The Bernie Miklasz Show

The Brewers made a big trade Friday, sending the deluxe closer Devin Williams to the Yankees for starting pitcher Nestor Cortes and $4.5 million in cash. The Brewers were concerned about the rotation, so they traded a short-term reliever for a short-term starter. I say that because Williams and Cortes likely will become free agents after the 2025 season. The Brewers didn't care because (1) they are going for another division title in 2025, so the win-now approach was logical.

The Cardinals, however, are holding onto closer Ryan Helsley and starting pitcher Erick Fedde. Both can leave as free agents after 2025. Unlike the win-now Brewers, the Cardinals have set aside 2025 as a transition year. They're going with a younger roster. They're preparing for Chaim Bloom to take over at the top of the baseball ops department after the coming season. The Cards have also started a massive undertaking to get their outdated player-development and minor-league system up to speed. That is a vital and overdue step.

The Cardinals are using 2025 to build for the future. The Brewers are building for 2025. So why would the Cardinals hold onto tradeable assets that would get them a very healthy return on the trade market? Makes no sense.

The Cardinals still have time to do what's best for the future. And the Brewers helped the Cardinals out (indirectly) by trading Williams -- because the move only makes Helsley a more valuable commodity on the trade market. Do the cautious Cardinals have the nerve to trade Helsley and Fedde? Or will they chicken out again?

Cardinals icon Albert Pujols is taking a lot of criticism from fans of the Leones del Escogido team in the Dominican Republic Winter League. As I type this, Pujols' club has lost 15 of its last 21 games to fall to fourth place in the six-team league and veteran reporter/broadcaster Mike Rodriguez said the rookie manager is being "severely criticized" by upset fans and that "many are calling for the manager's dismissal."

Gee that was fast. Pujols has never managed until now, and his team is 21-20. Despite the current slump, I don't think a mediocre record disqualifies Pujols from managing the Cardinals or any MLB team in due time.

But there's also the matter of current Cardinals manager Oli Marmol; 2025 will be an important year for him and the club as he enters his fourth season as the skipper. Can the Cardinals do better than expected? Or will they stagger to a terrible season and cost ownership more ticket revenue? There is no way to answer that right now, but I am sure of this: Marmol will be given a fair chance to stay in the job and fulfill his contract in 2026. His chances of staying in the gig are probably better than some folks realize. We'll see. As I said, 2025 is a big year for Marmol, and the young players must show improvement.

The St. Louis Blues have experienced a dramatic transformation since Jim Montgomery replaced Drew Bannister as coach late last month. In seven games under Monty the Blues are 5-1-1 for the NHL's fifth-best points percentage since Nov. 25. The Blues have significantly increased their scoring rate. They have significantly lowered their goals-against rate. They've turned into a superb road team. A long list if individual players are thriving with Montgomery installed as their leader. In today's video I take a look at the Blues' improvement in so many areas.

These are the New Blues. The Montgomery Blues.

The St. Louis Cardinals almost certainly will trade third baseman Nolan Arenado before the calendar flips to 2025; president of baseball operations John Mozeliak expressed confidence in a deal getting done.

OK, Cardinals fans ... what is your opinion of Arenado's four seasons in St. Louis? And what is your opinion on the four seasons that Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt played together as Cardinal teammates?

The first two seasons were good. The Cardinals made the playoffs both years and won the division with 93 victories in 2022. The 2022 Cardinals were stronger than the 2021 Cardinals because the starting pitching was much stronger in '22 -- especially after Mozeliak acquired Jordan Montgomery and Jose Quinata at the trade deadline.

But the 2021 and 2022 Cardinals were failures offensively in both postseasons, going 0-3 and scoring four lousy runs in 27 innings. Arenado and Goldschmidt were a big part of the problem, going 2 for 22 with seven strikeouts in the three games.

Goldschmidt is gone, and Arenado soon will be. Not a single postseason win as teammates in St. Louis. And in their final two seasons together, 2023 and 2024, the Cardinals ranked 22nd overall and 11th in the NL in winning percentage. What went wrong? How do assign blame? What is your verdict?

As always, thanks for watching.

Obviously the St. Louis Cardinals were never going to be a factor in the bid for free-agent right fielder Juan Soto, who on Sunday agreed to terms with the NY Mets on a massive 15-year, $765 million deal that set a MLB record for the largest contract that doesn't contain deferred payments.

But how does the Soto signing -- and the free-agent spending spree we've seen this offseason -- impact the Cardinals franchise? In this video I offer opinions and perspective and explain why chairman Bill DeWitt Jr.'s recruitment of baseball executive Chaim Bloom is more important to the Cardinals' future than we probably realize.

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In this video, I contrast the respective approaches taken by the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Blues and how each organization has handled a so-called retool, reset, or soft-rebuild situation. Blues GM Doug Armstrong didn't hesitate to offload pending free agents -- big-name players, popular players -- to enhance the Blues' future and shorten the franchise's downturn while he went into action to replenish the young-talent supply.

Armstrong didn't hesitate to go get the best coach he could hire once that coach (Jim Montgomery) became available. The Cardinals have preferred to stay with manager Oli Marmol and gave him a two-year contract extension when they didn't have to. Armstrong: aggressive and opportunistic. Mozeliak? Not so much. Not yet, anyway, in the planning for 2025.

Yadier Molina's brother, Bengie, stirred the pot Wednesday by answering questions from the gang who do the morning show on 101 ESPN. Bengie, who does an excellent job of promoting his little brother, was ready to deliver a message:

1) Yadier Molina wants to manage the Cardinals.

2) But if the Cardinals don't hire him Yadi has "offers" to manage other MLB teams. Yadi is willing to wait for the Cardinals, but ...

3) Bengie mentioned a scenario that would have Yadi as the St. Louis manager, Albert Pujols as hitting coach, and Adam Wainwright as pitching coach.

4) Bengie also said Yadier prefers to wait (two years) until his son graduates from school.

There's a lot to digest there, so in today's video I discussed the pertinent aspects of this situation. And don't count out the possibility of manager Oli Marmol remaining in place for 2026. I can't handicap the odds of that because much depends on how the 2025 Cardinals perform in a soft rebuilding season.

But for the sake of conversation, let's start with this: if incoming president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom decides to replace Marmol after '25, will Bloom feel obligated to hire a Cardinals icon as the new leader? Or should Bloom hire the manager that he wants instead of going for a more popular choice - a beloved Cardinal -- to reenergize a disillusioned fan base and sell more tickets?

Good luck, Chaim!

The Cardinals announced three more hires Wednesday, as Chaim Bloom and Rob Cerfolio to continue to make moves to bring in smart baseball minds that will take the organization's collective Baseball IQ to a much higher level. In this video, I tell you all about the three new hires, and everything you should know about them, and why they appear to be a great fit for the Bloom-Cerfolio revival show. I have many details to offer, as well as some historical perspective, and I explain how a former Cardinals pitcher played a role in this.

This video isn't a quickie, but here's what I have to say about that: if you want the info, I am pleased to provide it. All of it. For now, let me leave you with this: as a Baseball Operation, the St. Louis Cardinals are a heck of a lot smarter today than they were a year ago. And that's even before Chaim Bloom officially takes over as head of the baseball department after the 2025 season.

When NHL general managers and owners fire their head coach -- which happens every 27 seconds, or so it seems -- there's usually a positive response from the players, who pretend to be motivated for a few weeks until reverting to who they really are.

For reasons that I explain in this video, I believe the situation is different for the St. Louis Blues and their new coach, Jim Montgomery. The team is 3-0-1 since Montgomery replaced the ineffective Drew Bannister, but so much has changed in a short time. The Blues are getting more scoring chances from the prime shooting areas of the ice. Before the coaching switch, the Blues' opponents had a significant advantage in controlling those areas. The Blues are now in the process of taking control of those territories, and that largely explains why they've scored 70 percent of the total goals during Monty's first four games. He does not care about shot quantity. He cares about shot quality. And that philosophy is paying off.

Montgomery brought an extensive history with 15 of the Blues' current players when he started the job, getting to know everything about them personally and professionally while assisting Craig Berube for two seasons in STL. This knowledge gave Montgomery a head start in taking a new challenge.

Four games is a small sample size and the Blues and Montgomery have a lot to prove. Their will be some tough times along the way, but this coach can handle it. For those who didn't understand it before, I think they can understand it now: Montgomery is the only coach that GM Doug Armstrong wanted after replacing Berube.

Montgomery wasn't available at that time; he was busy coaching Boston to the league's No. 1 regular-season record over his two-plus years as coach. But as soon as the Bruins fired Montgomery, Armstrong swooped in and got his coach. And the Blues appear to be a much better team because of it.

The St. Louis Cardinals still have a chance, an excellent chance, to "win" the Tommy Edman trade. As you know, at the 2024 trade deadline, the Cardinals were part of a three-team trade with the Dodgers and White Sox. The only aspect of this that still matters is that utility dude Tommy Edman went from the Cardinals to the Dodgers, and the White Sox sent starting pitcher Erick Fedde to St. Louis. The Cardinals were willing to part with Edman because (1) he missed the first four months of the season to complete his rehab from wrist surgery, and (2) the Cardinals had no plans to sign Edman to a long-term contract extension before he was eligible to enter free agency after the 2025 campaign.

The trade worked out beautifully for the Dodgers, who went on to win the World Series with significant assistance from Edman. Los Angeles recently rewarded Edman with a five-year, $74.5 million deal.

The Cardinals were still in the wild-card race when they acquired Fedde but couldn't overcome a terrible offense and fell out of contention. Fedde has a year left on his contract and will make an economical $7.5 million salary in 2025. And then he can become a free agent.

Fedde had a much better 2024 season than people realize -- I give you the stats on this in the video -- and at a time when so many MLB teams are desperate for starting pitching, Fedde would have significant trade value. The Cardinals aren't going to sign Fedde to a long-term deal, and the 2025 season has been set aside to give young players/pitchers a full opportunity. By traded Fedde, the Cardinals could secure a package of young talent, and they would also open up a rotation spot for one of their own young pitchers.

Trading Fedde is an obvious thing to do, and his trade value is at peak level right now. Trading him at the 2025 deadline is a risk; suppose Fedde got hurt between spring training and late July? If that happens, the Cardinals receive NOTHING. Thanks for watching.