WASHINGTON -- In a recent social media post, baseball broadcaster and reporter Dani Wexelman shared a photo of her interviewing Matthew Liberatore when he was a high schooler and juxtaposed it with a photo of her interviewing him this year as the Cardinals' opening day starter.

That is a great illustration of the arc of Wexelman's career telling baseball stories, from the backfields of Jupiter, Florida, covering amateur baseball and rising talents to front and center now with Cardinals.TV to capture what the club hopes is a rising team.

Wexelman joins Best Podcast in Baseball host Derrick Goold while both of them are in Washington, D.C., covering the Cardinals to discuss the start to the 2026 season as well as the path that brought Wexelman to Mizzou and the back this year as a prominent part of the Cardinals' broadcasts. They also discuss how Wexelman's experience covering amateur baseball for many years and being a national pundit looking at Major League Baseball through a broader lens informs what she plans to bring to telling stories during these Cardinals' "new era."

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In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.

What do the roster decisions made by the Cardinals ahead of opening day tell fans about their timetable to contend?

Probably more than their letting on.

The Best Podcast in Baseball returns from spring training and to its weekly format with a preview of the 2026 Cardinals season told through one position and how so many revealing aspects of the team radiate from it. Editor Nathan Mills joins baseball writer and BPIB host Derrick Goold on the even of opening day to discuss the many tendrils that extend from left field -- from the Cardinals' roster choices to the Cadinals' style of offense, from the Cardinals' need for power and plans for Lars Nootbaar to their debut of JJ Wetherholt and what that says about their next window to contend. It all extends from left field.

Just in time for the civic holiday known as opening day it's a brand new BPIB.

Happy New Year, as we say in the press box.

More Post-Dispatch podcasts.

Please consider subscribing.

In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.

JUPITER, Fla. -- Thomas Saggese has questions for the host of the Best Podcast in Baseball.

Moments after finishing his first ever start in center field for the Cardinals, Saggese joins baseball writer Derrick Goold to talk about the transition to a new position and how much work he wants there before playing it in the regular season. But that's not all.

Through the years, Saggese has often shifted interviews to ask great questions he has about history, statistics, and specifically voting for the MVP, other awards, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was invited on the podcast so he could flip the script and ask those questions as part of a conversation. What follows is a deep dive into the decisions that go with a ballot, whether it's the MVP ballot or the Hall of Fame.

The conversation explores how measuring a player with statistics contrasts with how a player measures themselves.

Saggese talks about how he values batting average but avoids looking at it, and how when he's thinking about hitting he's seeking feel. Goold wonders what the reaction would be if he explained his votes for MVP and Hall of Fame by saying it just "felt right." And yet there's more common ground between statistics measuring a players production, especially as they evolve, and how a player works for that production.

The podcast was recorded outside the Cardinals' new spring training facility, where construction continues.

You'll hear it.

More Post-Dispatch podcasts.

Please consider subscribing.

In its 14th season as one of the first and most widely heard podcasts on baseball and the Cardinals, the Best Podcast in Baseball has reached a new season-high with 30 episodes. Each episode is sponsored weekly by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and lead baseball writer Derrick Goold.