St. Louis Cardinals: Pre-Winter Meetings 2017 Position Predictions

The 2017 Winter Meetings are the next big piece of the offseason and the St. Louis Cardinals are a team to watch for moves to come during this piece of the winter.

The St. Louis Cardinals are looking for upgrades.  This is the message we have been hearing.  Prior to the Winter GM Meetings, the Cardinals made one such upgrade in the way of Brett Cecil but fans want more.

Each year the Winter Meetings bring a great deal of activity from all teams.  Deals are made and players are moved.  Free agents are selected and fans get their first glance at what their team might become in the coming year.

The Winter Meetings bring with them promise as each team is quote-unquote equally-matched and poised to take the World Series title.  What this is somewhat true, it is in actuality far from true as each team is trying to keep up with the Joneses as it were.  This year’s Joneses are the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs.

Teams will work in the Winter Meetings to grab valuable pieces who will make them equal or better than the Cubs in the National League and equal or better than the Indians in the American League.  Of equal importance in the Winter Meetings is budget control and teams will work within their guidelines to pick up value without losing too much money.

Enter the St. Louis Cardinals who went 86-76 in 2016 and who will look to break the 90-win mark in 2017 in hopes of reaching the postseason.  The St. Louis Cardinals missed the 2016 postseason and were forced to watch the proceedings from home while the 103-58 Cubs rode to the title.

Before we watch whether general manager John Mozeliak makes any big splashes in the Winter Meetings, I’d like to take this slideshow to make some predictions.  We will go position-by-position and I will predict who will hold these positions in 2017.  Will I predict trades?  Will I predict successes or failures?  Click that next slide and find out.