Cardinals at a crossroads: 2 reasons to buy, 2 reasons to sell

First reason to sell: Focus on the Chaim era

While competing in 2025 is desired by all Cardinals fans, it is too early to commit to the current roster. It might be exciting that the team looks competitive for the first time in three years, but this is mostly the same roster that failed time and time again. The publicly stated "reset" was allowing expiring contracts to walk, and no trades were made to retool the roster. With the opportunity to sell off pieces of the roster that are not long-term assets to build for the future, nothing was done, and the team appeared to be stuck in limbo with its decision-making.

Now the team is in a position to add to this roster to make a serious push for a playoff spot in 2025. After two months of baseball have been played, the Cardinals have showcased that they can surpass the Chicago Cubs to win the NL Central. They are already capable of securing a Wild Card spot with the NL West having a gauntlet the whole season. It is a great time for the team to improve their weaknesses to put themselves in a great spot to continue their success. The only issue is that the decision maker is being given a swan song exit and might be lacking motivation to make critical decisions.

With the orchestrator of this current roster, John Mozeliak, still taking charge for 2025, any decision made by him can cause future issues for his successor, Chaim Bloom. Any decision regarding the future roster needs to be made by the guy who will still be here, which is Chaim. So if the Cardinals are selling off assets to buy into the 2025 team, this benefits Mozeliak to go out on a positive note while potentially leaving Chaim with more of a mess to clean up. If the Cardinals sell current assets to invest into future ones, this can be done with direction from Chaim.

Erick Fedde, Steven Matz, and any fringe starting player like Nolan Gorman and Alec Burleson have the potential to be moved if the right deal is in place. The organization is in the process of playing these fringe players consistently to find out if they are a part of future plans or need to be moved to acquire other pieces to balance out the roster. Any expiring contract needs to be moved, regardless of the team's success in 2025. The slate needs to be clean for Chaim to take over and really implement the needed change to the organization.