Cardinals' payroll plans set the stage for Chaim Bloom's busy offseason

Chaim Bloom is the man in charge of the St. Louis Cardinals now, and that means changes are coming.

However, just because there's an expectation that the team will trade Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, and William Contreras doesn't mean that the Cardinals will suddenly look like a completely different franchise in 2026.

For one thing, manager Oli Marmol is confirmed to be coming back next year. For another, it sounds like Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman's development remains a focus of the coaching staff and front office.

And, if Bloom's comments are to be believed, the team won't slash payroll just for the sake of rebuilding.

That last point is perhaps the most important, and it just was corroborated by Derrick Goold of St. Louis Today. How and where the team reinvests any savings via trades remains to be seen, though.

Cardinals won't run exceedingly low payroll, but reinvestment doesn't guarantee competitiveness

To put it bluntly, the Cardinals need to trade their veterans sooner rather than later.

They've been trying to walk a tightrope of multiple timelines in recent seasons, and it just hasn't worked. Paul Goldschmidt's departure last winter was an important start in moving toward the next generation of Cardinals talent, but a 78-84 campaign in 2025 should put the nail in the coffin on this era of baseball in St. Louis.

Gray, Arenado, and Contreras will combine for $80 million in salary in 2026. Though the team will have to eat some of that in order to get back actual prospect talent, that represents real payroll savings if they're moved, especially in conjunction with Miles Mikolas' $17.7 million coming off the books as well.

Of course, if that all comes to fruition, the question really becomes how the team will reinvest that into the roster, and when.

Cardinals legend Matt Holiday perhaps put it best, suggesting that the Cardinals will indeed invest in this team in order to restore their status as an NL elite, though that may only come after Bloom has trimmed off some fat from the organization.

Holliday is almost certainly right in the sense that the Cardinals won't be swimming in the deep end of the free agent waters this offseason. The timing simply isn't right to splurge on a payroll-bloating star.

Where the Cardinals might spend is on short-term veterans who can serve as valuable trade pieces. The term "rebuild" gets thrown around pretty loosely nowadays, but the improving farm system could use a boost from a period of sell-side trades aimed at acquiring heaps of prospect talent.

A "retool" may better describe what the beginning of Bloom's tenure looks like, but the point is that while Gray's salary might get replaced on the roster, his talent won't be (in the immediate future).

That's probably going to be a pretty painful step under a new president of baseball operations, but it's also a necessary one if the Cardinals are going to move beyond this recent stretch of mediocrity.