The Cardinals' suspicious payroll slash is among the most drastic in baseball

The St. Louis Cardinals are tightening their purse strings in 2025, as a number of factors are leading ownership to cut payroll ahead of the season.

According to BrooksGate, the Cardinals' payroll has been reduced by $60,938,729 from the end of the 2024 season, which is the fifth-largest decrease by any team over that time period.

The Cardinals don't seem to have high hopes of making a serious playoff push in the upcoming season, and they are anticipating a drop-off in ticket sales. That, along with the 25% reduction in revenue from their restructured television deal, plus the harm that the pandemic inflicted on the team's income, has been ownership's main point of emphasis when it comes to justifying the payroll reduction.

The team has also mentioned allocating more funds toward minor league development, where the Cardinals have lagged behind their competitors in recent years. President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said that the Cardinals will increase player development spending by approximately 8% to 12%. However, an article from Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat laid out the fact that the Cardinals' comments on their budget and spending forecast don't add up in regards to where all their excess revenue will be going.

Putting more funding toward player development is a noble goal, but given the amount of money that would still remain with several players now off the books, the Cardinals could be throwing up a smokescreen to conceal the truth: The owners are simply pocketing the money instead of investing it toward making the team better.

One can further scrutinize the Cardinals' penny-pinching by looking at a team like the Kansas City Royals, whose current payroll is only about $8 million less than that of the Cardinals. The Royals have a much smaller television deal than St. Louis, and while the Cardinals dropped off in attendance in 2024, they still ranked seventh in major league baseball. The Royals were near the bottom, at 26th.

The perennially cheap Royals managed to trot out a competitive team in 2024 with far fewer avenues to spend from. One only needs to look across the state to see that there is little excuse for the Cardinals to cut their payroll by such a ludicrous amount.