How defense has turned Cardinals into contenders — and set up a trade deadline dilemma
IN CREPT WILLSON CONTRERAS, closer and closer to home plate, to the point that it started alarming his St. Louis Cardinals teammates. Contreras is in his first season as a first baseman, and even if the situation called for him to crash toward the plate — eighth inning, 1-0 lead, runners on first and second with no outs and Kansas City’s Jonathan India squaring to bunt on the first two pitches — Contreras stationed himself 51 feet away, like a bunt scarecrow, as if to invite a swing from someone who routinely hits baseballs more than 100 mph.
“Scoot back a little,” Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado hollered across the diamond. Cardinals coaches urged Contreras to do the same. He did not oblige their requests.
“I was afraid [India] was going to take a swing and kill him,” Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas said.
None of this surprised the Cardinals. Contreras has embodied the team’s defense-first mentality — adopted last year and actualized this season — that flipped the fortunes of a franchise fallen on hard times after decades of unrelenting excellence. St. Louis is 27-23, currently in second place in the National League Central and firmly in the postseason hunt during what was supposed to be a transitional year, thanks to perhaps the best defense in baseball. And Contreras’ positioning, as much as any moment over the first quarter of the season, illustrated who the Cardinals have become.
“I don’t care. I’m not afraid,” Contreras said. “If I’m gonna die, I’ll die right there.”
With Contreras perilously close — the only first baseman in the player-tracking era to stand closer to home on a bunt attempt, according to Statcast, was Contreras’ old Chicago Cubs teammate Anthony Rizzo — India backed away from bunting and took a strike from reliever Kyle Leahy. Contreras didn’t budge. India stared at another pitch to even the count. On the fifth pitch, India hit a one-hopper to second baseman Brendan Donovan, who flipped to shortstop Masyn Winn for the force. Winn then wheeled around, ran toward third and fired to third baseman Nolan Arenado to cut down Drew Waters, turning a perilous situation into two outs.
None of it happens, Cardinals players and coaches said, without Contreras’ daring. “He’s a savage,” left fielder Lars Nootbaar said, and that can be repeated for every Cardinal around the diamond this season, from an infield of Arenado, Winn, Donovan and Contreras to Nootbaar, Victor Scott and Jordan Walker in the outfield to Pedro Pages behind the plate. All have been average or better. Arenado, Winn, Contreras and Scott are among the best in baseball at their positions, according to publicly available metrics as well as the models of three other teams surveyed by ESPN that validated the numbers. And as was the case in the May 17 game that ended with a 1-0 win in Kansas City and plenty more, the Cardinals’ gloves have carried them into contention.
“Guys wanted to take a ton of pride in their defense,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “When we look at what we can control this year, we knew we were going to have our ups and downs, but we can control the effort and being locked in every pitch. And that’s one thing I can say with confidence: We don’t give up a whole lot. Guys are making plays left and right. They’re on point. They’re locked in every pitch.”
COMING INTO SPRING TRAINING, the Cardinals looked scarcely different than the 83-79 team that was outscored by 47 runs a season ago. They signed one free agent: reliever Phil Maton, on a one-year, $2 million contract, in mid-March. They didn’t make any trades. Cardinals fans, among the game’s most die-hard, responded accordingly: attendance at Busch Stadium cratered by more than 7,000 a game to 28,464, the lowest average, outside of the 2021 season played under some pandemic restrictions, since after the strike in 1995.
Fans could not have known what they would be missing. Not even Cardinals players themselves could have foreseen this group into a constant highlight reel of glovework.
“Early on, we didn’t talk about defense,” Arenado said. “It was: ‘We’ve got to score runs. We don’t score runs.’ So that’s all we were talking about. But then as spring went on, we’re like, all right, our defense is actually kind of good. And then as the season has gone on, it’s been like, damn, dude, we’re really good defensively.”
How the Cardinals became arguably the sport’s best defensive team is a story of process and buy-in. For decades, the Cardinal Way — the team’s ethos, codified in an 86-page handbook — was their bible. In a game dominated by objective data, St. Louis’ philosophy grew stale — and the franchise with it. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak is in his last year on the job, with former Boston chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom taking over at season’s end. Clean defense, long a hallmark, bottomed out in 2023, when the Cardinals ranked among the worst in baseball. Their pre-pitch positioning, in particular, lagged severely behind more analytically inclined organizations.
“We kind of as a team knew we weren’t in the right positions in ’23, but you have to go based off of whatever [the positioning suggestions given to players] says,” Nootbaar said. “So we did that last year, and it didn’t feel as bad, but you really felt a stark difference from being where it felt like you were never in opportunistic positions. Now it feels like we’re starting to get there.”
Positioning is just the beginning. With former big leaguers Stubby Clapp coaching the infield and Jon Jay the outfield, players were given specific areas to improve. For Scott, who was taking over in center field from a top-flight defender in Mike Siani, he needed a better first step and direction to complement his high-end speed. Nootbaar planned to work on his jumps. Walker, who was among the game’s worst defenders the past two seasons after moving from third base to right, needed to get better in all facets.
During spring training, Jay set three cones in a triangle, cued players to break toward one and tossed a racquetball at them. The outfielders would then break toward another cone and catch another ball, which required soft hands because of the racquetball’s bounciness. He encouraged outfielders to station themselves low, with knees bent, which ensured their engagement in every pitch, a Marmol must.
“It’s so hard to lock in every single pitch, and you don’t know which one’s going to be the one that is coming your way,” Marmol said. “So your ability to be mentally tough enough to do that usually leads to attention to detail in other areas.”
The new approach has paid off. Scott is near the top of leaderboards in publicly available defensive metrics. Nootbaar, Cardinals players and staff said, is playing the best defense of his career, with his first step a tenth of a second faster than last year, something he attributes to focusing on shagging balls during batting practice. Walker has acquitted himself well enough to earn praise from scouts, who had him pegged as a lost cause in right.
And the improvements go beyond St. Louis’ outfielders. Contreras has similarly surprised evaluators, who were unsure how he would fare at first after starting just four games there in his previous nine major league seasons, the majority of which he spent at catcher. With catching duties going to Pagés and 24-year-old Ivan Herrera, whose bat has been a revelation, Contreras’ shift to first to replace four-time Gold Glove winner Paul Goldschmidt was a risk the Cardinals needed to take. And it has rewarded them handsomely.
“He might be one of the best first basemen I’ve ever seen,” Mikolas said. “I knew he’d be bodying it up, and I knew he’d be picking it, but his range and his arm — he’s doing something special there at first base. I think he’s surprising a lot of people. Probably not himself. He knows how good he is.”
It has been matched throughout the infield. Donovan, a 28-year-old utilityman, has settled into second and leads the NL in hits. Winn, whose weakness going to his backhand side was mitigated by an arm that rates among the best in the game, improved his first step and is getting to more balls than ever. At 34, Arenado — a 10-time Gold Glove winner who is regarded as perhaps the best defensive third baseman ever — is moving better than in recent seasons and looking ageless in the field.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Arenado said, “but I don’t see a defense that’s better than us — so far that we played against — in the big leagues.”
IN BASEBALL, DEFENSE does not win championships. Sometimes it doesn’t even get a team to the postseason. None of the No. 1 defensive teams this decade has made a World Series, let alone won one. But most of the top units are at the very least successful, and if that trend continues, the Cardinals will face one of the most interesting Julys in the sport.
Coming into the season, the expectation was that St. Louis would be among the most active teams in moving players at the trade deadline. Closer Ryan Helsley is the sort of arm every contender covets. Multiple teams seen as smart with handling pitchers planned to target left-hander Steven Matz, who has excelled out of the bullpen. Right-hander Sonny Gray remains a high-strikeout, low-walk, playoff-caliber arm. Fellow right-handed starter Erick Fedde is solid, even with his lack of strikeouts, and has allowed only three home runs in 52⅓ innings. Maton has a 133 ERA+ this season and has pitched in four of the past five postseasons.
If the Cardinals spend the next two months playing like they have the first seven weeks, the prospect of them shipping off their best arms diminishes greatly. Because if anyone knows how a team can back into October and find magic, it’s the Cardinals, who turned an 83-78 regular season in 2006 into their 10th championship and a 90-win wild-card campaign into their 11th title five years later.
“I mean, a lot of us are still kind of growing,” Donovan said. “We’ve had the luxury of seeing people do it for a long time with the Cardinals and around the league, so I think it’s guys just kind of learning how to come into their own.”
Marmol has relished the growth. Now in his fourth season as manager, he has amalgamated players around a new identity of focus and structure — tenets that evoke the Cardinal Way, only modernized. Before the Contreras daredevil game, he invited a number of players into his office to give them concrete data on just how much they had improved defensively, the sort of feedback modern players particularly appreciate because of the objective nature. Gone are the bad vibes from a 12-17 start, replaced by a team that found its footing in series wins against the New York Mets, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia and Kansas City before losing a series of close games against the team with the best record in MLB, Detroit.
“The buy-in has been through the roof,” Marmol said. “And then when they can see the improvement in numbers, however many days in, it just reinforces: don’t let up.”
Auburn is moving its 2026 home game with Baylor to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta as part of an arrangement with the Aflac Kickoff Game to provide NIL opportunities for Auburn players, a first in college football for neutral-site games.
The Peach Bowl, in coordination with the Aflac game, will provide opportunities for promotional appearances for Auburn players promoting ticket sales and ancillary events.
“Any time we have the ability to advance Auburn student-athletes’ ability to earn third-party NIL compensation, we will take that opportunity,” athletic director John Cohen said. “The exposure of playing on a national stage against a Power 4 opponent in one of the premier neutral-site games in the country will not only benefit our student-athletes financially, but it will also enhance their brands.”
Baylor and Auburn met in this year’s season opener for each team, with the Tigers winning 38-24 in Waco, Texas. Next year’s game was originally scheduled to be played at Auburn as the second game of a home-and-home.
Auburn will receive an allotment of 20,645 tickets for the game, while Baylor will receive the SEC standard 3,000 tickets held for visiting teams. The Aflac Kickoff Game will sell the remaining inventory.
This game will mark just the sixth time that Baylor and Auburn have met dating to 1954. The series is currently tied 2-2-1, including the Tigers’ win this year.
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Adam Rittenberg
No. 7 Indiana is set to regain All-Big Ten cornerback and special teams ace D’Angelo Ponds this week as the seventh-ranked Hoosiers visit No. 3 Oregon.
Ponds, a first-team All-Big Ten selection and second-team All-America selection in 2024, was a late scratch from Indiana’s Sept. 27 game against Iowa with an undisclosed injury. The Hoosiers did not play last week, and coach Curt Cignetti said Monday that he expects Ponds “to be fine and play.”
The 5-foot-9, 173-pound Ponds had 11 tackles, three tackles for loss, an interception and a blocked punt return for a touchdown this season. He had 55 tackles, three interceptions, nine pass breakups and a blocked kick in 2024.
Ryland Gandy started in place of Ponds against Iowa.
“[Defensive coordinator Bryant Haines] took out the eraser and ink pen and the game plan changed a little bit, played a little bit more zone than he planned on playing going into the game, and I thought we did well,” Cignetti said.
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Greg Wyshynski
Connor McDavid responded to months of speculation by signing a contract extension with the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Notice how we didn’t say that he “ended” that speculation: McDavid’s contract, which carries an extremely team-friendly $12.5 million average annual value, is only for two years beyond this one, meaning the best hockey player in the world could still become the most coveted free agent in NHL history in summer 2028.
But if you’re the Oilers, you’re taking the glass-half-full approach. Or more to the point, a half-full (Stanley) Cup: Connor McDavid has at least three more chances to bring the first championship since 1990 to Edmonton.
As with any significant decision in the NHL, there are winners and there are losers.
Here’s the fallout from Connor McDavid’s new contract:
WINNER: Connor McDavid
Since it’s only a two-year extension, McDavid will have a slew of questions about why he chose that term and what it means for his ultimate future in Edmonton. But then after those questions are asked and answered, McDavid will focus on winning a Stanley Cup in Edmonton and a gold medal for Canada this season without being burdened with speculation. With this season and then two more, those questions can wait until at least September 2027.
This deal was done before the first puck was dropped on the NHL season, and one has to assume Connor wanted it that way.
With McDavid’s contract situation settled, the entirety of the rumor mill will now focus on Crosby’s future with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It’s a topic that Crosby is already sick of discussing but one that’ll grow in volume with each Penguins loss — and the pundits are predicting a lot of Penguins losses this season.
At least McDavid’s pending unrestricted free agency lured some of that spotlight away from Sid. Now, he’s the primary fuel source for this season’s rumor industry.
WINNER: Edmonton fans
When Oilers fans would say that McDavid wasn’t going anywhere, it sounded more aspirational than emphatic.
Maybe this season would be the last shot. Maybe he desired to play for one of the NHL’s glamour franchises, or one he felt had a longer contention window than Edmonton’s.
Visions of teary-eyed news conferences of the past filled their memories, like that time the other greatest player in franchise history ended up being The Great One in Los Angeles — heck, the Kings were even one of the teams that had the cap space ready for Connor next summer.
But he chose Edmonton. Not for the long term — at least not now — but he chose Edmonton. To continue living there. To continue playing there. Because he wanted to bring a championship there.
LOSERS: Everyone else
No McDavid rumor mill. No McDavid free agency frenzy. No McDavid arriving in New York or Dallas or Los Angeles or Tampa Bay or (gasp) Toronto to elevate those teams into immediate Stanley Cup favorite status. No hearing the faint sounds of the “Imperial March” as we tuned in to watch McDavid taking his talents from Edmonton to the highest bidder.
Yes, the smart money was always on him staying in Edmonton. It doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t be a little bummed that he left all that fun on the table — along with over $100 million in free agent riches.
WINNER: Stan Bowman
McDavid decided on Monday that he wanted to ink a two-year extension with the Oilers. That was after months of contemplation about whether — and if so, for how long — he wanted to commit to Edmonton. Part of that process was sitting down with Bowman to hear the GM’s plans for the Oilers moving forward. Ultimately, they got him to remain an Oiler for a few more runs at the Stanley Cup.
Now, one could say that the pitch enticed McDavid to remain with the Oilers for only two more seasons beyond this one, which might not say much for its effectiveness. And one could say that McDavid having essentially given Bowman money out of his pocket to spend should empower the player to have more say in organizational decisions. But, c’mon, no franchise player has that kind of pull within the organization.
On an unrelated topic: Congratulations to Oilers’ coach Kris Knoblauch, who coached McDavid in juniors, on his new contract, given to him by Jeff Jackson, who is CEO of hockey operations and used to be McDavid’s agent.
LOSER: The Oilers’ runway
Now comes the hard part: Building a team around McDavid and fellow Oilers star Leon Draisaitl that can finally celebrate a Stanley Cup championship; or, failing that, one that convinces McDavid that the future in Edmonton is bright enough for him not to take his stuff and leave in 2028.
There’s frankly a better chance of the former happening than the latter.
The defending Western Conference champs bring back most of the same roster as last season, although the loss of Corey Perry might doom their Stanley Cup Final karma. After that, Bowman has some decent money coming off a rising cap next summer, including both goaltenders.
McDavid is essentially Uncle Jimmy in Season 4 of “The Bear,” slamming down a countdown clock until the restaurant is a success or goes bust. Bowman will spend the next three years frantically pawing at ingredients to find the right recipe.
WINNER: GM empowerment
Every NHL general manager has, at some point, tried to sell a player with an expiring contract on taking a little less to help the team in a salary-capped league. Most times, that player will absolutely refuse to be the victim of past contractual mistakes by management — maybe there’s a small hometown discount, but the stars want to be paid as such.
It used to be that Sidney Crosby was the model for contractual sacrifice, as he has had the same $8.7 million AAV since the 2008-09 season. Back then, it was 15.3% of the cap. On his latest extension, it’s 9.1% of the cap. As of now, McDavid will make 12.0% of the cap in 2026-27, although that could still decrease.
It’s team-friendly to the point that he’s not even the highest-paid player on the Oilers. Every GM in the league is going to harmonize when saying in unison: “Be like Connor.”
If the Oilers win during that two-year deal … well, now they have proof of concept, too.
LOSER: NHLPA
Any time a player decides to take less than market value, it’s not exactly a rising tide lifting others’ boats.
While the NHLPA was no doubt thrilled that Kirill Kaprizov got the Minnesota Wild to improve on what was already a record-breaking offer to settle on the highest value ($136 million) and AAV ($17 million on an eight-year term) in league history.
But the mind boggles at what McDavid could have landed as the most coveted free agent in hockey history, instead of maintaining his current cap hit for two more seasons.
WINNER: Leon Draisaitl
As I reported earlier this year, Draisaitl’s decision to sign an eight-year contract extension through 2033 did not mean that McDavid would commit long term to the Oilers, too.
As it stands, Draisaitl will have McDavid feeding him pucks for the next three seasons at a minimum. That’s three times better than just having him for the 2025-26 season, which was certainly a possibility as McDavid mulled his future as a pending UFA.
It’s not ideal, but it’s not catastrophic. And hey, he’s still the highest-paid player on the Oilers! Who saw that coming?
Of all the potential landing spots for McDavid, none would have knocked the hockey world off its axis like the Ontario native taking his talents to the Toronto Maple Leafs. A 1-2 punch of McDavid and Matthews might have convinced even the most cynical Leafs fans that the team could win its first Stanley Cup since 1967.
Alas, after losing Mitch Marner to the Golden Knights in the offseason, Matthews will have to wait until summer 2028 to potentially play with McDavid … when they’re both UFAs … and coincidentally share the same agent. Now that’s a fun summer.
WINNER: McDavid’s legacy in Edmonton
Assuming he plays the full term, McDavid will have given Edmonton 13 years of his life — after a bunch of draft lottery balls bounced the Oilers’ way in 2015 — in pursuit of the Stanley Cup.
He has lifted the team to two straight Cup Finals and three conference finals overall, to the point where he was just the second skater in NHL history to win playoff MVP in a losing effort. Two additional seasons might not sit well with some Edmonton fans, especially after Draisaitl committed to eight more seasons last September.
But the majority of fans likely see this as McDavid propping the contention window open by leaving a Scrooge McDuck money bin of free agent riches on the table, and giving the Oilers added cap flexibility. If he leaves in 2028, he won’t have abandoned Edmonton — it’ll be after giving that franchise his everything. If it ends without a Cup, it’ll be the Oilers’ legacy to have squandered it.
LOSER: The state income tax debate
The advantages for those teams that play in states without income tax have been restated and hotly debated ever since the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights started lifting the Stanley Cup. Players such as Brad Marchand have noted that a lack of state income tax has enabled teams to maintain roster consistency and attract talent.
But it didn’t lure McDavid on this contract. Which, as Panthers executive Roberto Luongo cheekily tweeted, doesn’t really stoke the fires of this burning issue:
No state tax strikes again! https://t.co/NCRxsSFBOy
— Strombone (@strombone1) October 6, 2025
He might still end up playing in Florida or Las Vegas or Dallas when this contract is up. But for now, he’s committed to playing in Alberta, where the income tax rate is 15%.
We’ll just have to wait for the Panthers to win a third straight Stanley Cup over the Oilers for that debate to reignite…
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