We respect Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras for speaking up and speaking about the team's front office needing to "be hungry" about improving the team, especially the lineup, to reclaim the NL Central division from Milwaukee. The truth is always preferred to head fakes and cliches and excuses. That said, we're not sure what Cardinals management will do this coming offseason ... because we don't know who will be in charge of the baseball operation. Hopefully the Cardinals will reveal those plans next week.

But no matter who is in charge, questions remain: payroll size? What's the realistic goal? Is 2025 a transition year? Will it be a two-year transition that includes 2026? And if more false or misleading promises are made by ownership-management -- trying to win the division, win the pennant, win the World Series -- how is that even possible for 2025 when a team is has so many areas of need to develop a championship-caliber roster? Contreras did a good thing by speaking out ... but many, many questions remain.