A good old-fashioned St. Louis Cardinals rant

I consider myself an optimistic person. I enjoy watching baseball, and I especially enjoy watching the St. Louis Cardinals. I grew up watching, listening, and attending games, and my passion for the historic franchise has lasted.

As a kid, I was able to witness the great teams of the 2000s and players like Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Yadier Molina, Chris Carpenter, and Adam Wainwright. I have seen two World Series championships in my lifetime and several division titles. Since I've been born, the Cardinals have been a top-five team in baseball. I've been blessed as a baseball fan to say the least.

This love that so many other fans share has made it hard to be a supporter of the team for the last two years. For the first time in 16 years, the Cardinals finished with a sub-.500 record of 71-91 in 2023. This was quite surprising, as the 2022 squad was filled with awesome storylines, including the return of Albert Pujols, the exiting of the old guard in Pujols and Yadier Molina, and MVP-type seasons from cornerstones Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt.

Losing seasons happen to every franchise. The New York Yankees finished 2023 with a sub-.500 record. The 2023 World Series Champions Texas Rangers finished the previous year with only 68 wins. Even the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers have felt the sting of winning fewer than 81 games more recently than the Cardinals did prior to 2023, having concluded the 2010 season with 80 victories.

What made 2023 and, subsequently, 2024 so challenging as a Cardinals fan was that the way out of these doldrums wasn't clear. The team's farm system was stuck in the middle of the pack; the core players of Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, and Willson Contreras were all on the wrong side of 30; and young players like Lars Nootbaar, Jordan Walker, and Nolan Gorman weren't making necessary strides to step up for the team.

Fans knew this. Every "armchair manager" could see the cracks in the team. Could the front office?

Then came Katie Woo's damning piece in The Athletic about the fissures in the St. Louis Cardinals organization following the 2024 season. The curtain was torn back on the interior flaws of the organization, and what fans thought to be true was brought to light.

"The Cardinals have lost their way," said Woo in her article. She spoke with several people within the organization, and they all lent credence to that belief. "All described an outdated player development department, one that has hurt players like Walker. Some lamented the organization’s emphasis on directing more money to the big-league payroll, even if it meant skimping on hiring the coaches, instructors and modern technology that are vital to refining players as they progress through the minors. Those decisions have left the organization to reckon with the harsh reality that they have fallen behind their rivals."

As a result of back-to-back subpar seasons and a recognition of a broken system, team president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, owners Bill DeWitt Jr. and Bill DeWitt III, and sidekick extraordinaire/future team POBO Chaim Bloom opted to change the direction of the team in the 2024-2025 offseason. No longer would they spend gobs of money on pricey free agents to occupy the spots the farm system couldn't fill. Now, instructional coaches would be hired to help in the minors with that money.

The Cardinals also wanted to beef up the tech they had to offer players via a pitching lab in Jupiter, Florida.

However, there were some complicating factors. The once-lucrative TV deal was crumbling before ownership's eyes. A new agreement with FanDuel Sports Network salvaged approximately 75% of the original deal, but the loss in revenue paired with decreasing ticket sales and re-investment in the bones of the organization led the DeWitt family to cut back on major-league spending. Therefore, expiring free agents like Paul Goldschmidt, Andrew Kittredge, Lance Lynn, and Kyle Gibson were left to walk with nary a return for the Cardinals.

John Mozeliak approached leaders on the team with no-trade clauses at the beginning of the offseason to let them know the team's new direction. Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray wanted to stick it out with the team through the once-termed "reset." Nolan Arenado granted Mozeliak the ability to explore trades.

I believe this set Mozeliak's plan back. He had fully intended on trading these veterans to contending teams, something the Cardinals probably wouldn't be without them — and likely still aren't with them
— in 2025. However, these players either vetoed the search altogether or limited Mozeliak's capabilities with a microscopic approval list of teams. Now, Mo had to pivot in both his actions and words.

No longer was it a reset. Now, it's a "transition."

Months of inactivity, rumors, and false information ensued. A Nolan Arenado trade was imminent until he blocked it. One lone major-league roster move was made, a trade for utility man Michael Helman in early February. Not a single major league free agent was signed, and it seems bleak that one will be signed before Opening Day.

Two seasons of uninspired baseball morphed into a lackadaisical offseason, and fans are left apathetic.

The St. Louis Cardinals' failures these last 48 months have left fans emotionless.

It's good that Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, and Nolan Arenado are still with the Cardinals. They're talented veterans who make the Cardinals better in 2025, and they're players these up-and-coming prospects can lean on for advice. That's great. Keep these three with the team.

The issue with this offseason is that John Mozeliak opted to sit on his hands in a lame-duck final year rather than using his swan song to set up the organization for future success. Is he afraid of going out on a low note and a losing season? That may happen regardless of trades. Going out with a top-10 farm system and a path toward success in 2026 and beyond would have been an excellent going-away present for championship-hungry fans.

Even the most optimistic projections for the season have the Cardinals with 78 wins and a third-place finish in the weak National League Central. And that's with Gray, Contreras, Arenado, and other key veterans like Ryan Helsley and Erick Fedde.

Trading Ryan Helsley and Erick Fedde, something that may still happen due to the slew of injuries in spring training, would have recouped plenty of prospect capital to boost a middling farm system.

Helsley is the longest-tenured Cardinal. It's not far-fetched to say he's beloved in St. Louis at this point. The 2024 NL saves leader is entering his age-30 season, and he's a free agent at the end of the year. What benefit does a top-three closer in all of baseball who is in his walk year provide for a team that will be scratching and clawing to hit .500 this year? Not much. Trading Helsley, something virtually every executive in baseball and Helsley himself thought John Mozeliak would do this winter, would have been prudent.

Now the Cardinals are telling fans they want to give opportunities to young players in 2025. That's great! But will they follow through?

Jordan Walker's and Nolan Gorman's names have been mentioned quite often as players who will be seeing at least 500 at-bats in 2025 to see what they're made of. Why aren't Alec Burleson, the team's second-best qualified hitter according to wRC+ last year and a guy who had a .804 OPS against right-handed pitchers, and Ivan Herrera, who hit .301 as a rookie catcher, mentioned in the same vein?

Nolan Gorman has not been able to break his strikeout woes. He'll probably get his 500 ABs while striking out north of 35% of the time and walking under 10% of the time. People often compare him to Kyle Schwarber, but the gap between the two is vast.

If this year is an opportunity for young players, why is veteran Steven Matz being given preferential treatment in the rotation while Andre Pallante, the team's most productive starter from June on last year, and Michael McGreevy, a youngster who had a 1.96 ERA in his cup of coffee last year, are left fighting for scraps?

Michael Siani had a Gold Glove-caliber 2024 season. He's an excellent defender in center field, but he had a 64 wRC+ in 344 plate appearances last year. He was, for all intents and purposes, a non-factor offensively. Victor Scott II, a former top organizational prospect in his own right, is now being relegated to left field duties and is looking at starting the season off in Triple-A Memphis despite posting a .389/.500/.722 slash line in spring training. It's likely that either Siani or Lars Nootbaar will be the team's Opening Day center fielder, a disservice to VS2.

John Mozeliak has butchered this "reset" turned "transition," and it's harming the St. Louis Cardinals both now and in the future.

This year should have truly been a year to see what the Cardinals had in their system. The pressure to continually make noise in the playoffs had faded for the front office, and fans would have been perfectly understanding had they actually gotten to see the next core for the team perform. Instead, the youth focus appears to have been put off a bit longer.

The rotation will once again include Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz, and just one young starting pitcher. Quinn Mathews will probably get his shot at some point in the year, but he'll have to wait for an injury to make his major league debut. Other upper-level pitching prospects like Tekoah Roby, Gordon Graceffo, and possibly Tink Hence will be pushed to relief roles, a practice the Cardinals have done for years with little success for the long-term health of their starting rotation.

Alec Burleson and Ivan Herrera won't see as many at-bats as struggling youngsters like Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker. Infielder Thomas Saggese, who has raked at every level of the minors, and center fielder Victor Scott will be left to toil in Memphis.

This isn't a transition year or a chance for young players. It's a contingency strategy following a failed offseason.

Rant over.