On 18 January 2025, President of Baseball Operations for the St. Louis Cardinals John Mozeliak had this to say about the Cardinals’ current offseason;
It is now February, and the Redbirds have yet to acquire anyone, whether that be via free agency or a trade. While many fans in St. Louis are quite upset about the process this year, I believe that staying quiet and not doing much is for the best for our upcoming future.
The Front Office
It has been reported that, at the end of the 2025 season, Mozeliak will be stepping down, and passing the torch to Chaim Bloom, former Chief Baseball Officer for the Boston Red Sox.
In the meantime, Bloom will be advising Mozeliak in his last year. It has been rumored that, during this transition, Mozeliak will be in charge of cutting as much payroll as he can for the next year, while Bloom will be overseeing player development.
Essentially, Mozeliak is trying to make the process run smoothly for Bloom when he officially steps into the office, with as much payroll to work with in next year’s offseason. While it is frustrating to see your team roll over and do nothing to help better a team that has already struggled to get over the hump, it is nice to see that there is some sort of direction towards the club. Even if it means doing nothing about it.
Patience
A word that Cardinal fans have been hearing for far too long now, and as much as I hate to hear it, I think I’m starting to believe in it. Looking at our projected starting lineup for next season, the average age is a whopping twenty-six years old (even with Arenado in the starting lineup).
There is a lot of young talent that the front office believes in, most of whom are finally expected to break out this season. Names like Jordan Walker, Alec Burleson, Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan and Masyn Winn all stand out as young players who are under team control for years to come that are now primed to make a big impact.
Specifically, Masyn Winn has all the tools to become the next face of the franchise. He’s got an amazing glove, blazing speed and a fantastic bat.
However, I would love to see him watch the ball a little more – as our true leadoff hitter, his BB% sits at only 6.6%, while his K% sits at 17.1%. I would love to see him be a bit more patient at the plate, as if he can get on base just a little more, we can easily see 35+ stolen bases from him. Something we haven’t seen since Edgar Renteria in 1997, where he secured 37 bases.
An interesting new prospect the Cardinals will see this year is Thomas Saggese, who looks like he’ll be on the Opening Day roster. Saggese arrived at the 2023 trade deadline from the Texas Rangers as their 16th-ranked prospect. Since then, he slugged his way through the minors with a slashing line of .307/.374/.530, and found himself debuting with the Cardinals last season. He appears to face the same issue as Winn though. In his small sample size, his BB% is a miniscule 3.8%, while his K% is a whopping 26.9%. Something that he’ll need to drastically fix and quickly.
However, our pitching rotation tells a different story. Looking at our projected starting rotation for the next season, the average age is 32 (with twenty-six-year-old Andre Pallante bringing that average down), with most of our starters and bullpen only having a year or two left on their contracts. We do have multiple guys in our minor league system who can look to capitalise on the opportunity if given to them though. Top prospects Tink Hence, Quinn Matthews and Michael McGreevy are all looking to join the rotation in the coming years.
The Free Agency Class
The free agents who were a part of this year’s class, in my opinion, were underwhelming. Of course, you had big names like Juan Soto, Roki Sasaki, Corbin Burnes and Alex Bregman. However, the Cardinals never had any real chance of signing any of them.
I would say that the rest of the class just didn’t fit the mold of what we’re trying to accomplish this season, as most players are older and looking for playing time, which I believe we wouldn’t have to offer.
Conclusion
With the current state of our roster, and all the up-and-coming prospects we have in our system, I think it was a great idea to hold off and to wait until next year to really decide where the future of this team holds.
There is no need to try and grab somebody long-term and take jobs away from the young guys who we’ve been watching closely for several years. There is still some talk about the possibility of Nolan Arenado being traded, but again, until that happens, that is a discussion for a later time.
Devon Polk is a Cardinals fan and St Louis native. He can be found on Twitter @dailydoseofpolk.
Featured image – Zachary Linhares/St Louis Post-Dispatch via AP
