10 burning questions the Cardinals must answer if they want to win back their fans

Question #5 - What will the Cardinals do with Paul Goldschmidt and other veterans on expiring deals?

There have been rumblings that the Cardinals will explore bringing back Paul Goldschmidt this offseason, which, uh, would be a choice.

Goldschmidt has fallen off big time this year, posting a .230/.290/.391 slash line with 19 HR and 49 RBI at this point in the season. He's barely in the positive in terms of fWAR (0.3) and is 9% below league average at the plate according to wRC+. While Goldschmidt can still hit left-handed pitching, he just does not have it anymore against righties and has been awful with runners in scoring position.

Fans are going to want to see turnover from this roster, and unless they really believe Turner Ward was that big of an issue in Goldschmidt's decline, then I don't see a great reason to bring him back. Sure, if he wants to take a small, one-year deal to come off the bench against left-handed pitching, I could see that. But I'm going to assume Goldschmidt won't necessarily be a "cheap" deal, and my guess is he wants to play every day still.

Along with Goldschmidt, the Cardinals need to figure out what they are doing with their club options for Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, and Keynan Middleton. Specifically in the cases of Gibson and Lynn, there is an argument that saving the $22 million the Cardinals can by declining both options (or even just the $11 million from Lynn's deal) would be better used elsewhere.

In fact, the Cardinals could even go after another starter in the same tier or better as Sonny Gray if they saved money on those back-end starters, and go into 2025 with a rotation of Gray, new front-line starter, Fedde, Pallante, and Mikolas.

Speaking of Mikolas, could the Cardinals look to try and shed his contract or Matz's deal this offseason as well? If the Cardinals want to retool their roster, this seems to be a preferred route of doing so. Give more chances to young arms like Andre Pallante, Michael McGreevy, Gordon Graceffo, and Adam Kloffenstein, and maybe even get some help from top prospects like Quinn Mathews or Tink Hence at some point as well.

I think it is much more likely that the Cardinals find a suitor for Matz than Mikolas, and I do think it is something they will explore this offseason. St. Louis needs a shake-up on this roster, and the best place to start is by offloading underperforming veterans.