6 difficult roster decisions the St. Louis Cardinals must address ASAP

The St. Louis Cardinals are in a pickle right now.

Coming into the season, the club wanted to have a strong rebound from their putrid 2023 campaign. While they are in the mix for playoff contention right now, hovering a few games below .500 at this point in the season is the kind of bounceback you'd expect from a deflated basketball, not an organization looking to distance itself from one of the worst seasons in franchise history.

And yet, there are multiple things that are making aggressive action difficult for the Cardinals. John Mozeliak was very clear in his time with bloggers and podcasters this past Saturday that he wants to add to this club and named some glaring needs, but the trade market can be a tricky thing to navigate this early in the summer.

There are also potential answers to their solutions coming off the injured list soon (at least we think). Willson Contreras, who was one of the best hitters in all of baseball before going down with a broken forearm in early May, can breathe some life into this lineup soon. Arms like Steven Matz, Riley O'Brien, and Giovanny Gallegos appear to be on their way back to the club very soon. And of course, the ghost of Tommy Edman still makes an appearance any time Mozeliak talks about the roster, and it sounds like he'll be heading on a rehab assignment soon. Lars Nootbaar is likely out until near the All-Star Break.

So reinforcements might be just around the corner. But as we've seen with Edman all year and just recently with Keynan Middleton, setbacks happen. And even if they all return healthy, it does not mean they'll produce right away, if at all. Frankly, the Cardinals are running out of time to "wait and see", as they have a growing list of roster issues they need to address as soon as humanely possible.

Here are six difficult roster decisions the Cardinals have to figure out ASAP