Cardinals: The emotional downside of going through a rebuild

For decades, the St. Louis Cardinals have been a team that acquires stars. Lou Brock, Joaquin Andujar, Mark McGwire, Edgar Renteria, Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Matt Holliday, Paul Goldschmidt, and Nolan Arenado are just a few of the true stars of the game whom the Cardinals traded to acquire. The franchise's pattern and direction has almost always been aimed at winning. For now, that direction is different.

When the Cardinals traded a future Hall of Fame third baseman in Nolan Arenado, a different chord was struck. We as fans knew this was going to happen; it's been telegraphed for over 18 months now. However, reality is often different than expectations.

Nolan Arenado represented the last thread of the Cardinals that was connected to an era where players were brought into St. Louis to make the team better. His departure truly signified an end of an era. Not the "Goldenado" era, no. But an era of trying to field the best possible team. An era of stars.

Just two years ago, the Cardinals had two of the best corner infielders since 2015 on their roster in Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. They were heading into year two with Willson Contreras, a three-time All Star. They had just brought on Sonny Gray, a man who finished second in Cy Young voting the prior year. This was the Cardinals team fans were used to seeing. It was one with star power and an open desire to win a division and make the postseason.

Now, the only players with postseason experience left on the roster are Brendan Donovan (seven plate appearances), Lars Nootbaar (eight plate appearances), Nolan Gorman (one plate appearance), Andre Pallante (0.2 innings pitched), and Ryne Stanek (28 innings), who has never thrown a pitch for the Cardinals. Brendan Donovan is now the only player on the team with an All-Star appearance.

This severe lack of postseason experience and star power is a clear sign the club is going through a rebuild, a word that has been avoided so far by Chaim Bloom and others within the organization. For two generations of Cardinals fans, a rebuild is a completely new concept.

Going through a rebuild is a new concept for many St. Louis Cardinals fans, and the emotional toll is weighing heavy already.

I was born in 1995. Since I could talk, I've been able to say (mostly) positive things about the St. Louis Cardinals. The team has the fifth-best winning percentage in that time, they have two World Series championships since 1995, something only six other franchises can lay claim to, and there have been five current of future Hall of Famers spend several years playing for the team in that time.

It's been a great time to be a fan of the Cardinals; let me say that much.

My son, who is now four, has had a different experience when it comes to Cardinals baseball. While he was alive for the entirety of the 2022 season, he certainly wasn't aware of much. Over his next three years of Cardinals baseball, my son has seen them miss the playoffs in three straight years, something that hadn't happened in a decade. He's had to watch legends like Albert Pujols, Adam Wainwright, and Yadier Molina retire and see Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado depart. It's a different era of Cardinals fandom, that's for sure.

This rebuild was a long time coming. Many fans have been clamoring for it since the end of the 2023 season. Some within the organization have seen the writing on the wall since COVID, if not earlier. It took a new president of baseball operations and consecutive years of sub-three million fans at Busch Stadium to do it, though.

Now, fans are being subjected to seeing All Stars depart via free agency and in trades. Veterans such as Sonny Gray, Nolan Arenado, and Paul Goldschmidt aren't the players they used to be, but they were still signs of a breathing team with a desire to make the postseason each year. The potential for a trade of Brendan Donovan would truly sap the Cardinals of All-Star players on the roster.

This isn't a knock on the current crop of players. Masyn Winn could find himself achieving stardom in 2026. Ivan Herrera and Alec Burleson are legitimate hitters. Dustin May and Matthew Liberatore have exciting upside. However, we can't deny that this is very much a different type of team than we've been accustomed to seeing.

Rebuilds are tough for everyone, especially for the fans.

Whose jersey do you buy now with the potential for current young players to not make it past arbitration with the Cardinals? Is there a must-see player on the roster now that you tune in to watch or listen take an at-bat or throw a pitch? Is going to Busch Stadium still worth the price of admission given the potential of another sub-.500 season in St. Louis?

Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom addressed this emotional part of trades in his press conference discussing the Arenado trade. "There's no hard feelings about it," said Bloom. "A lot of what comes with this chair is not to let emotion and sentiment and nostalgia even override executing what's best for this team and being fully committed to where we need to go."

It's been exciting to see the players Chaim Bloom has been able to bring over in these various trades. Hunter Dobbins and Richard Fitts will contribute to the MLB rotation for five or more years. Brandon Clarke appears to be a legitimate starting pitching prospect. Yhoiker Fajardo has plenty of hype surrounding him. But these are all "maybes" more than they are certainties. That cloudiness has cast a shadow over the Best Fans in Baseball, one that will take years to depart.

There was clear disappointment and somberness when news broke regarding Nolan Arenado's trade to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Arenado isn't the player he was just three years ago, but his presence on the roster represented more than the back of the baseball card stats. It meant that the Cardinals could lay claim to a supremely talented player. They still had connections to the last playoff team. Seeing him go meant that the "transition" and "reset" truly became a rebuild, a wholly unfamiliar concept to many Cardinals fans.

There is plenty to be excited about; don't let me confuse you. JJ Wetherholt will be given every opportunity to be a regular starting pitcher now. We'll finally get to see seven or eight young pitchers fight for a rotation spot rather than seeing expensive guys near retirement toss a ball every five days. Perhaps we'll see the full growth of Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman next year. After all, a rebuild isn't all doom and gloom.

A rebuild presents short-term losses for long-term gains. Chaim Bloom said as much in his introductory press conference back in late September. "We have talent here,” said Bloom. “We have more talent coming, and we have some of the makings of that core, but we need more. Our top priority will be to build our talent base for the long term. That may mean hard decisions and short-term sacrifices, but to get where we want to go, we can’t take shortcuts — and we won’t.”

It's not ideal to be the team trading away proven MLB players for unknown commodities. However, we as fans must trust that Chaim Bloom is doing the right thing for the franchise both now and in the future as we see fan favorites like Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado, and potentially Brendan Donovan depart in one offseason.