Cardinals Winter Meetings: John Mozeliak expects plenty of activity

Major League Baseball's annual Winter Meetings has kicked off, and the St. Louis Cardinals figure to be in the middle of all of the action, at least once Juan Soto signs a contract. This offseason will be quite different from recent winters for the Cardinals.

The organization has entered a "reset" period. Not a rebuild. Not a retool. A reset. What this means, at least in the eyes of John Mozeliak and the Cardinals' brass, would be a renewed focus on player development along with giving young players a chance to fail or succeed at the major-league level. Youngsters like Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker, Alec Burleson, and Lars Nootbaar will be given every opportunity to find their stroke in the majors, while veterans like Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras will remain as guiding forces in the clubhouse.

St. Louis also has several appealing trade candidates, especially considering the recent free-agent contracts doled out to pitchers. Erick Fedde and Steven Matz have been drumming up interest, Ryan Helsley remains a coveted player of other teams, and even Miles Mikolas could be moved in the right package.

St. Louis Cardinals' president of baseball operations John Mozeliak touched on the trade interest related to his players while on "Sports on a Sunday Morning" with Tom Ackerman of KMOX.

"I would definitely say over the last week-and-a-half the volume of calls has definitely gone up, so from that standpoint, you know, (we're) just trying to remain open-minded and understand really what these markets look like. Ultimately my team will try and assess what we think is best for today and also the future and see if we can't make some decisions. I do think there will be some activity. It just feels like things are starting to loosen up."

John Mozeliak

In the last 10 days, starting pitchers Yusei Kikuchi (three years, $63 million), Blake Snell (five years, $182 million), Frankie Montas (two years, $34 million), Luis Severino (three years, $67 million), and Matthew Boyd (two years, $29 million) all reached agreements with various teams. All of those pitchers, Blake Snell excluded, are at comparable levels of performance recently to at least Erick Fedde and some even to Matz or Mikolas.

The difference is that Erick Fedde is owed just $7.5 million and Steven Matz is on the books for $12.5 million in 2025. Compared to the new market value of starting pitchers this year, those are near bargains. Moving Fedde should be easy, and moving Matz is now achievable.

Third baseman and future Hall of Famer Nolan Arenado will also receive plenty of interest. He has three years and $64 million remaining on his contract, but he's still a Gold-Glove caliber third baseman (who is willing to move across the diamond) with a decent bat. If the Cardinals send some money with Arenado in a trade, that could be huge for the farm system.

John Mozeliak recently said that the team prefers holding on to All-Star closer Ryan Helsley. He is likely the offseason's most-prized reliever, but the Cardinals would prefer to keep him to for now remain in contention in 2025. Helsley, 30, will become a free agent at the end of the season. If interest levels increase in Helsley, John Mozeliak may still be willing to trade him for a haul of prospects.

The Winter Meetings will hopefully include a blizzard of action for baseball fans rather than a flurry of moves. One can only hope some exciting trades are swung surrounding the St. Louis Cardinals. Buckle up, Redbird faithful!