Cardinals' recent failures magnified by presence on star's no-trade list

Turning around the St. Louis Cardinals' fortunes is the top priority for Chaim Bloom as the St. Louis Cardinals' new president of baseball operations, but restoring the team's tattered reputation may require a heroic effort of its own.

As the Cardinals spent the past few seasons desperately attempting to keep their head above water in the NL Central with hopes to sneak into a Wild Card position, it had become clear that the team urgently needed a fresh face in the front office to return the Cardinals to serious contention. Now, as the latest iteration of the franchise draws to a close and Bloom opts to rebuild the team from the ground up via drafting and developing, the Cardinals are hoping to field a competitive team again within the next few seasons.

The problem? St. Louis is no longer the happening place in the baseball universe.

The Cardinals were once the envy of the league with their allure to free agents. Players knew that the team was a perennial powerhouse and often enthusiastically signed with the club in hopes of claiming a World Series title. For a team in a smaller-market city that doesn't lie on one of the coasts, it was an impressive display of aptitude and forward thinking within the organization.

But now, the sputtering Cardinals have lost that edge, and one player has just reminded fans of how far the team has fallen in its reputation.

Ketel Marte has the Cardinals on his no-trade list.

Marte, the Arizona Diamondbacks' All-Star second baseman, has been the subject of several trade rumors flying around at the Winter Meetings, and he appears ready to head to any team that desires his services — with five exceptions. According to Ken Rosenthal in The Athletic, Marte is unwilling to accept a trade to the Athletics, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.

Let's get real here for a second: The Cardinals were never going to be in on Marte. The 32-year-old doesn't fit the team's timeline regarding when it hopes to return to prominence, and he was criticized regarding his decisions not to play in games last season, a type of character concern that the Cardinals tend to take seriously.

Still, the presence of the Cardinals on Marte's no-trade list serves as another jolt of reality to fans about the state of the team, and the Cardinals' presumed lack of competitiveness in 2026 might not even be the whole story. Former Cardinals minor league pitcher Zac Gallen was a teammate of Marte's from 2019 through 2025, and in 2023, Gallen spoke unflatteringly about how the Cardinals might have traded him because he declined to show up to the winter workouts. Additionally, a 2025 article from The Athletic placed manager Oli Marmol in a tie for first place among managers whom players would least want to play for, which also could have played a factor in Marte's decision to knock the Cardinals out of consideration.

The Cardinals have attempted to mitigate their declining pull by signing players who were born and raised in Cardinals country, such as Lance Lynn, Phil Maton, Sonny Gray and Kyle Gibson. But if the Cardinals can no longer lure players who aren't from their own backyard and, in the case of Marte and potentially others, are a repellent, it's going to be a long, tough climb for them to return to respectability. But if they hit on their draft picks and the revamped farm system bears fruit, perhaps the Cardinals can find success again and reclaim that air of dignity.