The best tidbits of information from the players on day 2!
Day 1 had a lot of great insight and day 2 of the 2025 Winter Warm up certainly didn’t disappoint either. Lets get into it!
Quinn Matthews:
Quinn’s stock in 2024 took a meteoric rise as he shot up through 4 levels of the minor leagues and finished the season in Triple-A Memphis. Quinn said that last offseason his regiment was geared towards adding Velo and that was unique for him as he’s always just accepted that he wasn’t a hard thrower but always knew he was a pitch maker. This offseason he’s been focused on building endurance to make it “through October” since the yearly goal in baseball is to win a World Series. He also told us that part of that was due to his September results diminished due to him throwing the most amount of innings of his life and he was asking his body to do things it had all season and it was just fatigued by the end of the year. Matthews was asked about getting close to the show and his dreams of being a major leaguer by John Denton of MLB dot com and he responded that he never really dreamed of being a big league baseball player but an Investment Banker instead and finds himself fascinated by the world of Crypto currency. Though he never dreamed of being a big leaguer it doesn’t deter him from having the desire to get there and underlined his intense competitive nature and almost to a fault where it can grind on people close to him at times. It was Quinn’s first time in STL and he said “just in the 12 hours of being here I can tell this is a baseball town.” Frank Cusamano of KSDK asked if one of this stated goals was to be a big league starter this season and Quinn responded with “ I don’t have goals, I don’t like that word. The word goal means that, if you achieve it then that’s awesome, but if not, then that’s okay so I don’t have any goals. I don’t believe in the word goals.” Quinn mentioned Jon Lester and Max Fried as two guys he looks to and tries to take things from their game that he wants to emulate. There were several times pro baseball passed over Quinn and told him he wasn’t good enough and his Senior season at Stanford he said things changed when he stopped worrying about being good enough and started focusing more on proving people wrong. Quinn said he asked his mom after he was drafted if he could put all of his money into “Dogecoin” and she responded with “yeah, this is going to be a short conversation Quinn thats not happening.” I asked Quinn after being named Minor League pitcher of the year by the team, Baseball America, and MLB pipeline if those accolades and those achievements helped feed his fire or validated him in a way. He responded with “validation is such an interesting topic for me just because my opinion is if you need validation from the outside your probably going to struggle. If you don’t have the self confidence, even after a bad start, to believe that you’re the best guy the next time, then you’re probably not going to make it in this industry.”
Zach Thompson:
Zach said he’s had a normal healthy offseason after fighting off a couple hurricanes being based in St. Petersburg, Florida. He said that last season was interesting because of the Sonny Gray injury to start the season and not having a very good first month of the season and didn’t anticipate at the start of the season going down and then never coming back. Thompson also mentioned that he felt like he finished last season strong and after working through some mechanical changes due to weight loss in the offseason, which meant his body was moving in a different way than it had the previous season, and it was hard to perform when he was fighting his mechanics all season so he’s looking forward to this spring. Zach said he reconnected with his college pitching coach this offseason and he’s helping him work through some of his challenges and pointing out some of the things that he’s noticed and getting him back to what he used to be.
Luken Baker:
Luken has been training at TCU this offseason, his alma mater, and he talked about shifting his focus in performance and trying to accumulate as many RBI’s as possible rather than just focusing on hitting for power. He talked about understanding more what the situation dictates and having a better plan and learning from his first taste of the big leagues in ‘23 and not putting so much pressure on himself and focusing on taking the best at-bat rather than forcing the big hit and trusting the results will come with that.
Masyn Winn:
Masyn said he got a house in Jupiter, Florida and he’s spent a majority of the offseason with a track coach and increasing his speed and stolen base total, he wasn’t satisfied with the number, and wants 30-40 this season. He told us he tried hot yoga this offseason for the first time… wasn’t a fan. When asked about Jordan Walker and coming up through the minors this year and said he believes that we will see “minor league” Jordan Walker this season and said that version was the best player he’s ever seen in person. He also talked about a desire for both of them to be a face for the city of St. Louis and for the Cardinals franchise. When asked about the city of St. Louis and what it’s been like to experience the fan base embrace him he said “This city has been nothing short of unbelievable to me and my family and we love it here.” Said “he’d love to be one of those guys like Yadi and Waino” and spend his entire career wearing one jersey. When asked about what’s the hardest thing about making an adjustment at the big-league level Masyn said “the hardest thing about making an adjustment is making an adjustment to an adjustment. The pitchers, now going into my sophomore season, are going to a have a full season of footage that they can use to adjust to me. Now it’s about making adjustments every week.” When asked about Manager Oli Marmol and his influence on his development Masyn said Oli has been great to him and that he will tell you what you don’t want to hear sometimes but he will give you your praises when you deserve it and that he listens to veterans but also really listens and helps the young guys and he will tell you straight and as players you need that. I asked Masyn what Nolan Arenado has meant to him and how he has influenced his career so far and he said “playing the left side with that guy I couldn’t think of another guy I’d rather do it with. Just listening to him every day watching his work ethic, and what he does defensively every day, and how he shows up the ballpark and just works every single day that was great for me. Obviously, ‘Nado isn’t a guy who you just show up the field and just loves you, you gotta earn his respect, and I feel like I did that last year and as soon as it happened our relationship took a jump to a whole other level. That dude is one of my favorite teammates I’ve ever been around.” Also said he’s moved on from the idea of pitching and he’s just a Shortstop going forward. Was asked how his back is doing and said he thinks they’re beyond it but if it happens again they know how to take care of it.
Michael Siani:
Michael and his brother, Sammy who is in the Pirates organization, has spent his offseason in Bradenton, Florida at IMG academy. Michael told us he’s looking forward to coming to spring training and competing for a spot and that he needs to just be ready for anything like he was told last year. Talked a bit about his need to remind himself that he’s in the big leagues and that he’s good enough to be there and getting consistent at bats really helped him get his feet underneath him last season. I asked Michael about his brother and what kind of a relationship they have as pro-outfielders and if they push each other or are more steady foundational sources for one another to lean on and he said “It’s one of my favorite things about this whole thing is that he plays and that we get to spend a lot of time together in the offseason. It’s definitely special to get to work and go out in the offseason and spend every day with him and I talk to him a little bit during the season, not too much, just little things here and there, and help him takes his mind of it and try to help him not do too much.” I asked him who’s the better defender between the two of you? He said “you’re only gonna get one answer from me and that’s me.”
Jimmy Crooks III:
First question asked was about teammate Quinn Matthews and he said “That guy’s my dude.” Spent a lot of time getting to know him and they have a very good relationship. When asked about Quinn being a little bit of an interesting character Jimmy responded with “He’s a left-handed pitcher what do you expect?” Jimmy said he’s spent the offseason with former big league catcher Derek Norris in Wichita, Kansas. Said he learned a lot from Willson, Ivan, and Pedro about leadership and those guys took him under their wing with the lack of a presence of a catching coordinator. Jimmy also talked about an emphasis last season on not being so splitty with his platoon opportunities and making sure he’s just as effective hitting against lefties as he is against righties.
Michael McGreevy:
Said he didn’t get off to the best start last season and then around June 1st things took a positive step forward and he rode that into his big league debut. Michael talked about how he was encouraged that the organization is giving young guys like himself the runway to get a spot and produce. Said this offseason he has really increased his protein intake and that its been “a lot of steak” so much so that his mom mentioned his kitchen smells like New York Strip every time she walks in. On his teammate Quinn Matthews “he had an incredible year and at the end of the season he was losing his mind “like dude oh my gosh oh my gosh” like dude you’ve had an exceptional year, you could give up 20 runs tomorrow and you’re still going to win minor league pitcher of the year, you’ll be fine, I promise “oh dude I suck” I’m like oh my god this guy’s an idiot.” He said Quinn is going to be great for them in the future. Said he didn’t take an at bat against Quinn when they were younger growing up near each other but did face his team a couple times. Said he’s not worried about role going into next season he just wants to get outs for the cardinals and wants to be in the big leagues this year. I asked him when he was growing up how his big league debut against the defending world series champions compared to what it was like when he was kid and how that played out to him he said “ when I was younger I imagined myself hitting a home run because I was a shortstop at the time so it was a little different but it was just an absolute dream come true, didn’t try to make the moment too big, when I asked Ben Johnson who we were facing he said it was the defending world champs the Rangers I said “oh, okay….cool” I thought just try to look at Corey Seager from the nose down and don’t look him in the eye.
Jordan Walker:
Jordan started off by saying he was really focused on doing what he did well in 2023 and incorporating what he learned in 2024. Said he has spent a lot of time with new hitting coach Brant Brown and getting his swing back to that 2023 version. Said he didnt make nearly as much contact as he wanted to and really started there and then once they established that baseline then progressed on tweaking the swing to more line drives and driving balls into gaps and just getting back to his natural swing and then building off that with what he learned in 2024. Jordan talked about his hand placement and his hands were too far back and it didn’t allow him to fire properly and be as consistent. Second part was that he was working harder on engaging his lower half and said that breaking those habits have been a main focus as far as hitting has gone. Jordan was asked about Brant Brown and what it was like getting to know him and what its been like working with him and he said “right from the beginning he was asking me what I saw and showing me what he saw and how I felt and that was really special to me so I’m looking forward to continuing to work with him.” Jordan mentioned that his fitness has been focused more around flexibility and doing band work more than strength training and trying to maintain where he was, weight wise, at the end of the season. Jordan talked about eventually wanting to be a leader but recognizing he isn’t quite there yet but did mention Brendan Donovan as a real growing voice in the clubhouse and called him “Cap(tain).” Joradn mentioned that he has been working a lot with Jon Jay this offseason as well on defense and learning subtle details like how to stop a ball the right way, how to stop a ball and be in the right position to throw once he does, working with the baby glove and catching the ball the right way. Said he is looking forward to continuing that work with Jay the rest of the offseason, through spring training, and throughout the season and cant wait to see the kind of defender he is at the end of the season.
Alec Burleson:
Alec has spent his offseason in Greenville, North Carolina and has spent the offseason working on his body and working on allowing himself to be fresh and as good as possible for the whole season. Said last season was a learning experience that you can’t know how you’re going to feel until you go through it and now learn from that experience. Alec said he was really pleased with his first half but wasn’t satisfied with the second half and recognized that he wasn’t good enough in the second half. Alec talked about becoming a leader with Donnie and Gorman and focusing on taking that next step and recognizing some veterans had left and his group of guys needs to step up and step into those roles. Burly said he’s hopeful to spend most of the season at 1B but if asked to play the outfield on occasion he will. Speaking of 2024 Alec said that he felt he didn’t have a spot going into the season but because of injuries he got an opportunity and felt that was all he needed to show what he could do and where in seasons past he’s had to prove he belongs and thinks he’s in a good spot to be on the team come opening day.
Andre Pallante:
Andre started by talking about how going into the season prepared to be a starter as opposed to going in thinking he was a reliever and then having to play catch up is something he is excited about. When asked about why he is better as a starter he said he thinks his stuff gets better throughout a game and he’s a guy who gets stronger throughout a game and his pitch mix works better in that role because most relievers only have 2-3 pitches and he has 4 unique ones and has plans to add a changeup but must establish his baseline pitches in spring before he works on incorporating that pitch. Said it was funny he was John King’s wedding this offseason and saw Pirates player Jared Triolo and the only thing that popped into his head was the scouting report on that guy so that’s how his mind works now. I asked Andre about some of the veteran starters who had the most influence on his career early on like Wainwright, Gibson, and Lynn? He went through and picked something out about each individual guy: Gibson, taught him how to work in between his starts and have a plan for what he wants to work on and this is how you execute these individual things. Wainwright, mentality, nobody is going to beat him. Never give in no matter the situation. Lynn, If you’re going to be flashy be flashy all the time good or bad. Be the same person no matter the situation.
