
4:25
Speaker 2: and especially for the for the Cardinals, for Alie Marvel
4:30
Speaker 2: as a manager, I'm excited.
4:31
Speaker 3: I agree with that.
4:32
Speaker 2: I'm excited to see noelan Aeronatta walking through the doors
4:34
Speaker 2: any day.
4:36
Speaker 3: And then for Nolan, there's.
4:38
Speaker 2: A reason, and he's talked about this, that there were
4:40
Speaker 2: only a handful of teams that he would be comfortable
4:43
Speaker 2: making that transition to. And kind of reading between the lines,
4:46
Speaker 2: I mean, Saint Louis seems like a comfortable.
4:49
Speaker 3: Place for me. He seems happy there.
4:51
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm a big fan of the Saint Louis
4:53
Speaker 2: Cardinals organization and the city, the fans, the ballpark, all
4:57
Speaker 2: those things.
4:57
Speaker 3: It's a great place to play as a player.
5:00
Speaker 2: You know, I think he mentioned that he doesn't he's
5:03
Speaker 2: not a huge fan of the organization rebuilding or pulling
5:07
Speaker 2: back or not being all in. And so, you know,
5:11
Speaker 2: I'm sure he would rather be in a place where
5:14
Speaker 2: it's like, hey, we're all in, we're trying to win,
5:16
Speaker 2: and we want you to be a part of that.
5:19
Speaker 2: But the one thing that I don't like and this
5:23
Speaker 2: might be a little bit of a hint of more
5:26
Speaker 2: to come this year. And I think that this falls
5:28
Speaker 2: onto the shoulders of John Mozelac. We're in this transition period.
5:32
Speaker 2: We have this dual headed president of operations for the team,
5:38
Speaker 2: and maybe this is a little bit of foreshadowing of
5:42
Speaker 2: what's going to be happening throughout this season, saying one
5:44
Speaker 2: thing and then something else kind of happening. And by
5:47
Speaker 2: no means is this going to taint the success that
5:50
Speaker 2: Mozelac has had in his tenure. But I think for
5:54
Speaker 2: the avid fan, the casual fan, you do wonder like, oh,
5:59
Speaker 2: we said that we were going to trade this guy,
6:00
Speaker 2: We said we were moving in a different direction.
6:02
Speaker 3: And that didn't happen.
6:03
Speaker 2: I'm sure there's gonna be a casual fan in the
6:05
Speaker 2: stands at Bush Stadium on May fifth that thinks, wait,
6:09
Speaker 2: I thought Aeronauto was traded. Why is he still out
6:12
Speaker 2: here at third base. Not that they're going to be disappointed,
6:15
Speaker 2: but I think in this year specifically, it's gonna create
6:20
Speaker 2: some questions, maybe leave a little bit of a shadow
6:24
Speaker 2: on mozay Lock that he doesn't necessarily deserve.
6:27
Speaker 3: But that seems to be how it's playing out right now.
6:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so interesting because, and I think we've talked
6:32
Speaker 1: about this before, Moe has always kept his negotiations really
6:35
Speaker 1: out of the press, and while it makes my job harder,
6:38
Speaker 1: it's probably the smarter play, right, So for him to
6:40
Speaker 1: come out of the winter meetings and say no, we
6:42
Speaker 1: certainly intend to move Nolan Arnado I was like, this
6:45
Speaker 1: is this is not how I usually operate. And I
6:48
Speaker 1: think why he said that was because the organization was
6:50
Speaker 1: confident that a trade would happen, right, and it didn't,
6:55
Speaker 1: and it was proved to be a lot harder than
6:56
Speaker 1: I think anyone envisioned, especially once Nolan said no the Astros,
7:00
Speaker 1: and he has his reasons for doing that. He did
7:03
Speaker 1: not he neglected or declined to explain, like why that
7:07
Speaker 1: was not a suit for him. He declined to elaborate
7:11
Speaker 1: on the five teams that he chose, but he also
7:13
Speaker 1: said that he is not going to expand that list
7:16
Speaker 1: any further, citing the fact that you know, he has
7:18
Speaker 1: a wife and a two year old daughter. He has
7:20
Speaker 1: a family. He doesn't want to just uproot them out
7:22
Speaker 1: of anywhere. So it really was only going to move
7:25
Speaker 1: if it made total sense to him. And MO can
7:28
Speaker 1: only do so much with that. John Mozeyloc's job is
7:31
Speaker 1: to find the best possible trade for the Saint Louis Cardinals,
7:35
Speaker 1: not the best possible trade for Nolan Arnatto. Now, Nolan's
7:39
Speaker 1: no trade cause means that obviously MO has to work
7:42
Speaker 1: within the parameters of the rights that the player earned.
7:45
Speaker 1: Sometimes the ben diagram of those two things have a
7:49
Speaker 1: very small overlapping circle, and I think that's what we
7:51
Speaker 1: saw with the Cardinals. Is it a great look to
7:54
Speaker 1: spend four months proclaiming that you're going to trade arguably
7:58
Speaker 1: one of your best players, I know, you know offensive
8:00
Speaker 1: decline aside. Nolan Arnaudo, in my opinion's a hall of famer.
8:04
Speaker 1: To say that you're going to do that for four
8:05
Speaker 1: months and then have him report to spring training certainly
8:07
Speaker 1: does make for an awkward situation. But to everyone's credit
8:11
Speaker 1: involved today, all I Marvel, John Moseaylock, Nolan Arnado said
8:15
Speaker 1: all the right things. They met actually at seven am
8:19
Speaker 1: before media at eight thirty five this morning, just to
8:21
Speaker 1: make sure everyone's on the same page and talk things
8:23
Speaker 1: out and make sure there were no gripes, and everyone
8:26
Speaker 1: described the conversations as friendly. I think Mo went as
8:28
Speaker 1: far to say they were cordial, professional and even joked.
8:31
Speaker 1: He's like, I hope when I see you, Nolan, that
8:33
Speaker 1: I get a hug, and he did confirm that there
8:35
Speaker 1: was a hug. So, yes, it's not ideal. And I
8:38
Speaker 1: think we've talked about this a lot. There is some
8:40
Speaker 1: fan apprehension with John Moseylock, maybe some fan fatigue and
8:45
Speaker 1: this whole reset transition, that's his word. He likes to
8:49
Speaker 1: use this as a transition. He made it very clear
8:51
Speaker 1: he will be referring to the twenty twenty five season
8:53
Speaker 1: as a transition year, not a reset. So let the
8:55
Speaker 1: record show that it makes a little difficult. And there's
8:59
Speaker 1: already a bunch of ampathy about the state of the
9:01
Speaker 1: organization right now, last year's record, the lack of spending
9:05
Speaker 1: and free agency this offseason, the overall just maybe sentiment
9:10
Speaker 1: that the Cardinals are running back last year's roster and
9:12
Speaker 1: not making any changes. So I get it. But now
9:15
Speaker 1: I think the question goes from what are the Cardinals
9:18
Speaker 1: going to do with Nolan Narnado to what are they
9:20
Speaker 1: going to do with him? And how does it impact
9:22
Speaker 1: the rest of the roster. And that's something that both
9:25
Speaker 1: Mo and Aali spoke to at length this morning and saying, yeah,
9:27
Speaker 1: this changes our calculus a little bit. We have to
9:30
Speaker 1: figure out how to give opportunity and runway the two
9:34
Speaker 1: biggest themes of the off season. Can we actually ensure that?
9:38
Speaker 1: And I don't know, Trevor, if you're a fan and
9:40
Speaker 1: you're thinking management now all of a sudden has to
9:43
Speaker 1: pivot back and redo their foundation of what they built
9:46
Speaker 1: the entire off season on. What are you thinking as
9:48
Speaker 1: a fan?
9:49
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, first, you look at Nolan Aeronado and
9:52
Speaker 2: we know him very well at this point. He's been
9:54
Speaker 2: around for a long time and he even said it
9:56
Speaker 2: and his quote, I'm a ballplayer, so you better believe
9:59
Speaker 2: is as long as Nolan is capable, he's going to
10:02
Speaker 2: show up and expect to be in the lineup, in
10:04
Speaker 2: the middle of the lineup, playing third base every single day,
10:08
Speaker 2: rain or shine, day game or night game.
10:10
Speaker 3: He likes to play baseball.
10:12
Speaker 2: And as a fan, that kind of goes against the
10:17
Speaker 2: grain of what we've been hearing and creating different opportunities.
10:21
Speaker 2: If you have a player that's guaranteed to eat up
10:23
Speaker 2: ninety percent of the playing time that's available throughout this season, well,
10:28
Speaker 2: what happens to the Nolan Gorman's and the Donovans, the Sagacies,
10:33
Speaker 2: these players that the Cardinals were looking to give opportunity
10:38
Speaker 2: and really find out and see what they have going
10:40
Speaker 2: into this transition year and then hopefully building upon that
10:44
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty six. So as a fan, I'm mixed
10:49
Speaker 2: the motions. Of course, winning solves all things, so hopefully
10:53
Speaker 2: we can be on.
10:53
Speaker 3: The right side of the scoreboard early and often.
10:56
Speaker 2: But other than that, I think, like I said, like
10:58
Speaker 2: I said earlier, it's gonna create and add to this
11:02
Speaker 2: tension in this final year of the John Mosey locker regime.
11:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's to me the big takeaway, And I thought
11:10
Speaker 1: that Alie Marmal had some really interesting answers to this.
11:13
Speaker 1: I asked, you know, there is a lot of roster flexibility,
11:16
Speaker 1: position flexibility within how the current roster projects, and obviously,
11:20
Speaker 1: on February sixteenth, there are still six weeks of games
11:24
Speaker 1: to get through. Some of these rostered log jams are
11:27
Speaker 1: going to solve themselves. Performance, competition and unfortunately injuries all
11:32
Speaker 1: play a part in the spring training roster and how
11:35
Speaker 1: that gets set for opening day. But I asked him,
11:37
Speaker 1: based on last year. He did such a nice job
11:39
Speaker 1: of utilizing the flexibility of his roster and putting guys
11:42
Speaker 1: in different positions every day, and you had almost a
11:45
Speaker 1: different lineup every day. I asked him if that was
11:47
Speaker 1: going to be something similar that he used to ensure
11:49
Speaker 1: bats and his answer was telling it was completely different.
11:53
Speaker 1: Let me pull up the quote for you. He said,
11:56
Speaker 1: it'd be my preference not to bounce people around for
11:59
Speaker 1: the sake of atvats. So that's where we need to
12:01
Speaker 1: figure out what this really looks like and how to
12:03
Speaker 1: do it best. So earlier, you know, I was processing
12:07
Speaker 1: maybe they could start Gorman at second or make him
12:10
Speaker 1: a DH, put Donnie at second, switch Sianni and Lars
12:13
Speaker 1: around in the outfield. It certainly sounds like they want
12:16
Speaker 1: solidified positions, and it's certainly not going to be the
12:18
Speaker 1: exact same lineup every day. Left handed and right handed
12:20
Speaker 1: platoons exist. But it certainly sounds like the Cardinals want
12:25
Speaker 1: a relatively set lineup and that's going to include Nolan
12:28
Speaker 1: Anauto at third base. Again, stop asking me if they
12:31
Speaker 1: are going to like bench him. No, they're not going
12:34
Speaker 1: to do that. They still want to win games, and
12:37
Speaker 1: you're also not going to bench a Hall of Fame
12:38
Speaker 1: third baseman who still has, in my opinion, plenty left
12:41
Speaker 1: in the tank to really fix the last two years.
12:44
Speaker 1: You have Contrarius at first, they want at bats for Walker,
12:47
Speaker 1: they wanted bats for Gorman, they wanted bats for new
12:50
Speaker 1: bar Donovan and Mason Wynn look poised to have that
12:53
Speaker 1: same workload as last year. So the guys that are
12:56
Speaker 1: really going to be impacted by this, the guys who
12:58
Speaker 1: the Cardinals really have to make decision is about with
13:00
Speaker 1: the way things currently stand today are alec Erlson, Michael Sianni,
13:06
Speaker 1: Victor Scott the second, Luken Baker, and Thomas A. Jac
13:10
Speaker 1: Those five I think are in the biggest risk of
13:12
Speaker 1: maybe either losing playing time or potentially seen starting the
13:16
Speaker 1: season in Triple A. And that's the thing that the
13:18
Speaker 1: Cardinals are going to have to decide, and they, you know,
13:20
Speaker 1: the big thing for them this year is figuring out
13:22
Speaker 1: what position players they want to carry into twenty twenty six.
13:25
Speaker 1: Can they do that with nol Narnatto still on the team.
13:27
Speaker 1: I believe that, I do think so, But it's going
13:30
Speaker 1: to have a trickle down effect to some of the
13:31
Speaker 1: fringe players on the roster.
13:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean talking about the roster shaking itself off,
13:38
Speaker 2: itself out.
13:38
Speaker 3: He talked about you.
13:39
Speaker 2: Know, performance and health, all these factors that, well, guess what,
13:44
Speaker 2: twenty nine other teams are going through that same process
13:48
Speaker 2: this spring training and into the season. And I would say,
13:52
Speaker 2: you know, talk negatively about how they've been open about
13:55
Speaker 2: the you know, the conversation of Eronatto being traded and.
13:58
Speaker 3: It didn't come to fruition.
13:59
Speaker 2: Well, maybe the one positive of that marketing technique is
14:02
Speaker 2: if something happens in one of these other twenty nine camps,
14:06
Speaker 2: you better believe Nolan Aronado is gonna be on the
14:08
Speaker 2: top of the mind of the front office, the coaches,
14:11
Speaker 2: and even the players. I mean the players pay attention
14:14
Speaker 2: to this, and that to me is an interesting scenario
14:18
Speaker 2: to keep an eye on. And it's also kind of
14:21
Speaker 2: humorous to me to think about putting myself in Aeronaudo's
14:24
Speaker 2: shoes or even as a teammate of Aeronauta when he
14:26
Speaker 2: shows up today and walks through those doors. And I
14:30
Speaker 2: like that you pointed out they were very professional. This
14:33
Speaker 2: could have been handled in a number of different ways,
14:36
Speaker 2: so it was great to see that they were there early.
14:38
Speaker 3: They they were able.
14:39
Speaker 2: To smooth things over and get on the right track
14:42
Speaker 2: for everybody. I mean, there's no reason to drag this
14:44
Speaker 2: out in a negative way at any point. But that's
14:49
Speaker 2: a huge positive. But I just imagine being in that
14:50
Speaker 2: clubhouse and seeing Aeronauto walk through the doors. That would
14:54
Speaker 2: there would be some good jokes and some good humor.
14:56
Speaker 2: I think that could happen around that. So I agree
15:00
Speaker 2: Katie that there's a lot still to see how this
15:04
Speaker 2: shakes out. And we haven't even had our first game yet.
15:06
Speaker 2: We're getting close, getting close. First full squad is tomorrow,
15:10
Speaker 2: first full squad tomorrow.
15:12
Speaker 3: I've been seeing some live action.
15:14
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I saw, unfortunately or not, Pedro Pajes take our
15:20
Speaker 2: boy Quinn Matthews over the fence today.
15:23
Speaker 3: Oh Man called it.
15:24
Speaker 1: He called it in the clubhouse. He said he was
15:26
Speaker 1: feeling good for lives. He's like, I got Quinn, I
15:29
Speaker 1: feel good and first pitch opposite field, right center, cleared
15:33
Speaker 1: it out field too, and you could see him he
15:35
Speaker 1: was feeling real good about himself. Pedro Paz is going
15:38
Speaker 1: to do the show pretty soon, so we can grill
15:41
Speaker 1: him about that. Now, we got to get Quinn Matthews
15:43
Speaker 1: on but yeah, no. And Pedro was one of the
15:45
Speaker 1: players that I talked to this morning. He was like, man,
15:47
Speaker 1: I'm so happy that Nolan's back. And was it a
15:50
Speaker 1: little weird seeing Nolan walk out to the media patio
15:53
Speaker 1: and Cardinal read. I was like, yeah, that's not the
15:55
Speaker 1: red I thought you'd be wearing. I thought maybe you'd
15:56
Speaker 1: be wearing like Boston Red Sox red. But again, I
16:00
Speaker 1: can't say enough about how he handled the situation. And
16:02
Speaker 1: I'm going through quotes up on the Athletic right now.
16:04
Speaker 1: We have the full interviews with John mosaylac Oli, Marmal
16:08
Speaker 1: and Nolan Arnado and one quote that really stood out
16:11
Speaker 1: to me and how it was not just what he said,
16:14
Speaker 1: but how he said it. It really kind of solidified
16:18
Speaker 1: to me how motivated he is to be better than
16:21
Speaker 1: last year. We asked him if you know if it
16:24
Speaker 1: was weird at all being back here, and he said,
16:26
Speaker 1: did I sit here in the off season and think
16:27
Speaker 1: I wasn't coming back. No, I knew there was always
16:30
Speaker 1: a chance of me coming back, so I'm prepared to
16:32
Speaker 1: be here. The one thing about this place, Saint Louis,
16:35
Speaker 1: I'm very comfortable. I know it that's going to help
16:37
Speaker 1: me get ready for the season, and I'm in the
16:39
Speaker 1: right place me mentally. I feel ready. I have a
16:42
Speaker 1: lot to prove. And then he said this line, Trevor,
16:44
Speaker 1: He said, last year was not what I want Cardinals
16:47
Speaker 1: fans to know me as so I see this as
16:49
Speaker 1: an opportunity to change that. Now. Remember we're just two
16:52
Speaker 1: seasons removed from when he was third place in the
16:55
Speaker 1: Nation League MVP voting. Had a great year in twenty
16:57
Speaker 1: twenty two, but with the twenty twenty three and twenty
16:59
Speaker 1: twenty befoor he'd be the first to say, are so disappointing?
17:02
Speaker 1: Do you think that Nolan Arnado is not motivated not
17:05
Speaker 1: only by his play the last two years, or by
17:08
Speaker 1: the fact that teams that he wanted didn't want him
17:11
Speaker 1: and kind of thought that he wasn't worth the money
17:13
Speaker 1: or not worth the hassle to trade for him. That
17:16
Speaker 1: is the way he just said it, like this is
17:18
Speaker 1: not what I want Cardinals fans to remember me, as
17:20
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to be remembered as the third baseman
17:22
Speaker 1: who fell off a cliff after twenty twenty two, or
17:24
Speaker 1: the third baseman that was traded away and didn't get
17:27
Speaker 1: a chance to prove that he does have this bounce
17:29
Speaker 1: back setting in him. I'm excited to see what that
17:31
Speaker 1: looks like because I think he's going to start the
17:33
Speaker 1: season in Saint Louis, and it's just a matter of time,
17:36
Speaker 1: you know, before we do this all over again, honestly,
17:38
Speaker 1: but for the time that he's here, I think we're
17:41
Speaker 1: going to see a really improved Nolan Arnado. And I
17:44
Speaker 1: think that's something that fans could be really excited to see.
17:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, I think we should be excited about it.
17:49
Speaker 2: I mean, he seemed, you know, we mentioned following him
17:51
Speaker 2: through the off season, the stuff that he shared on
17:53
Speaker 2: his social media accounts, but he was whether he was
17:56
Speaker 2: going to be in Saint Louis or have a fresh
17:58
Speaker 2: restart or a fresh opportunity, he wanted to make the
18:02
Speaker 2: most of that. And so hopefully with the Cardinals in
18:05
Speaker 2: the position there and they end up being the beneficiary
18:08
Speaker 2: of that refocus and the attention to improving himself upon
18:14
Speaker 2: whatever he saw that he needed to prove upon from
18:16
Speaker 2: the previous season, and and and to the effect, you know,
18:21
Speaker 2: we're talking about the Cardinals going through a transition and rebuild.
18:24
Speaker 2: How However, we want to frame it when when Aeronauta
18:28
Speaker 2: was asked about that question of like, how do you
18:30
Speaker 2: feel about the state of the organization, and uh, he said,
18:34
Speaker 2: I I think it's what's best for the Cardinal He said,
18:37
Speaker 2: is it?
18:37
Speaker 3: Is it what's best for the Cardinals? Probably?
18:39
Speaker 2: And I think that that to me was interesting to
18:43
Speaker 2: hear his perspective. And as a player, it can be
18:46
Speaker 2: hard to have a holistic view because you're so focused
18:48
Speaker 2: on what you're doing, and especially in Eronato situation, just
18:51
Speaker 2: focused on where you're going to be. But the fact
18:55
Speaker 2: that he's cognizant not only of his own performance but
18:58
Speaker 2: the state of the organization. And again, I think the
19:02
Speaker 2: Cardinals benefit from this. I think he can come in
19:04
Speaker 2: with the outlook that he wants to leave a good
19:06
Speaker 2: impression on this fan base. He wants to be a
19:09
Speaker 2: positive contributor, not just in performance, but realizing there's a
19:13
Speaker 2: next generation of player, there's a next core group of
19:17
Speaker 2: players coming up through this system, and he can be
19:19
Speaker 2: a big part of shaping the direction of those players
19:23
Speaker 2: for years to come.
19:24
Speaker 3: So I thought that was interesting to see.
19:26
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a lot of fun to watch him
19:29
Speaker 2: get started and get into some games.
19:31
Speaker 3: Hopefully he just kills it, you know.
19:34
Speaker 2: Hopefully he's the Aeronaudo that we saw in twenty two
19:38
Speaker 2: and throughout his whole career, and we get the pleasure
19:42
Speaker 2: of watching him play.
19:43
Speaker 1: And they are a better team with Nolan Arnado a
19:46
Speaker 1: third base than without. I think you respond on with
19:49
Speaker 1: what you said. Nolan did say, you know, I think
19:51
Speaker 1: this is probably the direction the Cardinals need to go in.
19:54
Speaker 1: He's not the only veteran who have said that. Sonny Grain,
19:56
Speaker 1: Wilson Conturis have said the same. So I think there
19:59
Speaker 1: is buy in about the organization's direction. This transitioneer, if
20:04
Speaker 1: you will, may not be the easiest systomach for fans,
20:07
Speaker 1: and I certainly understand that, but I don't think it's
20:10
Speaker 1: going to be as drastic of maybe a drop off
20:13
Speaker 1: as we first envisioned in October. Essentially, they're just running
20:17
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four roster back without Paul Goldschmidt, and
20:21
Speaker 1: I can see both sides of that. I can see
20:23
Speaker 1: being excited because it means that maybe you'll be able
20:24
Speaker 1: to contend again. The Cardinals won eighty three games last
20:27
Speaker 1: year with a really bad offense, and I have zero
20:30
Speaker 1: reason to believe that offense will repeat itself. At the
20:33
Speaker 1: same time, it's hard to get excited about a transition
20:35
Speaker 1: when you don't see a lot of actual transition taking place.
20:39
Speaker 1: So that's how this spring goes, and how different opportunities
20:42
Speaker 1: will factor into the lineup and the roster is really
20:45
Speaker 1: interested to me or really interesting to me, We'll see Trevor.
20:49
Speaker 1: But hey, look, there's some clarity. We can finally put
20:52
Speaker 1: this to rest. After four months of the back and
20:55
Speaker 1: forth turmoil. We know, at least for now, Nolan Arnatto
20:59
Speaker 1: is a Saint was Cardinal and the Cardinals can move
21:01
Speaker 1: forward from there.
21:03
Speaker 3: Our question has been answered.
21:07
Speaker 2: At least we had something to talk about all off season,
21:10
Speaker 2: you know, not necessarily one thing.
21:13
Speaker 3: We had one thing.
21:14
Speaker 1: We had one thing, one whole thing. Yep, and here
21:17
Speaker 1: we are now finally some resolution on February sixteenth. But
21:20
Speaker 1: the great news is to our loyal listeners at Cardinal Territory,
21:24
Speaker 1: we have lots to talk about now, and we have
21:26
Speaker 1: lots of exciting guests and next week, seeing the Was
21:28
Speaker 1: Cardinals manager Allie Marvel's joining the show. He's going to
21:31
Speaker 1: be our very first guest interview. And if you haven't listened,
21:35
Speaker 1: to all these interviews to start the spring on different
21:37
Speaker 1: various media platforms. I would highly encourage you to. I
21:41
Speaker 1: think he's done such a nice job at explaining the
21:43
Speaker 1: direction of this team and his vision for it. I'm
21:47
Speaker 1: certainly excited to get into it with Trevor to this week,
21:50
Speaker 1: and then we'll have Gordon Grisepo our first player interview.
21:52
Speaker 1: He's scheduled to join the show next week as well.
21:55
Speaker 1: And lots of fun things in the works, so we
21:58
Speaker 1: promised you that it would pick up. Thanks for sticking around.
22:01
Speaker 1: Definitely some good things coming in the works, and of course,
22:04
Speaker 1: first full squad tomorrow, so we'll get a chance to
22:07
Speaker 1: see what this Cardinals team really looks like as early
22:10
Speaker 1: as Monday. That is exciting.
22:13
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm glad you're there, Katie.
22:17
Speaker 2: You're getting a lot of good feel for what's going
22:19
Speaker 2: on in the organization. I'm excited to talk to these
22:22
Speaker 2: the manager, I mean, Marvel, this will be a lot
22:24
Speaker 2: of fun. And then to get some of the players
22:26
Speaker 2: on too, We're gonna I think that will help us
22:28
Speaker 2: give us like a vibe check, right, like, yeah, how
22:31
Speaker 2: are these guys feeling, what are they talking about? What's
22:33
Speaker 2: the excitement level, so a lot to look forward to.
22:36
Speaker 1: Well, hope you join us. You can like and subscribe
22:38
Speaker 1: to our page on YouTube if you haven't already. If
22:41
Speaker 1: you have, thank you so much, and you can find
22:42
Speaker 1: us on Spotify and Apple. We'll be back with you
22:46
Speaker 1: next week. Lots of fun guests, lots of fun things
22:48
Speaker 1: in store. Baseball is back and we're getting to it.
22:52
Speaker 1: For Trevor Rosenthal, I'm Katie Woo. This is Cardinal Territory
23:03
Speaker 1: in