John Mozeliak reveals how he sees the current state of the St. Louis Cardinals

It has not been the start to the season anyone on the Cardinals wanted or expected. Things are slowly starting to turn around, but there is still some serious needs if the Cardinals want to contend for a championship in 2023.

On Memorial Day Monday, the Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak sat down with Bally Sports Midwests Jim Hayes down on the field and answered some questions before the Cardinals played the Royals. You can see the entire interview here.

At the time of this discussion, the Cardinals were 24-31 and were sitting in 4th place in the NL Central and coming off a frustrating road trip to Cincinnati and Cleveland. Mozeliak did acknowledge that despite the record the Cardinals were playing better baseball, and that it was " more like Cardinal baseball ".

The next question Jim Hayes asked was regarding the Trade Deadline. It is still a couple of months away but the front office is surely preparing themselves for the deadline when it creeps closer. Hayes asked him how they "figure out buy or sell " and who would be a good match to trade with, Mozeliak told Hayes that he "does not anticipate selling at all".

Should this response come as a total shock? Just think when was the last time a Cardinal team sold at the deadline, it's been a very long time. And despite the Cardinals' record, they are right in the race for the wild card and the division. Going into the two days off the Cardinals have this week, even though they are in last place in the division, they only sit 4 and a half games out of first, and only 4 games out of a wild card spot. That was another thing Mozeliak referred to in his answer, that the division is wide open at the moment, one hot run can win the NL Central like we saw the Cardinals do late last season.

But could a weak division actually be a bad thing? If you're a fan that thinks the Cardinals do need more pieces to compete for a title, then the answer to that question could be yes. If the division is easily up for grabs, then all the team needs is a hot stretch and it'll be ours, no need to get a starting pitcher right? How many people could see that being an excuse to not help the team? Now we all know John Mozeliak's quote back in December when he said "We have 6 starters " so adding a starter at the deadline would contradict what Mozeliak thought of our starting pitching back in the offseason. The division doesn't look that threatening, it could easily stay this mediocre throughout the season, but we will see where the team is in 2 months and if being in a bad division will cloud the front office's judgment.

Hayes brought up another hot topic surrounding the Cardinals at the moment, Jordan Walker. Walker made news over the past couple of days after he was talking about the changes in his swing. He has bounced back after his tenure with AAA-Memphis started off poorly, but he is luring at the chance to get back to the big leagues. Mozeliaks answer referring to Walker was brief but he said that the team gave him " a direct line of what he needed to do to get better " and that they have seen that. There was nothing mentioned regarding when or if Walker could be with the big club again.

The last topic Jim Hayes asked Mozeliak about was the outfielders currently on the injured list. There was some positive news regarding Dylan Carlson, that he could be starting a rehab assignment as soon as this week, but he delivered some unfortunate news about Tyler O'Neill. O'Neill has been out of action with a back injury and he still has not been cleared to perform baseball activities. Mozeliak said that news was " frustrating for everybody involved ". O'Neill could be a trade piece at the Trade Deadline as a way to clear up the traffic jam in the outfield and help the rotation, and also to give him a change of scenery over rumors about friction between him and the organization.

It started last season with O'Neill losing his arbitration hearing that carried over into the season and of course this year with the drama surrounding whether or not he hustled in a game against the Braves early into the year. His recovery has been delayed for quite a while now, and frustration is growing within the fan base, but John Mozeliak could use this situation to help a current need with the team and give a potential disgruntled player a reset somewhere else.