Three reasons why the Cardinals have fallen this far, this fast

Front Office Trade Mistakes and the unwillingness to fix problem areas

This topic often leaves me angry and asking more questions than the aforementioned.

Why won’t the Cardinal’s front office pony up the money to spend on fixing problem areas, like starting pitching, when they knew all along it was going to be a problem coming into this season? And the other question is how in the world could they trade players like Randy Arozarena, Adolis Garcia, and Sandy Alcantara amongst others only to watch them turn into budding stars with other organizations?

I will give credit where credit is due. Mozeliak did a pretty good job of acquiring Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. Those two are the minority though when talking about recent trades Mozeliak has pulled off. 

First, it was the trade for Marcell Ozuna where we gave up not one but two eventual aces on the mound in 2022 NL Cy Young award winner Sandy Alcantara and likely 2023 NL starting pitcher Zac Gallen. Those two young horses would look really good right now as our #1 and #2 starters.

Next, it was a trade that I believe will go down as one of the worst trades in St. Louis Cardinal history as Mozeliak swapped Randy Arozarena and Jose Martinez with the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Matthew Liberatore, catching prospect Edgardo Rodriguez, and a supplemental second-round draft pick (eventually, Tink Hence). Liberatore was our top-ranked pitching prospect but has not had the success St. Louis Cardinal fans were expecting. The book is still out on Hence but he does look to be a very good prospect but time will have to wait on him to see if he develops further.

All Arozarena has done is spark an organization that was hurting to put fans in the seats. He is a fan favorite and has done nothing but hit since being traded to Tampa. The Cardinals only saw him take 20 ABs with the organization, then saw Arozarena earn AL ROY honors the very next season as well as have one of the most impressive performances in the playoffs in recent memory. He was just elected to his first All-Star game where he will start and take part in the Home Run Derby.

Adolis Garcia is another case where St. Louis didn't let him play enough to see his true talent come alive. Garcia was traded to the Texas Rangers in December of 2021 for cash considerations. Yep, Mozeliak pretty much GAVE the Rangers an eventual two-time All-Star for pocket change.

Garcia leads the American League in RBIs with 71 and has hit a total of 80 home runs since joining Texas after only earning 17 plate appearances by the Cardinals.

It really is no wonder why St. Louis as an organization is where it is sitting right now. I feel unless a substantial shakeup starts at the top of the front office that leads down to the manager and coaches, mediocrity is going to be the norm in and around St. Louis. I just don’t know how well fans will take to that kind of baseball being played in the Gateway City.