Ex-Cardinals Vets Respond to Colin Cowherd’s ‘Cruddy Cardinals’ Claim

The St. Louis Cardinals caught a stray from one of the most popular talking heads in sports this week in Colin Cowherd.

While discussing the current state of baseball, Cowherd made the case that the Los Angeles Dodgers are not ruining baseball and flipped the narrative to a handful of teams as bigger issues, including the "Cruddy Cardinals."

"The Dodgers are winning a lot and everybody is almost entirely happier," Cowherd said. "Three times more happy than 3 years ago. ... What hurts baseball is the A's, the Marlins, the White Sox, the cruddy Cardinals, and the Pirates."

"The Dodgers are winning a lot and everybody is almost entirely happier, 3 times more happy than 3 years ago... What hurts baseball is the A's, the Marlins, the White Sox, the cruddy Cardinals, & the Pirates."@colincowherd argues the Dodgers are saving baseball, not ruining it pic.twitter.com/mphDDm6HAc
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) March 3, 2026

The "Cruddy Cardinals" comment made waves. But those two words out of context don't really tell the full story of his take, though. The Dodgers have been talked about negatively, but each and every year they are trying to win and use all of their resources and the loopholes and the league's financial rules to their advantage. Cowherd was more so making the case that they are not the problem, but other teams not spending is, which is why the Cardinals were mentioned. Arguably, they shouldn't have been lumped in with the likes of the Athletics or Marlins seeing how they are in a rebuild and clearly made that point publicly. But the point is more non-spending teams are the issue rather than teams really going for it.

Was he right?

Feb 1, 2016; San Francisco, CA, USA; Radio personality Colin Cowherd broadcasts on radio row at the Moscone Center in advance of Super Bowl 50 between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-Imagn Images | Jerry Lai-Imagn Images

Former Cardinals fan favorites Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn weighed in on the conversation on "Cardinal Territory."

"We agree with Colin on 99 percent of what he said," Gibson said. "Lance, he totally agreed with us on that it's not the Dodgers ruining baseball, it's the 'cruddy' Cardinals, which I don't even think it's the 'cruddy' Cardinals ruining baseball. But he just lumped them in because they are a team in a rebuild. Other than that, we agreed with everything that he said. I think Lance would say the same thing."

Lynn followed up.

"His only defense is in probably is lifetime, the Cardinals have never done this so he's just, that's just where he's at on this," Lynn said. "And he sees them as an organization that's probably on the Mount Rushmores of organizations and he was not expecting to see this. That's his call. Was it the right word? I don't know."

“Was it the right word? I don’t know.”

The guys weren’t too fond of @ColinCowherd calling the Cardinals “cruddy” just because they’re in a rebuild. pic.twitter.com/ZRV3Fw4yhJ
— Cardinal Territory (@CardTerritory) March 6, 2026

Cowherd wasn't wrong. Baseball is in an odd spot and it's actually only going to get weirder with the Collective Bargaining Agreement set to expire after the season. It's going to be a long year.