JUPITER, Fla. -- There is a sense around the Cardinals that one of the reasons for reducing expectations, seesawing between the words "reset" and "transition" but never once using the world "rebuild," is that the club is trying to create a valve to release some of the pressure that greats young players when they arrive in the greenhouse of October demands. It's as if the Cardinals front office is trying to take the team out of the Jiffy-Pop tin of its usual brand and try something new, trying to see what grows when that greenhouse is a little cooler.

Former Cardinals pitcher, current Cardinals broadcaster, and winner of the 2025 St. Louis Baseball Writers' of America Chapter's 'Good Guy Award,' Ricky Horton joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discuss that release of pressure and what it means for the Cardinals.

Horton, who appears on the KMOX/1120 AM and Cardinals Radio Network broadcasts,  discusses with BPIB host Derrick Goold what he'll be watching as spring games begin. The two also talk about what lens to use when evaluating the Cardinals given the youth movement, and finally they explore whether the Dodgers' spending and acquisition of talent is creating a juggernaut unlike any baseball has seen. The Dodgers are likened to the Death Star. There is a stretch of the podcast where the most cynical of Cardinals fans might need earmuffs as Horton and Goold discuss whether a trade not made this winter means a red jacket that must be made in the future. And Horton describes how Whitey Herzog approached pressure and whether there is a lesson from the 1985 Cardinals for the 2025 Cardinals on the power of adopting a style of baseball.

The Best Podcast in Baseball, sponsored by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is brought to listeners weekly in its 13th season. The podcast is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold.