The Cardinals' front office is veering toward a no-win situation

The fanbase of the St. Louis Cardinals is becoming divided. Gone are the days where winning at the trade deadline meant a team should buy and losing meant it should sell. The 2025 Cardinals are in a far more nuanced situation, and it's a nightmare scenario for the front office.

The Cardinals' front office could soon face its most difficult decision in years.

The team wasn't expected to contend for a postseason berth in 2025; many Redbird Rants writers had the team finishing around .500 and missing the playoffs. But the Cardinals' run of success has placed them one game back of the division lead, and the front office may be forced to reconsider its plans at the trade deadline if the Cardinals continue their torrid pace.

The Cardinals declared 2025 to be a "transition" year, and their most valuable pieces were expected to be shipped out near the trade deadline. Pitchers Ryan Helsley and Erick Fedde were the most logical of the bunch to be dealt, as they are in their final years of their contracts. The Cardinals would likely receive a solid haul for the two players, and the team could take it even further and attempt to trade Sonny Gray and Nolan Arenado as well.

The starting pitcher market at the deadline is expected to be small, and ESPN's Buster Olney mentioned that Fedde would likely bring a decent prospect return to St. Louis because of the dearth of pitching available. Helsley could command a larger haul, as he has proven himself in the past few seasons to be one of the game's best closers, and his value is unlikely to ever be higher than it will be at the deadline.

But trading these players during a run of contention would emit massive shockwaves through a significant portion of the fanbase. The Cardinals would essentially be punting on the playoffs to stay true to the plan they had prior to the season — a giant pivot from the team's longtime "win at all costs" mentality.

The Cardinals and the front office may believe that they owe it to the fans to be competitive in 2025 if they see that window of opportunity. That would sacrifice the team's long-term outlook, as keeping Helsley around until the end of the season would allow him to walk in free agency and give the Cardinals nothing in return. But a playoff push could reenergize a fanbase that has become largely apathetic in recent seasons, as displayed in Busch Stadium III's consistently low attendance figures.

A postseason appearance would also provide young players with much-needed exposure on the biggest stage. Many of the Cardinals' position players have not experienced playoff baseball, so even if the Cardinals have no expectations of going all the way to putting up their 12th championship banner, the playoff exposure would be extremely valuable to the future core of the lineup.

There's also no guarantee that a trade for prospects would make the team better in the long run. Countless highly touted players flame out at the major league level or never even get there at all. In the returns from the Cardinals' 2023 sell-off, only Thomas Saggese has logged anything resembling meaningful big league appearances.

Keeping Helsley and others around for a likely short appearance in the playoffs would enrage another subset of fans who believe the team needs to tear everything down and sacrifice a year or two in order to put up another run of sustained dominance. These are the fans who are looking at the long-term future of the team and don't think it's worth attempting one last hurrah in John Mozeliak's final season.

There is one more option, in which the Cardinals keep Helsley and/or Fedde on the roster for the entire season and extend a qualifying offer to one or both of them. If the offer is accepted, the player remains on the team and gets paid the average salary of MLB's 125 highest-paid players. If it's declined (which is the usual outcome), the Cardinals receive a draft pick either before or after the second round of the draft — a talent that is often comparable to one whom the Cardinals could acquire in a trade for those players.

The front office can't be comfortable with the position the Cardinals are placing it in right now, as regardless of the option it picks, a large portion of the fanbase will be livid. It would be hard to blame Mozeliak and company if they would like nothing more than to see the team backslide hard in its upcoming games.