The Cardinals may be considering making their most egregious decision yet for 2025

We've spent plenty of time criticizing, questioning, and ridiculing the St. Louis Cardinals for how disastrous their offseason has been. The national media consistently gives them the worst grade in all of baseball for their offseason stagnation, and coming into spring training, they are set to make some really frustrating roster decisions for a team that is supposed to be prioritizing the future.

Even so, I'm not sure any of us had this egregious of a decision on our bingo card.

Katie Woo of The Athletic just made her first Opening Day roster prediction, and anytime Woo writes something, it's worth your time. She is as plugged in with the Cardinals as anyone, so when she makes predictions like this, it's not just a random take out of thin air; it is informed by what she has seen and heard from sources close to the situation.

In her piece, she considered Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, and Miles Mikolas "locks" for the rotation, Steven Matz as "most likely" in there, and the duo of Andre Pallante and Michael McGreevy as "the big questions" who are likely competing for their final spot in their rotation.

Before I react to this, please remember that I am not reacting to Woo's perspective here. Woo does an incredible job with her work, and she is trying to give us an accurate look at the situation. She's not trying to upset people or give hot takes; she is trying to represent the reality the Cardinals are operating in.

With that being said, excuse me? Andre Pallante is a "big question mark" for this rotation and has to battle it out with Michael McGreevy while Steven Matz and Miles Mikolas are safe bets?

If this is true, the Cardinals are truly lost. What on earth are they doing?

Andre Pallante's spot in the rotation should be written in stone, while Michael McGreevy takes over for Steven Matz or Miles Mikolas.

I was first alerted to Woo's piece by my good friend Bernie Miklasz, who texted me about it earlier this morning. I re-read his text twice, then jumped over and read Woo's piece myself, and I still couldn't wrap my head around the insanity that was on my screen.

Look, I had already come to grips with Mikolas being in the rotation a long time ago. It's not wise, but it is what they were going to do. But to even think for a second that Matz could boot Pallante out of the rotation for Opening Day is truly bonkers.

Did we just forget that Pallante had a 3.56 ERA in the rotation last year in 20 starts? That he was easily their most effective starter last year after being placed in their five-man group? That he is the best young starter they have developed since Jack Flaherty? That he is not a "prospect" anymore and we know he can be effective as a starter? That guy could get booted from the rotation in favor of Matz? In favor of Mikolas? Wow.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see McGreevy in the rotation come Opening Day. If he were left out of the five-man group, it would be a shame and a bad move by St. Louis. But to potentially drop Pallante from that group is just ludicrous.

Hopefully the Cardinals come to their senses and keep Pallante in the rotation. But man oh man, if they don't, you better believe people are going to have questions. If you thought Cardinals fans were already upset about how things were going, just wait and see what the reaction would be like if this went down.