3 needs for the St. Louis Cardinals during the Winter Meetings

It's beginning to look a lot like baseball.

Free agents are starting to sign, concrete rumors regarding Juan Soto, this winter's biggest fish, are beginning to surface, and trade whispers are growing ever stronger. What began as a dull offseason has slowly started to grow.

For the St. Louis Cardinals, the Winter Meetings will be imperative. The team isn't rebuilding; it's "resetting". John Mozeliak has been adamant that he intends on building a competitive team in 2024 -- albeit at a much lower price tag -- while keeping an eye on the future. Young players will be a focus, and some veterans will remain to provide leadership and consistent production.

The Winter Meetings is often a time of action in a largely inactive time in the baseball offseason. Team heads, player managers, reporters, bloggers, and prospective writers, analysts, and MLB fans will be in Dallas from December 9th through the 12th. This is the time where trades that were discussed at the general manager meetings nearly a month ago come to fruition. Big-name free agents could ink long-term deals, and other free agents will find a home for the foreseeable future.

The Cardinals must choose a path for 2025 for several players, most notably Nolan Arenado, Ryan Helsley, and Erick Fedde. The Cardinals must also look at the roster to find areas of improvement (the outfield and bullpen, probably).

With veterans like Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras having a strong desire to stay in St. Louis through at least 2025, the Cardinals have two leaders. Brendan Donovan, Masyn Winn, Lars Nootbaar, and Jordan Walker will be given every opportunity to show their worth in 2025. Role players like Ivan Herrera, Nolan Gorman, and Michael Siani will also be able to fight for starting spots.

Many eyes will be on the Cardinals in Dallas, as they have several potentially attractive players to be traded. They also happen to have several needs that can be filled at the annual Winter Meetings.

Need #1: Make at least one trade

Part of the club's stated reset is to restock the farm system. High-level prospects like Quinn Mathews, Tink Hence, and JJ Wetherholt are near-MLB ready. Behind them, talented youngsters like Chase Davis, Jimmy Crooks, and Tekoah Roby are inching their way up the prospect depth chart. However, it never hurts to have as many talented prospects as possible. They can be acquired via trade.

Players like Ryan Helsley, Nolan Arenado, Erick Fedde, and most recently Steven Matz have all been rumored to be players of interest for other teams in the league. Any one of these players, particularly Helsley and Fedde, would net the Cardinals at least one valuable prospect. Even Nolan Arenado, given the right trade, could bring back a talented young player.

The free-agent starting pitching market has never been more expensive. The Cardinals have two cheap pitchers in Erick Fedde and Steven Matz who could be beneficial for other teams. John Mozeliak HAS to take advantage of this market.

Ryan Helsley, last year's best closer in the National League, is now apparently off the trade block, but he could bring back a potential top-100 prospect.

Nolan Arenado is coveted by many teams, and he could be moved during the Winter Meetings.

Regardless of who is traded, John Mozeliak and Chaim Bloom need to trade one of these four veterans. It would provide salary relief, and any one of those players would bring a return that would help jumpstart this reset period for the organization.

Need #2: find another reliever

Right now, the Cardinals have Ryan Helsley, Matthew Liberatore, Ryan Fernandez, John King, and JoJo Romero as five guaranteed relievers. Kyle Leahy, Michael McGreevy, Zack Thompson, and Gordon Graceffo could make relief appearances, but John Mozeliak could dip into the free-agent pool to bring back an experienced bullpen arm.

Perhaps Andrew Kittredge is brought back. The Cardinals have been linked to right-handed reliever Blake Treinen, who finished 2024 with a 1.93 ERA, 0.943 WHIP, and 56 strikeouts in 46.2 innings. Treinen, 36, was the Oakland Athletics' closer back in 2018 and 2019 when he had a combined 54 saves. He hasn't seen significant work late in games since 2021, but his 10.8 K/9 rate would be one of the best in the Cardinals' relief corps.

Other relievers such as Carlos Estevez (2.45 ERA, 55 innings pitched, 26 saves) or Kirby Yates (1.17 ERA, 33 saves, 85 strikeouts, 0.827 WHIP in 61.2 innings pitched) could be had, as they are probably among the top arms on the free agent market.

St. Louis could also look into recently non-tendered players. The Cardinals themselves let Adam Kloffenstein go by not extending him a contract. Other pitchers who would be attractive candidates include Kyle Finnegan, Jordan Romano, Brent Honeywell Jr., and Jacob Webb.

Finnegan and Romano will have a long line of suitors. Kyle Finnegan finished with 38 saves last year (88 over the last four years). He finished with a 3.68 ERA, but the bulk of that was a result of a disastrous second half. If Mozeliak believes that Finnegan is more the man in the first half, he would be a strong "discount" grab in free agency.

The reliever who interests me most among the non-tendered pitchers would be Jacob Webb. Webb, 31, struck out 58 batters in 56.2 innings, and he finished 2024 with a 3.02 ERA as a member of the Baltimore Orioles. He didn't see many high-leverage opportunities last year, but he was excellent in medium-leverage situations, allowing a slash line of .183/.258/.267 to batters.

Regardless of who he chooses to add, at least one reliever needs to be signed or heavily looked into at the Winter Meetings by John Mozeliak. A team can never have enough pitchers, and some of these players, particularly those who were non-tendered, could be had on minor league contracts with an invite to spring training by the club. These are moves on the edges that some of the best organizations make. It's imperative that John Mozeliak finds a reliever, especially if Ryan Helsley is traded this winter.

Need #3: commit resources to the 2025 MLB Draft

Major League Baseball's 2025 Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday, December 10th. This will be the second year with the lottery system, and luck didn't exactly fall into the Cardinals' favor at last year's deadline. They were still able to snag JJ Wetherholt, the 2024 draft's best pure hitter, with the 7th overall pick, but they had to watch division rival Cincinnati Reds move up to the second overall draft pick as a result of the lottery despite having a worse record and better odds than the Reds.

This year, the Cardinals have an 8.9% chance of landing a pick in the top six, and they have a 0.8% chance of being awarded the top pick in the draft. Those are decent odds to land one of the best prep or college players in the country in this year's draft.

This year's draft, unlike the 2024 draft, leans heavily on high school prep players. It's led by another Holliday child, this time Ethan, an infielder out of Stillwater High School in Oklahoma. Other high schoolers include right-handed pitcher Seth Hernandez, shortstop Kayson Cunningham, third baseman Xavier Neyens, and two-way player Kruz Schoolcraft from Oregon.

The Cardinals are projected to have the 13th pick as things currently stand, but that can obviously change on the day of the lottery. Having a top-10 pick would help boost the Cardinals' prospect pipeline, but a pick anywhere in the top-15 is still strong.

Randy Flores, the organization's Assistant General Manager and Director of Scouting, is a draft guru. If given a top pick in the draft, Flores will surely find a great player.

St. Louis will learn its draft fate on the second day of the Winter Meetings. While the focus should be on trades and free agent signings, they shouldn't lose focus of the long-term picture in terms of the 2025 MLB draft. A high draft pick, when chosen correctly, could provide the necessary boost to the Cardinals' farm system.