MLB Insiders' harsh grade for Cardinals' offseason makes little sense

When following the drama of each Major League Baseball offseason, you are never going to find the "offseason champion" to be a team that is rebuilding and parting with Major League talent, but let's not pretend that building for the future means you're making bad moves.

Well apparently USA Today's Bob Nightengale finds Chaim Bloom's execution this offseason to be teetering on a failing grade.

USA Today posted their MLB offseason grades earlier today, and Nightengale gave the St. Louis Cardinals a D- for their offseason thus far, providing the following explanation:

"The Cardinals, for the first time in 30 years, are going into a full-scale rebuild. They dumped three veterans – Sonny Gray, Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras – and tossed in $59 million for them to go away, picking up horde of prospects. And they still are hoping to trade infielder/outfielder Brendan Donovan before spring training. The Cardinals’ highest-paid player now is Dustin May ($12.5 million) and they don’t have a single player under contract past 2026. This is going to be the first of several long years for the passionate Cardinals’ fanbase."

Uh, okay? What part of that plan deserves a D- if they are in the midst of a rebuild?

USA Today's Bob Nightengale gives the Cardinals an offseason grade of a D-

I'm sorry, but Nightengale's grade is just downright laughable. If he had given reasons why he believed the Cardinals were making poor decisions in their rebuilding efforts, that would be one thing, but to call their offseason a D- because they are rebuilding is simply out of touch with how the game works.

What should the Cardinals do then? Avoid the obvious need to revamp the organization and just spend on a few random free agents? That would be a bad offseason. The Cardinals have a plan in place for how they can return to contention, and so far, their offseason has seemed to mirror that.

Also, it needs to be noted that Bloom is coming in to clean up John Mozeliak's mess, not rebuilding his own failed product. I would possibly even get grading an offseason that poorly if Bloom was the one who had mismanaged the organization to this spot, but to critique him for getting the ship back on course is just bad analysis.

Around the industry, the Cardinals have been receiving praise for the improvements they have made in player development and the talent they've added to their farm system. I'm not sure why Nightengale is so fixated on their 2026 contention chances when grading their offseason.