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

3. How do the Cardinals' "runway" players perform over the final two months of the season? And bonus: Which players get to stay?

The Cardinals have 49 games remaining in the 2025 season, and each one is going to be very important for Bloom as he assesses the Cardinals' big league roster and makes a game plan for how he wants to shape their future this offseason.

These "runway" players include Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, Alec Burleson, Victor Scott II, Ivan Herrera, and, I would say, Lars Nootbaar as well, since his future with the club remains pretty uncertain. While I think it's probably safe to say that Herrera and Scott are going to be with St. Louis in 2026, each of those other names is going to have to prove their worth to Bloom down the stretch, and even if they play well, that may actually boost their value in a trade and make them even more expendable.

With Wetherholt so close to breaking onto this roster, he's quickly going to make the Cardinals' logjams even more complicated to navigate, and he is not a talent that can sit on the bench or even platoon. Wetherholt is going to be an everyday player, and the Cardinals already have to sit one of these "runway" guys each day, even with Arenado out of the lineup.

While Bloom has a lot on his agenda that needs to be accomplished over the next few years, one of the most immediate and pressing tasks will be decluttering their roster. On top of moving Areando, Bloom is likely going to need to trade at least two of those runway players in order to clear up the existing logjams and make way for Wetherholt.

How Bloom does with this will be fascinating. Yes, he should be in the business of trying to keep good players, but let's just say he decides to trade both Gorman and Nootbaar after down years. What is he going to get in return for these guys? Nootbaar is still very valuable, but not nearly as much as he was before if he doesn't have a strong final 49 games. Gorman will have value, but he's not going to bring back an exciting pitcher, and I don't know what kind of prospects he would bring back.

So does Bloom look to sell high on any players like Burleson, Herrera, or even Brendan Donovan? Does he do a mixture of these things? Only time will tell!