I caught some of the game on the app today. They mentioned Bader not there and in the lineup up because of the no agreement on arbitration.

I thought arbitration was the player and the club present their case why it’s “this” amount and then the arbitrator decides who’s right. Did that change with the new deal?

It means that the Cardinals will present what they believe Bader and O'Neill is worth and those 2 players will present what they believe they are worth to a panel of arbitrators that will select either the Cardinals offer or the players offer and that's how much they will make. They can still come to a settlement before the hearing. Until the hearing the player is paid at what the team has filed for arbitration and the difference is made up if the player wins.

But, are they sitting out until the arbitrators decide who's right?

Cardinals are a ‘file and trial’ team.

They won’t settle unless it’s on a long-term deal.

Club may win Baders as arbitrators still don’t value defense all that well. They’ll probably lose O’Neill’s.

Oh well. They’ll be Cardinals in 2022 either way and it’s just DeWitts money. I hope they both wreck his stingy ass.

Never been done that I’ve seen.

Pretty sure I saw on twitter their absence from the lineup had nothing to do with arbitration. :shrug:

Ownership.

Nutting is frugal.

Woo: from the Athletic.


The Cardinals have had increased conversations with three-time MVP Albert Pujols, and interest is growing in bringing back the former Cardinal for the 2022 season, multiple sources familiar with the situation told The Athletic. Pujols, 42, would not be an everyday player. Rather, he would serve as a right-handed bench bat, similar to the role St. Louis identified when they inked outfielder Corey Dickerson to a one-year deal last week.

The Cardinals, an organization rich in tradition, have tended to stay away from consistent lineup platoons. New manager Oli Marmol has expressed other plans. The expectation is the first-year skipper would prefer to modernize his roster, utilizing platoons, matchups and lineup fluidity on a game-by-game basis.

If president of baseball operations John Mozeliak decides to bring back Pujols to St. Louis, it would be under the following pretenses: Pujols would not be a starter and would not upend Paul Goldschmidt’s playing time at first base. He would primarily be used off the bench as a late-inning power bat. He could also serve as a mentor for Juan Yepez, a promising 24-year-old reserve first baseman and sometimes corner outfielder who is hoping to make the big-league club when camp breaks.

Watching Liberatore pitch this afternoon was concerning for me. I know it's just ST, but the ball coming out of his hand moved on a really flat plane, and he got hit very hard as a result. Because he has more of a low 3/4 delivery, if his ball doesn't have any downward motion it just tracks right into the zone.

Thanks for starting up this thread again! I won’t be able to go to Opening Day like originally planned but will see them when they come visit Chicago and I’m looking into going to Boston to see a game during my birthday weekend

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Albert Pujols is returning home to St Louis on one-year contract. <a href="https://twitter.com/dgoold?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dgoold</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/katiejwoo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@katiejwoo</a> on it.</p>&mdash; Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) <a href="https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1508298116180545539?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Let the Albert Pujols retirement celebration year begin.

Throw in Wainwight and Yadi and it's basically the Yankees with Pettitte, Rivera, and Jeter.

Yep, I love it. Perfect swan song for the three of them.

As long as he just PH against lefties late in the game.

Waaaaaaank.

Wank.

wank.

This isn't the move a team looking to win a championship makes. Not when they have a 24 year old polished righty hitter who MAULED baseballs at every stop next year.

A serious organization lets Juan Yepez spend this season working against big league pitchers so he can unleash hell on an unsuspecting world in September. So he can make the kind of progressions normal human beings like Dylan Carlson make before being a vital component down the stretch.

One year removed from watching him develop over the course of the season and we decide 'nah - don't need to let Yepez do that. Let's just roll with Albert...'

And hell, Dickerson's going to get most of the ABs that could've gone to Noot (and should PROBABLY) end up going to Burleson by mid-season).

This just hasn't been a smart organization for a very long time.

The Dickerson signing really is a perfect embodiment of everything these guys are.

For 6 years from 2014-2019 the guy puts up a .900 OPS against righties while making $13 million total over that time. The whole damn time I'm screaming for them to pick him up to platoon and have as a premier lefty off the bench because we had nothing in the system worth sending out there that hit from the left side.

We finally end up with a couple of guys 'professional hitter' types with some long-term potential in the role in Nootbaar and Burleson. Meanwhile Dickerson showed obvious decline last season right when every aging curve in the world shows a substantial drop off (though it levels out for a couple years from here). And NOW we want to pay him $5 million to come here.

I really do not understand it. This team just makes very few intelligent acquisitions anymore. They don't pursue surplus value anywhere apart from the back of the rotation and the middle of the bullpen.

It's like they've forgotten how to build a winning team. I really don't understand it.

Hey - remember when we could've signed Bryce Harper for $26 million/season and had him finish his HoF career in St. Louis? That didn't actually happen, right?

Dammit this organization pisses me off.