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

6. Finally clear up the logjam of young bats they have to make an upgrade or strengthen their farm system

Let's say the Cardinals are serious about adding this "tent-pole" bat that Derrick Goold mentioned in his chat recently. That bat would be joining Nolan Areando, Willson Contreras, Masyn Winn, Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman, Thomas Saggese, Alec Burleson, Luken Baker, Ivan Herrera, Lars Nootbaar, Jordan Walker, Pedro Pages, Victor Scott II, and Michael Siani as guys looking for playing time in 2025.

The Cardinals have run into this issue for three seasons now. They keep coming into each season with more bats than roster spots available, and they somehow manage to damage the development of most of them in the process. It's time for the Cardinals to "choose" who they want to lead their offense in 2025, and they trade the others or make them clear secondary pieces.

Ivan Herrera, for example, is someone that the Cardinals have no options remaining on, so they cannot go back and forth on how they feel about him next year. If they do not trust him going into the offseason, then they need to trade him.

Nolan Gorman took a huge step back this year in his development. Do they see if he can rebound next season or use him to make a deal? Sure, his value is lower, but it's not driven into the dirt yet like they did with Tyler O'Neill and Dylan Carlson.

What about Lars Nootbaar? He continues to show a lot of promise when he's healthy, but he did take a step back production-wise and was once again injury-riddled this season. Do they trust him to man one of the corners for them in 2025?

Alec Burleson is coming off an encouraging year, but he did regress significantly in the second half. Do they finally "sell high" on a young bat? Or do they trust Burleson's development enough to continue to hone his skills and be a very valuable piece moving forward?

The Cardinals need to answer those questions, but they really can't afford to use 2025 as the way they figure that out unless they are fully committed to "letting the kids play" next year. If they give those names room to fail next year, then it really could be valuable for them to see what they have in their young talent.

But, if they are intent on adding a bat via trade, or even want to make a pitching upgrade on the trade market, they have to trade something to get that, and my guess is that some of that value would come from that long list of names I started out with.

This probably needs to be the offseason when the Cardinals finally do some housecleaning with their young bats. Frankly, the offense as a whole has underperformed for two straight seasons now. Shaking things up makes a lot of sense for a multitude of reasons.