Jeff Jones

Cardinals 90-second survey: Alarms, walk-offs and who’s banned from the grill The BND’s annual spring survey of the Redbirds rarely reveals stark truths, but often reveals some entertaining facts.

Lars Nootbaar’s El Segundo A’s, Chris Roycroft’s cold showers, and Andre Pallante as both grill master and grill disaster. The 2026 low-content spring training survey has arrived:

www.bnd.com/sports/mlb/s...

It took NHL players at least 15 years to recover their salaries to pre-05 levels after their apocalyptic lockout. In that time, franchise values quadrupled, at minimum. I know the scales and cultural purchase are different between the leagues but I have no idea why that math would be.

No Nootbaar, no problem? Cardinals turn left field into an audition stage Who will it be? Bryan Torres, José Fermín, Thomas Saggese, or Nelson Velázquez?

Ten games into spring training, the Cardinals have used five left fielders, somehow none of whom have been Nathan Church. While they put off declaring Lars Nootbaar out for opening day, they’re conducting the widest-open competition in camp:

www.bnd.com/sports/mlb/s...

Only vaguely interesting move here is Shuster, who was ostensibly in a competition with Bruihl, Naughton, Raquet among others for the second lefty slot in the bullpen. Maybe Mautz?

First Cardinals cuts:

Roby optioned

Cijntje, Hansen, Henderson, Love, Rincón, Robberse, Shuster, Thompson, Tarlow, Antico reassigned

A cynical person would wonder if MLB’s committed increase of exposure for the Spring Breakout games was part of an effort to identify fans earlier with young (cheap) players and dim some of the older stars in comparison.

A cynical person! Not me!

Girl and the Goat is my favorite restaurant period. Yes, it’s now a place where people take their parents who live in the suburbs, don’t care. Still superb. Half Shell in Lincoln Park for crabs and clams. Staff is the Bill Swersky cast. Nisei Lounge in Wrigleyville is a must-do dive.

ATTN: @downgoesbrown.bsky.social, @seangentille.bsky.social

That is a wrap for me from Jupiter. Plenty of stories still to come over the next week while I’m floating around the Caribbean, and three weeks from tomorrow, I will catch back up with the team in Springfield. Thanks for following along!

Yohel Pozo singles to left in the bottom of the fifth to relieve all of us from trying to decide if anyone would care about a spring training no hitter.

Konnor Griffin cranked a piss missile homer on Kyle Leahy's third pitch of the game. I take it he's good.

As a gift to Oli Marmol on his extension day, CB Bucknor has the plate at Roger Dean this afternoon.

Iván Herrera will catch three innings today, Marmol said this morning. He's hitting leadoff so as to max out the opportunities to hit while he's in the game.

Today's game notes inform that this is the first spring training matchup between the Cardinals and Pirates since March 29, 1998, and the first in the history of the Dean.

This is the sort of thing I am explicitly not allowed to bet on, but if I was, I would let you name your price.

Cardinals commit to Marmol to steer young roster through rebuild, team confirms The Redbird skipper was given a two-year contract extension, according to reports.

"I feel like I'm built exactly for this moment in Cardinal history."

As he enters his fifth season as manager and his 20th as a member of the organization, Oli Marmol now has the job security to match his alignment with the team's long-term vision:

www.bnd.com/sports/mlb/s...

Press conference room here at the complex is filling up with the entire roster of camp players, as well as Marmol’s family.

Can confirm @dgoold.bsky.social’s report that the Cardinals have reached an agreement on a contract extension for Oli Marmol. Press conference expected this morning.

Iván Herrera right at the top:

Herrera 2
Urías 5
Gorman DH
Walker 9
Fermín 4
Pozo 3
Church 8
Davis 7
Rivas 6

Leahy 1

I know that there's an easy way to look up what it was but there's absolutely no chance I remember, so let's go look.

Oh! First baseman cut the throw and Walker went wide around the bag at second and they threw behind him. Not sure if he was trying to draw it or just wandered.

At the end where?

Six spot in the second inning highlighted by the Prieto homer and a two-run schtoinker off Wetherholt's fists to center.

César Prieto made a sharp charging play in from third in the bottom of the first, and pokes a homer out to left up into the jet stream in the top of the second.

You should read nothing into the lineup, but he is making the team. Sharpie.

Saturday lineup:

Winn 6
Scott II 8
Burleson 3
Wetherholt 4
Walker 9
Crooks 2
Prieto 5
Baez DH
Torres 7

McGreevy 1

Cardinals rotation for the coming week:

Today — McGreevy
Sunday — Leahy
Monday — Pallante
Tuesday — Off
Wednesday — Liberatore
Thursday — May

Fitts is on the schedule to piggyback Liberatore on Wednesday.

Simulated, not subtle: Dustin May’s first Cardinals test checks the right boxes Keeping the right-handed veteran healthy would give the team something to build upon.

Yesterday, I watched Dustin May touch 99 with his fastball, watched Jordan Walker take cuts at a big league slider, watched Iván Herrera throw down to second at game speed. Did all of it matter? Did none of it? Existentialism on a back field:

www.bnd.com/sports/mlb/s...

Marmol shared postgame that the radar data on Dustin May’s sim game today had his fastball sitting 97-98 and touching 99, which is also what they’ve seen in bullpens.

George Soriano making his spring game debut, and he's throwing to Rainiel Rodríguez.

The robots say 422 feet with a 105.9 exit velo.