3 players playing their final home games with the St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals begin their final home series of the 2025 season tonight against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Not only are these the final games of this season, but they also represent the final home games of the John Mozeliak era. The changing of the guard from Mozeliak to Chaim Bloom will be a welcome change for most Cardinals fans, as those following the team have been eager to see things change in terms of how the club operates.

As Bloom takes over, he will surely be looking to shift the team into his own image for the future. While there are plenty of names who could be traded or let go in free agency, there are three names that have emerged as likely goners based on where things seem to be heading.

3 Cardinals who are playing their final home games with the club this weekend

Nolan Areando

After missing all of August and most of September with a shoulder injury, Nolan Arenado was activated from the injured list earlier this week in order to finish the 2025 season on the Cardinals' active roster.

It's been a rough campaign for Arenado, who has slashed .234/.291/.363 with 10 home runs in 406 plate appearances, quite the fall off from what we have grown to know Arenado to be offensively. Arenado's 81 wRC+ is a steep decline from recent seasons and makes it hard to see how he's a valuable commodity moving forward.

These final games of the season can help pump up his value if he finishes strong, but only in the sense that contenders may be interested in adding Arenado if the Cardinals eat a lot of cash on the deal.

Arenado himself has already addressed the likelihood that he is traded this offseason, and assuming that does happen, it will end a very complicated era of Cardinals baseball. On one hand, Arenado is an all-time great and future Hall of Famer, but on the other hand, most of his campaigns with the Cardinals have been underwhelming, and the club didn't win a single playoff game during his time in St. Louis.

Lars Nootbaar

While many Cardinals players have disappointed this season, Lars Nootbaar is near the top of that list.

For years, Nootbaar has been the guy that many Cardinals fans and pundits have waited to break out, myself included. During his first full season in 2022, Nootbaar posted a 123 wRC+ while boasting a great feel for the strike zone and underlying power waiting to be tapped into. In 2023, Nootbaar posted a 118 wRC+, and in 2024, he was 14% above league average.

2025 presented Nootbaar with the chance to make himself an indispensable part of the club moving forward, but instead, he's had his worst season of his career.

In 99 games so far, Nootbaar has a .237/.324/.368 slash line with 13 home runs and 47 RBI while splitting time between the lead-off spot and the bottom half of the order. He mostly stayed healthy this year, but eventually proved that he still can't stay on the field consistently.

At this point, Nootbaar is just two years from free agency, has been injured every year of his career, forcing him to miss significant time, and he's not having the worst season of his career.

With Brendan Donovan, Alec Burleson, Ivan Herrera, Jordan Walker, and Victor Scott II all vying for playing time in the outfield, Nootbaar really does feel like the odd man out moving forward, and I fully expect the Cardinals to move on from him.

Even with how frustrating of a year it has been for Nootbaar at the plate, there will be plenty of teams interested in acquiring him. There is still plenty of potential in his profile, but at this point, I'm not sure it makes sense to hold onto him for the Cardinals. Frankly, the Cardinals need fresh starts all around their club, and Nootbaar feels like the perfect change-of-scenery guy for all sides.

I won't say never to him returning in 2026, especially if the Cardinals get good offers on other outfielders. No one should be untouchable on this Cardinals roster, and no one, besides Arenado, must be traded. But it does feel hard to imagine a world where Nootbaar remains in St. Louis.

Miles Mikolas

Since 2018, Miles Mikolas has been a staple of the Cardinals' starting rotation. While the early years were successful, things have gone poorly for years now, and it's hard to imagine Bloom bringing Mikolas back into the fold for next year.

Following his All-Star selection in 2022, things have been bad on the mound for the right-hander. He's posted 4.78, 5.35, and 4.80 ERAs in consecutive seasons, and although he eats a lot of innings, he's been one of the worst pitchers in baseball for three years running. Yes, Mikolas enjoys being a Cardinal, but I don't see how it would make sense for the club to bring him back for another campaign.

The Cardinals desperately need a breath of fresh air for their rotation moving forward. Fans won't take another year of having Mikolas in the rotation. It's time for the club to add different kinds of arms to their mix while also keeping space open for young arms to have opportunities at the big league level.

Since 2023, Mikolas ranks in the bottom ten in baseball in ERA, xERA, K%, and batting average allowed. I wouldn't be surprised to see another team add him as a rubber arm for next year, but he's not the kind of arm that benefits the Cardinals anymore.

The Cardinals need stuff in their rotation. If they are going to sign pitchers to free agent contracts, they should be taking chances on guys who could surprise them, not someone who could just eat innings. The state of Cardinals pitching is bad right now, and while the stable of MLB-ready arms caught the injury bug this year, they need to keep providing chances for young arms to snag rotation spots.

As I said before, there are plenty of others Cardinals who could be traded, released, or not resigned this offseason, but these three feel like almost guarantees at this point. The club needs a makeover this offseason, and this would be a massive step in that direction.

Honestly, moving on from Mikolas may be one of the biggest messages they can send. For years now, Mikolas has been associated with losing baseball. The Cardinals need to rid themselves of as many of those players as they can in order to turn a new leaf, and letting Mikolas seek opportunities elsewhere is a great step in that direction.