Katie Woo

So that was a different offseason for me.

The messaging is different.

This is not at all to put down his predecessor.

I think John Mazzella did plenty of great things.

In my opinion, he's a Cardinals Hall of Famer.

I know there's some recency bias based on how his tenure ended, but at the end of the day, one of the most historic general managers in the game.

I think with Haim, though, it's been so long since this organization has really entered a true rebuild period.

And while Haim has been very careful to not use that word specifically, he has laid out very clearly what the expectations will be this winter.

When Sonny Gray was traded, that's a pretty seismic trade for St.

Louis, especially considering that they included $20 million to the Red Sox.

And I didn't really feel like the fan base was all that surprised that it happened because he pretty much laid out exactly what would happen and the kind of decisions he would make in his introductory press conference.

And a lot of that, I think, to Haim's point, is him understanding the need to connect to a fan base.

This is his second go around, obviously, and fans were eager for a new voice no matter who it was.

But from communicating the message of the organization, it's been a lot easier because he has gone out and said things and then has now backed them up.

And as a reporter, it's very easy to correlate the two and lay down expectations for what's going to happen at these winter meetings and going into the 2026 season.

Sonny Gray...

he was so interesting to cover because if you asked him the right question in his mind, he would expand for several minutes to the point where I was like, can I get a chair?

This is awesome.

But I mean, we've been talking about this for a while and I'm glad, I'm gladly going to take that because you can learn so much from any pitcher really.

But what Sonny's pedigree and what he's accomplished in his career, the fact that he could essentially nerd out over, uh,