Cardinals befuddle their fans again with terrible non-tender decision

John Mozeliak's 2023 trade deadline "haul" is looking weaker and weaker for the Cardinals after another befuddling roster decision.

The St. Louis Cardinals non-tendered right-handed pitcher Adam Kloffenstein this evening, someone who myself and others did not have pegged as a likely non-tender candidate entering today's deadline. Kloffenstein was acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays at the 2023 trade deadline in the Jordan Hicks deal, and while he was not supposed to be some huge prospect, it's not a great look that he's already been non-tendered by the club.

Kloffenstein was mediocre during his time with the Memphis Redbirds in 2024, posting a 4.74 ERA in his 17 starts. Kloffenstein was really low in the pecking order of potential starting options for the Cardinals going into 2025, but I did see a world where he could be a potential bullpen piece for the club moving forward. In fact, he did just that during the Rickwood Field game this year!

In his one inning of work against the San Francisco Giants during that incredible event on June 20th, Kloffenstein retired all three batters and looked calm and collected as he navigated a huge spot on the national stage. Does that mean he's going to become an incredible reliever? No, but I am really surprised he was not given more of an opportunity by the Cardinals this year and is now free to latch on with another organization.

One of the biggest critiques of Mozeliak and his leadership in recent years has been how he has managed the Cardinals' 40-man roster. The club has non-tendered or designated-for-assignment players that you would have thought they'd want to hold onto, all while holding onto names like Alfonso Rivas or Buddy Kennedy who never made sense to roster and ended up playing zero role for the club.

There weren't a bunch of obvious names to non-tender with this current 40-man roster, but I would have thought names like Ryan Loutos or Chris Roycroft would have been on the chopping block before someone like Kloffenstein. Kloffenstein was viewed by MLB Pipeline as the Cardinals' 14th-best prospect in their most recent rankings, and while that's not a huge ranking, they definitely valued him more than the two aforementioned pitchers.

As I said at the top, Kloffenstein was one of the pieces the Cardinals acquired at the 2023 trade deadline, and he joins fellow acquisition Drew Rom as players acquired at that deadline who have been since non-tendered by the club. It's especially dissapointing because that deadline needed to be leveraged for improving the Cardinals in 2024 and beyond, and now the list of names who they got in return for their rental pieces is dwindling.

We may never hear Kloffenstein's name again at the Major League level, and any frustration with him being non-tendered would go away. But even so, it now puts the pressure on Sem Robberse to provide value from that trade, or else the Cardinals gave away one of the best relievers available at the 2023 trade deadline for nothing.