3 Cardinals players who will not remain on the roster by the trade deadline

We have now reached the month of June, inching closer to the 2025 MLB trade deadline. The St. Louis Cardinals have found themselves in the postseason hunt and appear to be a legitimate threat to win the NL Central. The case for any contender is that you cannot stand pat without adding to the roster. You have to make an attempt to improve the team going forward to have a chance to compete in the season-long race. With pieces to the current roster being viable trade candidates or players struggling to produce at the major league level, you will see more roster changes going forward. If the Cardinals are looking to retool the roster for the future or add onto the current roster to compete for 2025, either direction will lead to players leaving. Here are three players who will most likely be off the major league roster come the trade deadline.

Steven Matz

The most logical player to be moved by July is Steven Matz. The once-prominent starter is now a stopgap reliever for the Cardinals, which has saved him a spot on the Major League roster. After years of injuries and misfortunes following a four-year, $44 million contract, the veteran southpaw is now a relief pitcher who wants to reestablish himself as a reliable back-end starter. The Cardinals are adamant that their young player will be given opportunities to play this season, and this will remain the strategy going forward. Matz is in the last year of his contract and is in a current role that is hypothetically easy to replace. Another contending team looking to add depth to their rotation will be targeting Matz. The Cardinals need to spend the most time working out this deal to benefit them for the future.

JoJo Romero

Romero started off 2025 on a very bad note. He was one of the most inconsistent pitchers out of the bullpen and looked questionable to be DFA'd after posting a 4.36 ERA in March/April. But his FIP was consistently lower than his ERA during this stretch, which shed light that maybe bad luck was harming him. After the month of May, this seems to be the case. Romero, on the season, has bounced back and has a 3.44 ERA on the season. But Romero still has alarming red flags that are present in his body of work. After 18.1 IP, he only has 13 SO, 12 BB, and a 4.50 FIP. With his recent success mixed in with his unstable production, it seems to be the right time to shop Romero to the market.

The Cardinals will probably not receive much of anything for him in a trade, but it is better to make the attempt before considering his DFA or release. But the Cardinals will be better off going forward by replacing his spot in the bullpen to continue their push into a postseason spot.

Nolan Gorman

The clock is running out for Gorman. The once highly touted power-hitting prospect has been another developmental failure within the organization. The Cardinals' "reset" strategy was prepared and geared towards players like Gorman to fully prove themselves in 2025. After many trials and errors to do so, we are reaching the end of the Gorman experiment. Gorman has a -0.3 WAR in 2025 with only 17 hits in 91 ABs with 1 HR and 9 RBI. He is not getting on base with a .280 OBP, he is not hitting for power with a .297 SLG, and he has provided average defense when given a chance to play.

For his career, he is a 3.2 WAR player with an OPS+ of 99 for a player known for his offense. He has only played about half of the games so far in 2025, and with other players contributing more to the team in a division hunt, his playing time will keep being reduced. I am not sure if he will be shopped as a trade candidate before the deadline, but he will most certainly be sent down to Memphis once again to fix himself and come back like a broken record.