10 New Year's predictions for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2025

Prediction #6 - Ryan Helsley is not traded this year with the Cardinals being in contention around the deadline, but they'll make him the qualifying offer and receive a draft pick next offseason

The Cardinals are unlikely to move Ryan Helsley this offseason, and as they seek to get fans to the stadium in 2025, I'm starting to doubt they will move him at all unless the club is clearly out of contention in July.

I would not be shocked if the Cardinals are in the playoff race in 2025 and still move Helsley at the deadline, but it doesn't seem like that's the path they are planning on taking as things currently stand. They could have done that last deadline and scoffed at the idea, so I think there's a real chance they hold him at this deadline too and let him walk in the offseason.

Assuming Helsley performs at a high level and is healthy going into the offseason, the Cardinals will be able to give him the qualifying offer and get a draft selection in return for him when he signs elsewhere. It's likely that a trade package would be more valuable at the deadline than a single draft selection, but given both Chaim Bloom and Randy Flores' success in drafts, adding another pick to their slate in 2026 would be a nice consolation.

Prediction #7 - Quinn Mathews finished top 3 in NL Rookie of the Year voting

If you told me in January 2024 that I'd be making this prediction today, I would have thought you had lost your mind. But that just goes to show you how impressive Quinn Mathews was during his first year with the organization.

After being selected in the fourth round of the 2023 MLB draft, Mathews posted a 2.76 ERA in 26 starts across four different minor league levels, earning himself the title of Baseball America's Minor League Pitcher of the Year, an award that only Rick Ankiel has won for Cardinals' prospects.

Mathews' struck out 202 batters in just 143.1 innings of work, leading all minor league pitchers by 28 strikeouts and becoming just the second pitcher in the last 13 years to strike out more than 200 batters in the minor leagues in a single season.

The Cardinals worked hard with Mathews last offseason to add more velocity, and it paid off in a big way. His slider, which sat between 82-84 MPH in college, was sitting between 89-90 MPH as a pro. His fastball, which was in the low 90s before, now sat at 95 MPH and could touch 97 MPH as well.

Mathews has completely changed his ceiling as a prospect. He'll sit within the top 40 prospects in baseball at minimum when preseason 2025 lists come out, and I'm predicting that he either breaks camp in the big league rotation or is called up sometime in May at the latest. While I don't expect him to be Paul Skenes, I do think he'll pitch in such a way that he'll end up finishing in the top 3 in Rookie of the Year voting, giving the Cardinals another difference-making arm in their rotation moving forward.