Rival MLB executives "confounded" by St. Louis Cardinals' stagnant offseason

In the five months that make up Major League Baseball's offseason, the St. Louis Cardinals have made just one major-league transaction. They traded for utility-man Michael Helman from the Minnesota Twins for cash considerations, but the roster remains largely unchanged from the 2024 version outside of a few expiring free agents.

There has been nary a free agent signing nor a big trade surrounding the St. Louis Cardinals this offseason. 10-time Gold Glover Nolan Arenado is still on the roster. Erick Fedde, Ryan Helsley, and Steven Matz will be employed by the Cardinals next year. They haven't signed a legitimate reliever to fill the void left by Andrew Kittredge last year.

The apathy that was growing last year within the fanbase has now become full-blown lethargy.

One of baseball's largest and most loyal fan bases has now become resentful, detached, and bored with the team. That's bad news.

That sentiment has been felt around the league, too, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan. In his most recent free agent update, Passan laid into the St. Louis Cardinals. According to Passan, St. Louis's lack of moves this offseason "is confounding executives around the industry." The Cardinals have several valuable trade pieces including Ryan Helsley, Erick Fedde, Sonny Gray, and Nolan Arenado. Rather than trading them or making stronger pushes to trade them, Mozeliak has decided to stand pat with the roster he has.

Bill DeWitt Jr. has been unwilling to eat significant money on Arenado's contract, and that has been a point of contention between the Cardinals and the Red Sox thus far. In a deal earlier this winter with the Houston Astros, it was reported that St. Louis would take on $15-20 million of Arenado's contract to help facilitate the deal, but Arenado blocked the trade, as is his right with a no-trade clause.

Could that be enough to entice Boston, an organization that has relied on analytics these past few years to field a competitive team? That has yet to be seen.

Passan goes on to write that the Cardinals are an "organization stuck in neutral, a feeling that led to John Moozeliak announcing he will step away after the 2025 season." That decision to remain neutral has paralyzed any potential deals this offseason. While trading Arenado has been the club's primary goal all winter, that shouldn't hamper them from making other moves to help the team.

The St. Louis Cardinals could have chosen several paths for this "reset"; they could have embraced a tear down of sorts and traded players with value like Fedde, Helsley, Gray, and Arenado and taken in high-level prospects who could help in 2026 and beyond.

They could have committed to the current roster and added free agents to fill in the gaps or strengthen a mediocre rotation. This would have given them a greater chance of competing in the weak National League Central right now.

The final route, perhaps the worst choice, was to do nothing. This was the most dangerous and the one with the lowest return both in the present and the future. Now, the prospect pipeline hasn't been altered for a farm system that ranks in the middle of the league, and the 83-win MLB roster from last year hasn't been improved upon.

Executives throughout the league have at least inquired upon St. Louis Cardinal players and gauged the front office's interest in making a trade. Rather than taking advantage of a seller's market that has seen the price of free agents rise exponentially, John Mozeliak has chosen to do nothing.

It's a lame duck year for the long-time POBO after all. What else did we expect?