6 ways the Cardinals should get creative this offseason if there is a smaller payroll

The St. Louis Cardinals seem to be heading toward an offseason where they will be looking to cut back on payroll, rather than add to it. I'm not defending that, but it seems to be the reality we are working with.

While I think fans deserve better than that from this organization after letting them down for years now, I do want to point out that spending more money does not make the team better. Spending money wisely does. Yes, it would 100% help if the Cardinals invested more in their payroll, not less, but this whole conversation on the direction of the Cardinals' payroll made me want to think of outside-the-box ways they could improve without raising their investments.

If the Cardinals are going to go in the direction of a Chaim Bloom this offseason, it makes you wonder how he could potentially help maximize talent in the organization as well as target quality moves at whatever dollar amount they are able to spend. Bloom was famously part of the front office that turned the Rays into a consistent contender with one of the smallest payrolls in baseball, so it stands to reason that he could use those same principles with a much larger payroll in St. Louis, even if it were to go down some.

Frankly, we've also seen other organizations around the game find success with significantly fewer payroll dollars than the Cardinals. The Cleveland Guardians are one of the best teams in baseball this year and, according to FanGraphs, spent $80 million less than the Cardinals did on payroll this year. The Milwaukee Brewers, who continue to run the NL Central year after year, have spent about $67 million less on their payroll than St. Louis has.

Please do not read this as me advocating for the Cardinals to spend less, that couldn't be further from my thought process. But what I am advocating is that the Cardinals begin to adopt practices that these well-run organizations have implemented, but do so with the added bonus of $60m-$80m more to spend on payroll. I won't throw a fit if there is a slight decrease in payroll this offseason, but it better be headed back in the right direction in 2026 and beyond if it does.

Again, I do want to see the Cardinals spend more, but today I wanted to take a look at some moves that I think they could make that would make them a better team in 2025, and would not require them to increase payroll to do so.

Here are 6 ways the Cardinals should get creative this offseason if there is a smaller payroll

1. Invest in organizational infrastructure to maximize player development

In all honesty, this story should be titled "6 ways the Cardinals should get creative this offseason, regardless of how much they spend on payroll". Part of the reason I didn't do that was because I would add more moves that require more dollars spent, but today I wanted to focus on cost-cutting measures that actually benefit the team.

This first creative move is just a no-brainer in my opinion. The organization has to take Chaim Bloom's recommendations to heart and make the necessary changes to catch up with the rest of baseball, and eventually get back to being an organization that is on the cutting edge of how things are done.

This is something fans don't give the current Cardinals' regime enough credit for back in the early 2010s (although there are significant executives who have left since then that played a major role), but it is most definitely one of the fairest critiques of Cardinals' in recent years. They used to be one of the leading organizations in baseball when it came to player development, and lately, they have been lagging behind in a major way.

That's not to say that things aren't already getting better, though. I find it fascinating that since Chaim Bloom came into the fold this offseason, the Cardinals' pitching development specifically has seemed to take major strides this year. Now, there are still a lot of fair critiques, but I do not think it's a coincidence that a guy like Quinn Mathews has excelled the way he has this year.

In fact, the Cardinals were just ranked the third-best farm system in all of baseball by MiLB Pipeline when it comes to pitching prospects. I about fell out of my seat when I first read that. For an organization that has been so starved and devoid of young pitching, the fact they are top three in the sport right now tells me that things have taken a significant turn.

It just goes to show how impactful (or detrimental) organizational infrastructure and investments can be when it comes to player development. Investing more dollars here, even at the expense of payroll, could go a long way for the health of the organization.