St. Louis Cardinals' offseason being doomed by DeWitt's crazy new budget floor

We all knew that one of the main reasons for the St. Louis Cardinals' moves this offseason was to cut costs. The team's restructured TV sacrifices about 25% of the income they were originally expecting, downturns in attendance during 2020 and 2021 due to COVID are still a factor, and a decrease in attendance due to underperformance in 2023 and 2024 has hurt ownership's pockets.

However, it's now becoming more apparent that the moves this offseason are directed towards one primary goal: the DeWitt family is simply aiming to slash payroll this year.

Moves like declining options for Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, and Keynan Middleton along with not extending contracts to other free agents like Paul Goldschmidt, Andrew Kittredge, and Matt Carpenter were expected. Aside from Gibson and Kittredge, it was time to move on from these other veterans to make way for a younger generation of players.

However, it's becoming more clear as news surrounding a Nolan Arenado trade grows that the primary goal this offseason for the DeWitt family wasn't to create a competitive team while maintaining a stable payroll. Rather, it's about slashing costs to save money.

In a recent mailbag, Katie Woo made a very interesting point about Nolan Arenado's trade market. Woo writes, "In short: The club may dilute a return because they are relatively unwilling to eat some of Arenado’s contract. Taking on a majority of that money owed would counteract the point of the trade."

This stems from a quote from president of baseball operations John Mozeliak in which he stated that trading Arenado is a "mostly financial" decision that also opens up opportunities for young players like Nolan Gorman, Brendan Donovan, and Thomas Saggese.

Rather than send over some cash, perhaps even as little as $15 million, to get a legitimate prospect in return, John Mozeliak is being forced to send all of Nolan Arenado's contract to whoever is willing to shoulder that cost regardless of the return. This hampers the club both now and in the future.

Trading Nolan Arenado is a cost-cutting measure to the DeWitt family, and that harms the team.

If Bill DeWitt Jr. and Bill DeWitt III were more willing to swallow some of Arenado's contract, a necessity given his regression these last two years, then Mozeliak could bring back a legitimate prospect to add to the "reset" that the organization is in right now. Instead, ownership sees Arenado as a hindrance to their bottom line, and the new extreme budgetary floor that ownership seeks is hampering the on-field product of the team.

Without any cash going with Arenado, Cardinal fans should eye the Cody Bellinger trade as a glimpse of their future. The Cubs received a 30-year-old journeyman for a former NL MVP because they sent only $5 million with Belli. Without any additional money, the Cardinals would be lucky to see a return like that.

Ownership's unwillingness to swallow money and sacrifice their bottom line this offseason will be costly to the Cardinals both now and in the future. If the DeWitt family still holds a soft spot for the Cardinals and the fanbase, they should be willing to send cash in a Nolan Arenado trade for the health of the organization.