5 burning questions facing the St. Louis Cardinals as their rebuild gets underway

The St. Louis Cardinals are staring at a multi-year rebuild, a statement that fans of the club had been immune to for over two decades.

You can easily argue that this rebuild is a few years overdue at this point, but the Cardinals seem to be telling us with their words, their actions, and their spending that the club is not looking to stick more ducktape on their issues for another lackluster offseason - they are serious about laying the groundwork for a new era of Cardinals baseball under new president of baseball operations, Chaim Bloom.

As Bloom continues to take on more and more responsibility ahead of his full transition into that new role come the end of the season, there are a lot of questions facing him, his regime, ownership, the players, and this fanbase as they embark on this rebuild.

The trade deadline in some ways brought clarity or movement on a few of those storylines, but in most ways, it actually created more questions than answers for Bloom to navigate. Some of that is by design, others, John Mozeliak said, were because of timing, and some are just frustrating realities that Bloom is being hired to provide direction to.

Here are the 5 biggest questions facing the Cardinals as they finish out the 2025 season and continue with their rebuild

5. When does JJ Wetherholt get his shot with the big league club?

You'll be hard-pressed to find many people as high on JJ Wetherholt's future as I am, and I am very anxious to see him get his shot with the Major League club.

With that being said, I have no issue with the Cardinals slow playing this, if Bloom, Rob Cerfolio, and the rest of their player development gurus believe that is best for his long-term development. But if they believe Wetherholt would benefit from a shot with the club down the stretch, they better be making the call down to Memphis to bring Wetherholt to Busch Stadium.

In his 16 games with Triple-A Memphis since his promotion in early July, Wetherholt is slashing .344/.425/.754 (1.179 OPS) with six home runs, 12 RBI, and 19 runs scored in just 61 at-bats. He's been on a tear all year long, posting a .953 OPS in 78 games across Double-A and Triple-A, and with his professional debut at third base yesterday, many are wondering if we'll see him get a shot to run with the position in Nolan Arenado's absence over the next few months.

In order to maintain rookie eligibility for 2025, which would allow the Cardinals to be awarded a draft pick in the 2027 MLB Draft if Wetherholt wins Rookie of the Year in 2026, the club likely can't call him up until mid-August at the earliest, sometime between August 15th and August 20th. This is because prospects must have fewer than 60 days of MLB service time and can't exceed 130 at-bats to maintain rookie eligibility for the following year.