Cardinals counterintuitive holiday shopping list could leave a hole in tradition
Best Podcast in Baseball
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
4.6 • 690 Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There should be ballads written about Willson Contreras' brief time with the Cardinals.
From his arrival as the All-Star eager for the challenge of following Yadier Molina, to that weird week when he took fly balls in left field and stopped catching, to the injuries and fractures and ultimately his move to first base, out from behind home plate without skipping a beat at the plate. Contreras brought both joy and fury to the Cardinals' lineup and clubhouse, and at some point his absence will be felt by the teammates who remain.
But he won't be a alone.
In a brand new Best Podcast in Baseball, recorded on Christmas Eve, Post-Dispatch editor Nathan Mills and baseball writer Derrick Goold discuss the Cardinals' counterintuitive shopping list for the holidays and what is missing from it and possibly from the clubhouse during his reboot of an organization. The Cardinals traded a starter (Sonny Gray) only to sign a starter (Dustin May) a few weeks later; they traded a right-handed bat from the middle of the order (Contreras) only to suggest a few hours later that they would now look for a right-handed bat to add to the roster. The Cardinals are swapping All-Stars for pitching depth and then looking to replace those veterans with players on shorter-term deals or with more control and less cost.
What's missing from those moves is the leadership and experience that the Cardinals have long championed as part of their continuity, as part of their identity as a club. And more trades ahead could mean the departure of Brendan Donovan, who personifies the way the Cardinals like to play and be in the clubhouse; JoJo Romreo, the seasoned reliever in the bullpen; and Nolan Arenado, the future Hall of Famer and Gold Glove-cornerstone at third.
Mills and Goold discuss what happens when a young group of players isn't inheriting expectations but tasked with trying to grow them.
In its 13th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Just in time for Christmas. |
| 0:01.7 | It's a brand new best podcast in baseball. |
| 0:04.0 | We talk about the counter on two of Christmas season the Cardinals have had. |
| 0:07.4 | They trade a starter, then go shopping for a starter. |
| 0:11.0 | This past week, they trade Wilson Contreras, a right-handed bat in the middle of their lineup, |
| 0:15.5 | and one of their Fury and Joy players. |
| 0:17.8 | And now they're out looking to add a right-handed bat. |
| 0:22.3 | With Post-Dispatch editor Nathan Mills, I try to make sense of these cardinal moves |
| 0:27.6 | and what they're really trying to achieve and also the hole they're opening that they |
| 0:32.5 | really have to fill. Cue the music. |
| 0:44.4 | Hello, everybody, and welcome to the best podcast in baseball, brought you by Clause by Design of St. Louis. |
| 0:45.5 | I'm St. Louis Post Dispatch baseball writer Derek. |
| 0:47.7 | We'll join this Christmas Eve by an editor who is like, gosh, Nathan, like, you know, part of being an editor is like being a baseball writer is late nights. |
| 0:59.5 | And here we are early in morning cranking out a podcast. |
| 1:03.0 | How many coffee cups are you in? |
| 1:06.5 | Listen, I'm not a coffee guy, but you can tell by looking at me, I'm definitely a Mountain Dew guy. |
| 1:10.5 | And I'm about six in so far. And I've been awake for an hour and a half. |
| 1:15.2 | This is a podcast, so what does a Mountain Dew guy look like? |
| 1:21.4 | Oh, yeah, yeah, that's a good point. |
| 1:22.8 | I forget that the video and the audio aren't the same thing, huh? |
| 1:26.0 | Fat mostly. |
| 1:26.9 | That's how I would describe myself. I can't speak for all Mountain Dew guys, just myself. Oh, okay. All right. Well, I'm a coffee guy, so I guess that means that, like, you can't pick up. I don't know what that makes me look like. I don't know. My wife's a coffee girl and you don't look anything alike. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of St. Louis Post-Dispatch and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.