Gordo: Cardinals still have plenty of room to grow after the All-Star break
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol is rightfully proud of the progress his field staff has made with young veterans during this transition season.
Growth from players like Brendan Donovan, Masyn Winn, Ivan Herrera, Alec Burleson, Matthew Liberatore, Andre Pallante and Victor Scott II could set the stage for more success next season.
But there is much more work to do — both in the majors and the minors — before the 2025 season winds down.
Marmol wants to stay in the playoff chase. He would celebrate the addition of reinforcements ahead of the trade deadline. They may or may not come, based on how president of baseball operations John Mozeliak views things from his perch on the fence.
Meanwhile, the field staff must remain locked in on player development to make the most of the remaining games that remain.
The heaviest lifting must be done with pitching.
Cardinals starting pitcher Erick Fedde leaves the mound after giving up three runs in the second inning against the Cubs on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at Busch Stadium.
Eli Randolph, Post-Dispatch
Veterans Miles Mikolas and Erick Fedde have expiring contracts. They don’t appear to have a future here. But getting them back on track would have value, either to keep the Cardinals in the playoff chase or to create trade leverage.
That is especially true for Fedde, whose team-friendly contract could make him appealing to a contender willing to spend prospect capital for pitching depth.
Trading Fedde would open a spot for Michael McGreevy, who is overdue to pitch regularly in the majors. Of course, no team will covet Fedde while he is getting shelled ... so yeah, there is work to do.
Liberatore and Pallante are still learning how to handle the grind of starting pitching. Liberatore is trying to hold his mechanics together through the 162-game marathon, while Pallante is still tinkering with pitches to use against right-handed hitters.
At Triple-A Memphis, Tekoah Roby recently gained traction while putting previous injuries behind him. Given all the pitching casualties this organization has suffered this year, the Cardinals would love to get him through the season in one piece.
Quinn Mathews is experiencing a reset year at Memphis. He soared up the organization ladder last season before hitting a wall this spring. The Cardinals need him to finish well and go into his offseason program feeling strong.
Relievers Andre Granillo, Gordon Graceffo and Matt Svanson have shown promise this season while riding the Memphis shuttle. Can they keep progressing and earn more permanent bullpen roles next season?
The Cardinals will create developmental plans for their just-drafted pitching prospects. Top pick Liam Doyle could see the majors next season if he can refine his secondary stuff, and the other power collegiate arms could offer badly needed organizational depth.
Then there is Tink Hence. All efforts to keep this former top prospect healthy have failed. He is back on the injured list at Double-A Springfield (Missouri) after pitching just eight games and 21 1/3 innings for four minor league teams this season.
Hence turns 23 next month. Is there a path forward for a prospect whose body can’t handle the rigors of pitching?
Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker shakes his head as he walks to the dugout after striking out against the Pirates on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at Busch Stadium.
Allie Schallert, Post-Dispatch
On the offensive side, the Cardinals must address their futility against left-handed pitching. They hoped outfielder Jordan Walker would reemerge this season and add right-handed clout to the batting order, but he faded badly after an encouraging start.
His wrist injury was disruptive. So was his bout with appendicitis. But when he landed back at Double-A Springfield on a rehab assignment, his struggles at the plate continued.
Walker is still only 23, but he is reaching a critical point in his career. If he remains lost at the plate, the Cardinals will need to move other right-handed hitters to the outfield and/or look outside the organization for help.
Scott must play regularly, given his elite fielding in center field. But he is high on the list of Cardinals left-handed batters who must become more competitive against southpaws.
This team needs more production from catcher Pedro Pages, whose offensive struggles offset his fine work behind the plate. Backup Yohel Pozo is hitting well, Herrera is hitting very well, and prospects Jimmy Crooks and Leonardo Bernal are developing on schedule.
Will the remaining games provide clarity at this position?
Ideally, Nolan Arenado would get healthier and go on a heater after the break. Ideally, he would create a trade opportunity that makes both him and the Cardinals happy.
This franchise is committed to a youth movement, and Arenado wants another shot at postseason play.
Top 2024 draft pick JJ Wetherholt could reach the big leagues before the end of the season. He seems destined to take over at second base and give Winn some needed breaks at shortstop.
Donovan should remain an offensive mainstay in that scenario, playing regularly in a super-utility role. The resulting positional crowding would create job competition (and trade scenarios) for outfielder Lars Nootbaar and infielders Nolan Gorman and Thomas Saggese.
There is much to ponder here. The Cardinals have made encouraging strides this year, but their to-do list will be lengthy regardless of which direction their remaining season takes.
What stood out to Cardinals on draft Day 2? 'All types of pitchers,' bats that 'intrigued'
Stetson’s Ty Van Dyke pitches during a game against Bradley on Saturday, March 9, 2024, in DeLand, Fla. The Cardinals selected Van Dyke in the 10th round of the MLB draft on Monday, July 14, 2025.
Phelan M. Ebenhack, Associated Press
Back on the clock for Day 2 of the MLB draft after using their first-round pick to take swing-and-miss lefty Liam Doyle at fifth overall, the Cardinals’ approach for rounds 4-20 kept them open to considering “all types of pitchers” when the draft resumed on Monday.
What that approach netted them on the final day of the 2025 draft was a class that features 10 college pitchers. The first three pitchers selected by the Cardinals on Day 2 possess fastballs that can get up to 98 mph or higher.
“I think that it sets the tone when you’re picking in the top five and certainly seems like, wow, that was a rush for swing-and-miss,” Randy Flores, Cardinals assistant general manager and scouting director, said via Zoom on Monday. “But that’s very rare to be picking up there and to have that type of talent. After that, what we wanted to do is just be open to all types of pitchers, not just certain types.
“... I think working together, we look for those opportunities that, rather than going in a little bit more of a direction, let’s just say, that is a little bit more typical for us, we wanted to go a little bit bigger and have the range of outcomes be a little bit wider but with that being something pretty special.”
Of the three power arms they took to begin Day 2, the Cardinals used their first pick on Monday to take University of Oklahoma lefty Cade Crossland in the fourth round. Picks of East Carolina University righty Ethan Young (fifth round) and Payton Graham, a right-hander from Gonzaga University, in the seventh round followed.
While Crossland flashed a fastball that got up to 98 mph and a change-up Baseball America rated as 60 on its scale of 20-80 to help him strike out 26.6% of the batters he faced in 2025 for the Sooners, Young’s ability to touch 99 mph and throw an above-average slider led him to strike out 30.4% of the batters he faced as a reliever in his lone season for ECU.
Young, 21, maintained an 11.2% walk rate in 70 1/3 innings as he made 22 of his 23 outings this past season from the bullpen, where he notched three saves.
A larger role could await him in the Cardinals’ system.
“Ethan Young was just a great example of us in position for someone who was missing bats,” Flores said. “Obviously, extended out, not just an inning at a time reliever, but he has a history of pitching in high-leverage situations and a ton of strikeouts this year. Someone we could stretch out if we so chose.”
Flores said the selection of the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Graham came in a spot where the Cardinals thought there would be “no chance” to take him if it were not due to injury.
A reliever in his first two seasons at Gonzaga, Graham had his third season end following one start and five innings because of Tommy John surgery. Graham struck out 21.3% of the batters he faced in his freshman and sophomore years. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound right-hander flashed a 98 mph fastball and was ranked as high as the No. 75 draft prospect by Baseball America earlier this year before his season was cut short.
“Our hope was that we’re betting on him returning to form,” Flores said of Graham. “Absent that injury, there’s no chance we thought that we’d have a spot for him in the seventh round.”
Along with the Crossland, Young and Graham, the Cardinals took Ty Van Dyke, a righty who reaches 97 mph with his fastball, in the 10th round. Kaden Echeman (12th round), Jake Shelagowski (13th round), Anthony Watts (14th round), Alec Breckheimer (16th round), Dylan Driessen (18th round) and Liam Best (19th round) were drafted by the Cardinals in the rounds that followed.
The Cardinals’ position player selections on Day 2 began with a sixth-round pick of University of Hawaii outfielder Matthew Miura. They also took infielders Ryan Weingartner (eighth round), Michael Dattalo (ninth round), Jalin Flores (11th round), Trevor Haskins (15th round), outfielder Cameron Nickens (17th round) and catcher Chase Heath (20th round). Heath, a catcher from the University of Central Missouri, is a native of O’Fallon, Missouri.
All seven of the bats the Cardinals took on Day 2 are right-handed bats. Flores said the handedness didn’t factor, but the traits they possess did.
“I think that’s just the way it fell. It wasn’t intentional,” the Cardinals’ scouting director said. “Each of them offered something at that spot in the draft that intrigued us. Miura is just a really, really good defender, a good runner, a good baseball player. The track record of Jalin Flores playing up the middle at a big school (University of Texas) was just intriguing there for us in the 11th round. Weingartner’s versatility, bat-to-ball.
“Those were more of the reasons than the handedness.”
They also searched for outliers when they reached the late rounds.
What Nickens did in his lone season at Austin Peay University checked that box.
After three years at the University of Houston, Nickens batted .422, reached base at a .520 clip and slugged .768. He set career highs in homers with 18, doubles with 24 and in OPS (1.288).
“You’re looking for that in any of these guys, and his almost a 1.300 OPS, the home runs started to come, we saw the exit (velocity) was something that we liked,” Flores said of the 22-year-old Nickens. “I think that at that spot, you’re taking a stab at something on the upswing. That’s our hope there.”
What Brendan Donovan learned on All-Star adventure before small role (roll?) in big-league 1st
ATLANTA — The last batter standing between a traditional All-Star Game, like the 94 before it, and a new-fangled ending Major League Baseball would try for the first time Tuesday, Brendan Donovan came to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth of a tie game with one goal.
He had to find a way to keep the inning going against Aroldis Chapman.
“I think Chapman wants the punch out there and I don’t; I don’t want to give it to him,” the Cardinals’ lone All-Star said. “He was throwing hard, man. He was throwing me a sinker. He threw me a four-seamer, a couple of sliders. I think the one I tapped was a slider. I was just in battle mode.
“I didn’t want to be the last out.”
He wouldn't be.
Not that everyone on the field knew that.
The American League erased a six-run deficit and tied the game, 6-6, in the top of the ninth. When Donovan “tapped” lefty Chapman’s slider for a grounder, the ball spun just barely fair in front of home plate to become a tag out. The shortest ball in play of the evening led to the biggest change in deciding an All-Star Game … well, ever. And it came at the end of the night that introduced robo-umps to the Midsummer Classic. Donovan stood at the nexus of both: His ninth-inning at-bat began with an automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge that reversed the call on him to a strike and it ended with an L-screen rolling out for a distilled home run derby to determine a winner.
With the score tied after nine innings a “swing off” would decide the All-Star Game. Each team picked three hitters. Each hitter got three swings against a batting practice pitcher to put a ball out of the park. The most derby-style home runs wins.
The Athletics’ designated hitter Brent Rooker, whose three-run homer sparked the AL rally, hit two balls out of the park on three swings as the first ever “swing off” hitter. Kyle Schwarber was the NL’s second batter, and he went 3-for-3, including a low liner that cleared the wall in center field and a drop-to-a-knee homer that proved the clincher. The NL won the swing off, 4-3, to take the Midsummer Classic by an official score of 7-6. Despite lobbying by the Dodgers to award BP pitcher and coach Dino Ebel with the win, there would be no “W” in the box score.
The MVP of the All-Star Game, Schwarber, did not get a hit in the All-Star Game.
“I was just saying there are a lot of guys who are way more deserving of this award,” Schwarber said.
The first-of-its-kind finish to the All-Star Game — an option that had been lurking for years in the rules and waiting to emerge with extra innings — brought an unexpected, dramatic ending to Donovan’s debut as an All-Star. He was in the thick of it. The only player on either team to collect more than one hit in the game, Donovan went 2 for 3 with two singles. He also scored a run on Pete Alonso’s three-run homer and had a backhand play at second base to quell the AL. All of that came after a day spent — as one NL official described him — “being a sponge.”
Standing at his locker late Tuesday night surrounded by boxes packed with gear and goodies and bound for ӣƵ, Donovan gestured around the clubhouse to say he tried to learn something from each All-Star in it.
“A couple of minutes with each person,” he said.
That included a conversation he’s sought from the moment he debuted.
In 2022, Donovan took the field for the Cardinals as a pinch-runner and made his major-league debut. The first player to congratulate him was Francisco Lindor, the Mets’ shortstop, right there at second base.
That gesture has been on Donovan’s mind ever since, and he’s wanted to “just be around that guy.” He got that chance this week at the All-Star festivities.
He also got a handshake, an embrace, and a conversation with Aaron Judge between team photos on Tuesday. Donovan hit in the cage with Mets slugger Alonso. He talked biomechanics with other hitters around the batting cage and listened how they described cues from their movements that he could use to act when his swing feels off. Donovan got some time with Dodgers’ game-planning coach J.T. Watkins.
Cardinals infielder Brendan Donovan, on the field early before batting practice at the 95th All-Star Game, talks about infield drills and different workouts with Los Angeles Dodgers first-base coach Chris Woodward, the former manager of the Texas Rangers. Donovan made his All-Star debut in the game July 15, 2025, at Atlanta's Truist Park, and he was the only Cardinals representative.
Before rain doused some of the National League’s BP, Donovan took infield — the only player doing so and alone with coaches. Chris Woodward, the Dodgers' first-base coach and former Rangers manager, spoke about different drills and how they adjust.
Donovan described the angles he likes to work on.
Most grounders are hit at an average of 90 mph, Donovan said, and Woodward pointed out how he likes to hit grounders off of flip pitches from another coach to simulate game speed. Donovan intends to borrow that for his routine and see how it works for the angles.
“I learned a lot here, for sure,” Donovan said. “You look around this clubhouse and you see most of the best in the world at this game right now, right here. And we got the win. I could probably say one thing I got from each person. But I can’t give you all of the secrets.”
Neatly stacked near Donovan as he spoke late Tuesday night in the NL’s clubhouse was gear he wore. He had matching peach-colored protective pads from EvoShield with a Georgia peach logo to mark the All-Star Game in Atlanta. With dirt still lodged in the cleats, Donovan also had the Skechers shoes he wore. The company told him they designed and made his special All-Star cleats before the season — so they’d be ready for him when he was.
Donovan entered the game in the top of the fifth inning at second base.
He was quickly on opposite ends of two groundballs with Kansas City’s great shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. In Donovan’s first at-bat, he slashed a grounder against the lean of the defense and Witt gave chase. Donovan got an infield hit by beating Witt’s throw. An inning later, with a runner at third base, Witt skipped a grounder up the middle. Donovan backhanded the ball, and with his momentum carrying him from first he still threw over in time to beat Witt and get an out before the inning spiraled beyond four runs allowed.
“Anything hit that is not directly at me by Bobby Witt Jr., I know I have to get rid of quickly,” Donovan said. “It was part of a cool night. To do that, to be out there, to face the best arms in the league — just to be on the field was pretty cool.”
He was walking off the field after the frustrating groundout when word started spreading about how the game would be concluded.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts approached a few hitters Monday about being in the trio just in case there was a “swing off.” His plans changed a bit when Eugenio Suarez was out with a bruised hand due to a pitch in the game when he could not be one of the three. He turned Tuesday night in the ninth to a player he nicknamed “starfish,” Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers.
A coach talked to him in the dugout, and his response was: “You’re kidding.”
“I thought it was a joke,” he said.
Roberts walked over to promise they weren’t joking.
“And they weren’t,” Stowers said of participating. “If they would have asked me, I probably would have said no. I’m glad they nudged me.”
The NL trailed after the first round pitted Rooker against Stowers. Donovan leaned against the dugout railing — his bat and helmet already put away because he figured he would not be one of the three chosen. That’s also where he was when Schwarber hit. Donovan noted how many players, like Schwarber, do not take BP on the field, so the “swing off” was Schwarber’s first BP on the field in awhile and it came after already playing half of a game. Still, he tattooed three baseballs for a one-homer lead before the AL’s final batter. Tampa Bay’s Jonathan Aranda failed to put one out of the ballpark, and the NL won.
The derby-style resolution to the Midsummer Classic was, as hockey fan Brendan Donovan might appreciate, akin to a shootout on the ice. He mentioned a different sport — but similar idea.
“I thought it was a cool finish,” Donovan said. “Essentially penalty kicks for the win.”
All-Star Game goes bananas: NL blows 6-run lead but slugs way to win in 1st 'swing off'
ATLANTA — As if calling on computers to arbitrate balls and strikes wasn't novel enough for baseball's 95th Midsummer Classic, the game built for and around nostalgia was also the first decided by something called a "swing off."
The American League erased a six-run deficit to force a tie game into the bottom of the ninth inning.
The regulation game ended when Cardinals infielder Brendan Donovan, 2-for-2 in his All-Star debut at that point, tipped a pitch that appeared to be foul until it spun into a nook just in front of home plate. He was tagged out by catcher Alejandro Kirk for the third out, and that sent Major League Baseball where no game had gone before.
Decided by derby.
Each team chose three hitters who were still at the ballpark, and each player got three swings to crush balls out of the park and break the tie. The team with the most successful swings wins.
Brent Rooker, the A's designated hitter who sparked the AL with a three-run homer in the seventh, hit two balls out of the park as the first ever "swing off" hitter. The Phillies' Kyle Schwarber answered by going 3-for-3 on his swings. Schwarber's round provided the difference as the NL won the "swing off," 4 to 3.
The "swing off" victory delivered the NL's fifth win the past 22 All-Star Games.
New York Mets' Pete Alonso celebrates his three-run home run during sixth inning at the MLB baseball All-Star game between the American League and National League, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Atlanta.
Brynn Anderson - AP
Polar pop
All it took to thaw the Hotlanta crowd on the Polar Bear for a moment was a home run that, for the first time in his career, helped their home team.
Booed as he was introduced and as he came to the plate and throughout the week at Truist Park for obvious rivalry reasons, New York Mets slugger Pete "Polar Bear" Alonso inspired cheers from the Atlanta fans in the sixth inning. Beloved in Queens and momentarily celebrated in Atlanta's Battery, Alonso drilled a home run into the seats beyond right field that lifted the National League toward a 6-0 lead by the end of the sixth inning.
On base for Alonso’s homer was the Cardinals’ lone All-Star, Donovan. He had an infield single immediately before Alonso’s homer opened up a five-run lead for the National League.
Donovan played the final five innings of the game at second base, had a backhanded play for an important out, and went 2-for-3 with two singles.
Alonso’s homer was the first of two by the National League in the sixth inning. Arizona’s Corbin Carroll roped a lifted a solo homer three batters later. It was the first homer in an All-Star Game by a player from the Diamondbacks.
Pittsburgh Paul Skenes started his second consecutive All-Star Game for the NL and struck out the first two batters he faced before coaxing a groundout from Aaron Judge and calling it an evening.
Donovan debuts, collects firsts
One of the first reserves into the game, Cardinals utility fielder Donovan took over at second in the top of the fifth inning.
Donovan didn’t have much action in the field initially.
He helped create some at the plate.
During Donovan’s first career All-Star at-bat, San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. stole second to get into scoring position. Donovan fouled off a pitch from Kansas City lefty Kris Bubic, and then he connected on one for a groundball toward shortstop. The grounder against the shift of the fielders left KC’s Bobby Witt Jr. to rush a throw to first that did not beat Donovan. His first All-Star Game hit was an infield single, and that put him on first for the biggest blast of the evening.
Two pitches after Donovan’s hit, Alonso crushed the three-run homer that pushed the National League out to a 5-0 lead.
An inning later, Donovan and Witt were on opposite sides of another grounder. This time, Donovan ranged to his right, backhanded the grounder, and threw against his momentum to beat Witt to first base with the ball.
Fans, watch a Hank Aaron Memorial during the MLB baseball All-Star game between the American League and National League, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Atlanta.
Brynn Anderson - AP
Tribute to Aaron brings chills, fireworks
At the end of the sixth inning, the lights went down at Truist Field and the goosebumps rose.
A tribute to the late Hank Aaron and his 715th home run was projected onto the field so that the basepaths and infield became the silver screen for one of the most significant swings in Major League Baseball history.
Clips from Aaron sitting on 714 played on the infield. At one point, the pitcher and fielders were projected at their positions, and there in the batter’s box was the image of Aaron, one shy of breaking the career home run record held by Babe Ruth. The moment his bat connected with the pitch, a single firework shot off from home plate toward left field – just as No. 715 did.
Footprints illuminated around the basepaths following his trot.
Aaron died in January 2021 at 86.
His widow, Billye, was in the crowd standing as she watched the tribute.
Kershaw, Freeman get their moments
An honorary addition to the National League roster in the same way Albert Pujols was in 2022, Clayton Kershaw got into the game early, got out of the game fast, and got the moment scripted for him by his manager.
Kershaw took over for starter Paul Skenes to begin the second inning.
The lefty, fresh off his 3,000th career strikeout, drew Home Run Derby champion Cal Raleigh as the leadoff hitter. Raleigh ripped a first-pitch line drive to left field that Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker tracked down with a sliding catch toward the corner on the warning track. That out set up Kershaw against Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Kershaw got ahead with the closest thing to baseball’s endangered species – an 89-mph fastball. Kershaw spun two curveballs past Guerrero to eventually get to a 2-2 count.
He went to the slider for a called strike three and a finish to his evening.
Roberts removed Kershaw in the middle of the inning so that the could walk off the mound to an ovation from the Truist crowd. Rather than hand the ball to Roberts, Kershaw kept it in his glove as he left the All-Star Game.
Roberts orchestrated a similar moment for first baseman Freddie Freeman. The longtime Atlanta star and current Dodgers All-Star, Freeman was removed in the middle of the third inning so that he too could be escorted by an ovation as he stepped to the dugout and inside.
Miami's Kyle Stowers challenge is being reviewed during eighth inning at the MLB baseball All-Star game between the American League and National League, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Atlanta.
Brynn Anderson - AP
ABS makes ASG debut
The 95th Midsummer Classic wasn’t an inning old before history was made when catcher Raleigh challenged a call from home-plate umpire Dan Iassogna and technology acted as arbiter.
For the first time in All-Star Game history and the first time in a major-league game during the regular season, players had access to the automated ball-strike (ABS) system. Making its way toward the majors for official games, ABS allows for a batter, pitcher, or catcher to challenge the call at the plate of the umpire, and it uses radar tech to decide if the pitch was in the strike zone or out of it.
In the first inning, American League catcher Raleigh tapped his helmet and challenged Iassogna’s call on a two-strike pitch to Manny Machado.
An image of the strike zone and pitch appeared on the scoreboard to show the pitch clipping the bottom of the strike zone. The successful challenge overturned the call and struck out Machado looking – at the scoreboard.
In thew fifth inning, Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson became the first batter to challenge a pitch. Washington lefty MacKenzie Gore seemed to sneak a 1-0 pitch past Wilson for a strike. The young shortstop tapped his helmet, and the decision went from Iassogna at the plate to the technology on the board. The image showed the pitch missing the strike zone by a couple of inches, and Willson had successfully tapped his way to a 1-1 count.
He would ground out.
AL rallies, with help
The biggest hit that hoisted the American League back into the game came from a likely source, but it took some help from the National League after that moment for the AL to add on.
The Athletics’ designated hitter Rooker echoed Alonso with a three-run homer in his first at-bat. The homer, off a 98-mph fastball from Giants’ reliever Randy Rodriguez, crushed the NL’s shutout bid and took advantage of the work by two close and longtime friends. Childhood teammates in Mexico, Alejandro Kirk and Jonathan Aranda seeded the bases for Rooker. Kirk, Toronto’s catcher, singled, and Aranda, Tampa Bay’s first baseman, walked immediately ahead of Rooker.
The homer cleaved the NL’s lead in half, 6-3.
And then the errors began.
A throw to second base by Hunter Goodman sailed high on Donovan at second base when Maikel Garcia stole second. He came around the score one batter before a fielder error at first base by Atlanta’s Matt Olson kept the inning alive.
Post-Dispatch sports columnists Lynn Worthy and Jeff Gordon discuss the struggles of starting pitcher Erick Fedde and how the Cardinals will have to adjust their rotation going forward.
Is baseball headed for another lockout? MLB, MLBPA set stage for 'salary cap' standoff
ATLANTA — Within the first few minutes of his opening statement to a gathering of baseball writers Tuesday morning, Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark referenced the power pitching matchup for that evening’s All-Star Game and the level of generational talent throughout the game.
“The game is in a good place,” he said.
The clock is ticking on for how long.
The owners and the players union are already gerrymandering their messages 17 months in advance of what could be baseball’s next labor grapple and second work stoppage in five years. The current collective bargaining agreement, forged at the end of a 99-day lockout in 2021-22, expires on Dec. 1, 2026, and both sides are bracing for another lockout. A core clash was on display Tuesday as MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and Clark held separate conversations with members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Manfred stressed a “fan-driven” concern about payroll disparities and competitive balance.
Clark hears rhetoric that’s a Trojan horse for salary cap.
“In this instance, when they’re highlighting for you what they’re interested in, then you should believe them,” Clark said. “And if we find ourselves coming to 12:01 on Dec. 1 and they look to lock you out, well, they told us they were going to do that. So prepare accordingly.”
Owners, who have the power to lock out players without a new deal in place, have pursued a salary cap in previous CBA negotiations — never successfully. In 1994, it was the pursuit of a cap structure that contributed to a player strike that cost the World Series.
A former All-Star, Clark described himself as a “pup” during the longest work stoppage in the sport’s history and how it was “over the same issue.”
He drew a line Tuesday on what historically has been a non-starter for the union.
“That is why it’s not about competitive balance. It’s not about fair vs. not. This is institutionalized collusion,” Clark said. “That is what a salary cap is.
“Let’s be very clear, though: A cap is not about a partnership,” he added. “A cap is not about growing the game. That is not what a cap is about. A cap is about franchise value and profits. That is what a cap is about. If there are ways that we need to improve the existing system to polish some rough edges that otherwise exist, we have proposals to do that. A salary cap has historically limited contract guarantees associated with it. It literally pits one player against another, and ... is what the definition of a noncompetitive system. It doesn’t reward excellence. It undermines it.”
Clark and his staff have started their in-season meetings with all 30 teams, and work stoppage preparation is part of the conversation. The union voted to withhold its dispersal of licensing revenue to begin building a chest for a work stoppage.
Manfred has circulated through clubhouse and conversations with players, too.
He insisted he has not used the same term some owners have: salary cap.
He introduces a problem “that we need to work together on, and that is: There are fans in a lot of markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem,” Manfred said Tuesday. “I never used the word salary within one of cap. What I do say to them in addressing this competitive issue that is real is we should think about this system. Is it the perfect system from a player’s perspective? And my goal there is not to convince them of one system or another but it is to convince that everybody go to the table with an open mind to try to address a problem that is fan-driven. (That) leads to a better collective bargaining process and better outcome.”
The gravitation of star players to tycoon teams has defined the past three years of the current CBA, with Shohei Ohtani setting a contract record to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Juan Soto rewriting that record as he signed with the New York Mets. Payrolls for some of the larger markets dwarf smaller markets. That comes at a time when a revenue stream relied on by teams like the Cardinals has been clogged by the ongoing regional sports network disruption.
The Cardinals saw a cut in their rights fee for this season and upcoming seasons, and they trimmed payroll in response to that and reduced ticket sales.
Manfred said there has been progress toward a stronger, unified broadcast deal for Major League Baseball, with the goal to have it ready for 2028.
He acknowledged that revenue turbulence is only part of the equation.
Franchise value, which Clark mentioned, is inviting questions from owners.
“What about our economic system has put us in a position where our franchise values have not grown as quickly as some other sports?” Manfred said. “And try to figure out how we might fix that.”
Other professional sports leagues, from the NHL to MLB, NBA to NFL, have salary caps. Doing so can require the two sides agreeing on a definition of revenue before carving it up — and that can be combative. The NHL lost an entire season due to a work stoppage when the owners pursued and got a salary-cap system 20 years ago. This past month, the NHL and its players association announced an extension to 2030 of the current CBA months in advance of its expiration.
Past negotiations between MLB owners and the MLBPA have yielded revenue sharing and a luxury tax as soft caps or penalties for spending.
The union has previous proposed a spending floor.
“Let me be clear on this one,” Clark said. “We’ve never been opposed to a floor. Not opposed to a floor. Opposed to what comes with it — or historically has.”
Clark was asked by the Post-Dispatch if the union prefers the open market to grow salaries, and if that can happen with only a handful of teams bidding on players, where does he see an overlap with the union’s goals and competitive balance. Smaller markets incentivized to spend more is one area the union has pursued, sources previous described.
“We have a lot of confidential financial information that I recognize most don’t have,” Clark said. “When we say that all teams can compete and they’re choosing not to, it’s based on the information that we have. And based on the information that we have and the proposals that we’ve made — most particularly in the revenue-sharing area — we believe there are ways to incentivize and provide support to those who are in a different market than an L.A. or New York. There is an opportunity to do that and do so to the benefit of the group that doesn’t require a restriction on player salaries to do so.”
This past October, Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III told the Post-Dispatch when asked that the Cardinals did not need a salary cap to contend in the National League.
“We’re going to compete whether there is a new framework, the same framework or whatever it is,” he said.
This winter will feature negotiations on the next CBA.
By then, there will be one season remaining before the uncertainty of a season at all.
“We don’t know what they’re going to propose,” Clark said. “We know that it is they’re saying they’re interested in. We’ll get in the room, and we’ll see what it is that they propose. The history (of salary caps) is more lockouts, more work stoppages as a result of that system being in place.”
During their annual meetings with BBWAA, the two baseball officials touched on other topics:
On major league players participating in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles: Players are interested, and the new CBA could carve out a way to do that, plus officials from L.A.’s Olympic coordinator met this week in Atlanta with both MLB and the players union to explore ways to make the best players available.
“It’s doable,” Manfred said. “Let me define ‘possible.’ It is possible to take it, play the All-Star Game in its normal spot, have a single break that would be longer, obviously but still play 162 games without bleeding into the middle of November. That is possible. It would require significant accommodations, but it’s possible.”
Said Clark: “We’re hopeful we can figure out a way.”
On the automated ball-strike (ABS) system used in Tuesday’s All-Star Game and questions about its 1/2-inch margin for error: Clark called ABS in regular-season games “more inevitable than not.”
He called concerns “tangible” and added, “What are going to be the rules around how the ABS system is going to be navigated? Are we looking to get the half inch? Does there need to be some kind of buffer zone consideration? Or do we want to find ourselves in the world where it’s the most egregious misses that we focus on?”
On ongoing changes to immigration policy and enforcement from the Trump administration, MLB and the union are working together with players who are on work visas. The union has instructed players to carry their documents with them.
“It is a concern,” Clark said.
“I worry about anything that could be disruptive to the very best players in the world being out on the field,” Manfred said. “The prospect of that disruption given that all our players have visas — it’s speculation at this point. We see no evidence of it.”
On the gambling’s increased presence in advertising at the ballpark and an instance already this season of a player being investigated for possible violations of league rules regarding participation in gambling: “We tell players do not (make a) play on baseball, you cannot bet on baseball, stay away from baseball, be cognizant of any bet whether it’s at the professional level, college level, amateur level – you name it,” Clark said. “I think we even talked about winter league. Don’t bet on baseball. That’s what players hear from us.”
How Cardinals' Brendan Donovan turned bad hop, bruised neck into path to All-Star Game
Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan drives a single during a game against the Braves on Sunday, July 13, 2025, at Busch Stadium.
Eli Randolph, Post-Dispatch
ATLANTA — Eager to find somewhere that would give him a chance to play college ball, Brendan Donovan was willing to play everywhere, and that’s how he found himself at third base in Panama City, Florida, gasping for air because of a bad hop and a baseball to the neck.
About to start his senior year at Enterprise High in Alabama, Donovan attended a showcase for the region’s top players at a panhandle junior college. He went with no offers and one goal.
“I was trying to do everything I could just to get recognized,” Donovan said this past week before preparing to lead off for the Cardinals. “I threw from the outfield. I threw from third. Threw from behind the plate. Wasn’t very good. But I was like maybe someone will like it. I just wasn’t getting any traction. Maybe they don’t like me at shortstop. Maybe I just need to go all over the place.
“So I went all over the place.”
His rotation for attention eventually put him at third base between a row of college coaches along the dugout and a strapping first baseman trying to impress them with his arm strength. The first baseman overcooked a throw to third, and Donovan instinctively dropped down to smother the bounce. The ball hit the lip of the infield, caromed off Donovan’s neck and rolled toward the coaches at the dugout. He went to retrieve it and was asked if he was good.
Donovan summoned enough air to reply: “I’m good.”
“I was not good,” he said. “I was pretty messed up. I couldn’t breathe.”
The throw hit him so close to his throat and so hard that it crushed his chain and left an indentation of the cross. It also left a good impression.
South Alabama’s head coach Mark Calvi jotted down a name.
“I’m like, alright, this kid likes to play,” Calvi said. “He wasn’t a coveted recruit. He had no plus-tool. He’s got the makeup, and he’s got that ‘it’ factor. The dude didn’t start on third base, man. He’s a self-made player. That’s what he is. He’s a self-made player. No one grabbed him and yanked him up to the big leagues. He has earned everything. He’s a self-made college player. He’s a self-made big leaguer.
“He put himself in that position,” Calvi said, “and he’s not letting go of it.”
As goal-oriented now at 28 as he was at 18 and raised in a military household to be disciplined and determined, Donovan sets achievements he’d like to reach for each season. On Tuesday evening, he checks off one for 2025. The Cardinals utility fielder is set to appear in his first All-Star Game when Atlanta’s Truist Park hosts the 95th Midsummer Classic. Elected to the National League roster by his peers and the only Cardinal selected, Donovan’s .297 average is tied with fellow All-Star Freddie Freeman for second in the NL.
He arrived in Atlanta on Monday morning, a day later than planned because Sunday’s rain delays at Busch Stadium caused him to miss his flight. The Cardinals arranged a private jet from ӣƵ for him and his family, Donovan said. He added it was his first time on a private jet.
How he got to Atlanta was comfortable and direct.
How he got to the All-Star Game was neither.
Getting there took a road paved by the willingness to play anywhere.
“I think part of that is the military upbringing: Just make it happen. Just solve the problem,” Donovan said. “I think having to play everywhere has made me who I am as a player, made me — sports is a great teacher for life — who I am as a person. If I would have just played one position and I wasn’t highly drafted and I wasn’t considered a prospect, would I find a way to get into the lineup, would I find a way to get to the major leagues? Probably not. I didn’t know it at the time. At the time, I was like: How is this going to be great for my career? It’s probably been the greatest thing that ever happened to my career.
“Being an All-Star?” he then added when asked where that honor fit. “It’s one of those things you always dream about when you close your eyes and you picture yourself. You see World Series. You see All-Star.”
Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan celebrates as he heads to first base after a walk against the Braves on Saturday, July 12, 2025, at Busch Stadium.
Eli Randolph, Post-Dispatch
Finding somewhere
Born in Germany while his father, Jim, was stationed there with the U.S. Army, Donovan was first introduced to baseball at 5 by his mother, Lisa, after the family relocated and lived in Clarksville, Tennessee, right across the state line from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
One of Donovan’s friends was going to play T-ball, and Lisa Donovan asked if Brendan wanted to try it. His father, deployed overseas at the time, had northeast roots and kept hockey sticks around the garage, not bats. Donovan’s only experience holding a stick for sports was on a frozen pond or hard concrete. When he grabbed a bat for the first time, he held it like he would a hockey stick, then brought his hands together. That is how his left-handed swing was born.
His mother set up a tee and practiced with him, offering this instruction:
“Try to hit it hard.”
When the family moved to Alabama, there weren’t many frozen surfaces to use hockey sticks — but baseball? Baseball was everywhere. Amidst the moving and his father’s active duty, sports, Donovan said, became a constant he could count on anywhere. An anchor.
As Donovan neared graduation from Enterprise, he thought about going into the military, like his father. But he first wanted to pursue baseball.
Intrigued by the showcase and assured by how he saw Donovan play later, Calvi gave him that chance at South Alabama.
The coach was on the bus back from the Sun Belt Conference tournament and an extra-inning loss in the championship on a grand slam when his phone rang. It was Donovan, the incoming recruit. He told Calvi it was a great season and he heard about the tough loss.
“That will never happen on my watch,” Donovan stated.
When he arrived on campus that fall and started fall workouts, Calvi instructed his coaches to get Donovan a bigger bag. The freshman needed it for all the “different gloves I told him to have on him all the time,” Calvi said. The Jaguars’ infield was set, but the coach wanted to get Donovan’s bat in the lineup. That meant time in the outfield and also staying sharp at several infield positions. As the fall continued, Donovan struggled.
He hit poorly.
He fielded worse.
Trying to play everywhere felt like he could play nowhere.
“If I caught the ball, I sailed it,” Donovan said. “Most of the time I didn’t even catch it.”
During one round of batting practice, Donovan recalled how he couldn’t get pitches out of the cage — the “turtle” — and slammed his bat against its side. Calvi told him to sit in the visitors dugout.
“I’m like in a dungeon,” Donovan recalled. “I’m in timeout.”
In a phone interview this past week, Calvi re-created several conversations between the two, and Donovan’s reply was usually, “Yessir, yessir.” When he told Donovan that day he would not play in the scrimmage, the reply was different: “No. No.”
“I’m like, ‘Listen, man, you’ve got a chance to play this game for a long time,’” Calvi recalled. “I said, ‘You’re going to be a manager’s dream one day.’ He was looking at me like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He’s 1 for 21 and he’s made six errors in the outfield and infield. I said, ‘Your best tool is your toughness and your willingness to play other positions. Get good at it.’”
At one point early in his career at South Alabama, Donovan filled out a bio questionnaire for the media guide, and one of the questions was, “Favorite athlete?”
He thought of a big leaguer who played multiple positions, hit .300 and represented the Cardinals at three All-Star Games but rarely at the same position.
He wrote down: “Matt Carpenter.”
The position Calvi expected Donovan to play was Carpenter’s first as an All-Star, second base. But he never did at South Alabama. As a junior, he filled in for an injured teammate at shortstop and helped lift the Jaguars back to the championship game in the Sun Belt tournament, the one they lost the year before he arrived. In extra innings, with the winning run on third, Donovan singled for the walk-off clincher.
“He said it would never happen on his watch,” Calvi said. “And when he was in position to back that up, he did it.”
Playing anywhere
The Cardinals scout who followed Donovan that junior year, Clint Brown, shared this description with the club: “A player who may have limitations, but wherever the ceiling is, he will break through it.”
Evaluations from president of baseball operations John Mozeliak and Gary LaRocque, the farm director at the time, mentioned how Donovan was “relentless in his pursuit to get better.”
The Cardinals drafted him in the seventh round in 2018, the same year they took Nolan Gorman with their first pick. It wasn’t long before the high school slugger was drawn to the college ballplayer who sure didn’t get flustered by a bad round of batting practice.
“It may not seem like it now, but I could get frustrated and hotheaded,” Gorman said. “I wanted to be around him. I wanted to be like him. I wanted to do the things he was doing.”
They would advance together and be united by position, too.
With Gorman at third, Donovan moved to second.
When the Cardinals acquired Nolan Arenado and Gorman moved to second, Donovan moved to shortstop, maybe left ...
“So I was like, where do I go?” he said. “I know. I need to go everywhere.”
He realized quickly why in the days leading up to his promotion to the majors in April 2022 the Cardinals had him play first base. In his first big league start for the Cardinals, he played first. In his second start, he played third. Three days later, he was at second. A week later, shortstop. Donovan’s first four starts in the majors were at four different positions.
That morsel of trivia was actually a harbinger as he won the National League’s first ever utility fielder Rawlings Gold Glove Award in 2022. The Cardinals boast more Gold Glove winners than any other organization, but they have only one rookie who won one: Donovan.
When he found out, Donovan called Calvi.
The kid willing to play anywhere to get noticed, the college leader able to play everywhere to contribute and the rising pro who always had somewhere to play to stay in the lineup had a big league honor to tie all of those moments into a theme he felt all along.
Even as that bruised formed on his neck, versatility was taking him places.
As he tugged on an All-Star cap Monday in Atlanta, Donovan said he wasn’t sure what inning or what position he’ll play in the game. Fitting.
But he knows exactly where he’ll be.
In Atlanta with the other stars.
He was asked what he’d tell that kid trying to catch his breath.
“Good job,” Donovan answered. “Toughness will get you further than you think it will. You never know who is watching. And to play every moment like it’s your last because you never know — it could be. These moments are what got you here. Don’t forget that. Play like that kid, and you’ll continue to climb.”
Worthy: Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages may not share catching duties, but they're still a tandem
Cardinals catcher Ivan Herrera celebrates his three-run home run while rounding the bases during a game against the Blue Jays on Monday, June 9, 2025, at Busch Stadium.
Eli Randolph, Post-Dispatch
When the baseball season started, it sure seemed like Cardinals catchers Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages were set up to work as a tandem. Veteran catcher Willson Contreras moved to first base to facilitate and solidify that duo’s ascension into full-time roles.
The two interacted seamlessly and took on responsibilities as co-pilots of the pitching staff. They had all the earmarks of two guys working together to push a boulder up a hill.
Now, the Cardinals move closer to a point where they need to find another position for Herrera. His offensive prowess and potential and Pages’ defensive inclination and acuity may seem to present a push-pull.
However, it’s becoming clearer that their push-pull isn’t a matter of opposing forces. Instead, it’s one guy behind that boulder pushing it up the hill and the other in front pulling it up the hill. Herrera and Pages are just coming from different points of leverage.
Limited to just 43 games this season (175 plate appearances) due to a pair of stints on the injured list, Herrera has still managed to pummel eight home runs, register 36 RBIs and post a slash line of .320/.394/.529 and make a case for being one the most dangerous right-handed hitters on the Cardinals roster ahead of aging superstar Nolan Arenado, struggling young former super-prospect Jordan Walker and veteran masher Contreras.
Herrera, who has 200 fewer plate appearances than team home run leaders Lars Nootbaar and Contreras (12 each), has batted .419 with runners in scoring position and .389 with runners in scoring position and two outs.
Across his time in the big leagues since his debut in 2022, he’s shown an ability to hit all types of pitches — fastball, breaking ball and off-speed — and he looks the part of an impactful right-handed bat in a lineup sorely in need of just that.
Herrera’s well-documented deficiency controlling the running game — he’s thrown out just 3 of 54 base stealers in his big league career — almost nullify his work as a pitch framer and blocking pitches (two areas where he was average or above average last season).
Last summer, he slashed .318/.348/.477 over a 27-game stretch (93 plate appearances). Through his first 23 games (19 starts) of this season, he batted .247. Ultimately, he’s been a .222 hitter with a .267 on-base percentage and a .353 slugging percentage during his tenure in the big leagues.
Pages’ biggest value comes via his work with the pitching staff, game planning, calling pitches and managing the game on the field.
Pages has caught seven of the club’s 10 shutouts this season, including Erick Fedde’s complete game blanking of the Washington Nationals on the road as well as Sonny Gray’s one-hit, 89-pitch performance in Cleveland against the Guardians.
The Cardinals pitching staff recorded an overall ERA of 4.13 heading into the All-Star break. With Pages catching, the club’s ERA is 3.88. Pages ranked 12th in the majors in catcher framing runs this season, and he broke even — neither positive nor negative — on catcher base stealing runs. He’s gotten dinged for blocking this season to the tune of minus-1 run.
The Cardinals history includes a litany of defensive-oriented catchers. However, the club seemed to make a shift in approach after Yadier Molina retired. They signed Contreras in a move that signaled they wanted to take advantage of the kind middle-of-the-order or top-of-the-order production from the catcher position he could provide.
However, the Cardinals haven’t completely committed to that shift.
“It just depends how your roster is constructed,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said during the last weekend before the All-Star break. “I feel like you should be able to be defensively minded behind the plate and count on offense in other areas. But if that’s not how you’re built, then you adjust.
“But I feel like there’s enough guys in our lineup that should be able to contribute to scoring points. And Pages has done a nice job of managing our pitching staff and giving them the best shot to navigate lineups.”
The Cardinals will primarily use Herrera as a designated hitter for the rest of this season, but they plan to explore the possibility of using him the outfield.
Herrera’s right-handed bat could be vital to their efforts in the second half. The Cardinals have the second-best batting average in the majors against right-handed pitchers (.261) and rank among the top 10 in on-base percentage (.328, sixth), but they’re 20th in batting average against southpaws (.232) and 24th and slugging against left-handers (.351).
Herrera’s production as either a DH or outfielder helps pave the way for a more defensive-oriented backstop like Pages.
On the pitching side, their staff does not have the sort of strikeout proficiency that provides a large margin for error to overcome defensive mistakes, bad luck or an abundance of base runners. The Cardinals’ 7.37 strikeouts per nine innings ranks 29th of 30 teams.
So being able to “navigate lineups,” as Marmol put it, holds even more importance for the Cardinals than a team like the Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers or Milwaukee Brewers (all among the top seven in the majors in strikeouts per nine).
The fact that Pages excels in this regard means Herrera can focus on being an offensive contributor.
So Herrera and Pages are as much a tandem now as they were when they shared the catching duties. Each of their respective strengths fill needs in the Cardinals lineup and allows for the other’s presence.
