The Cardinals youth movement may spark an exciting brand of baseball in 2025

While the St. Louis Cardinals took a significant step forward record wise in 2024, you could argue that the club was trending in the wrong direction when it came to capturing the imagintation of this fanbase, and that is a major problem.

The idea of this front office trading away veterans like Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, Nolan Arenado, and/or Ryan Helsley this offseason would seem to suggest that this trend may only get worse, but fans may actually be able to look forward to a more exciting brand of baseball in 2025 if things trend toward a youth movement.

According to Statista, the Cardinals had the eighth-oldest team in baseball with an average age of 29.5 years old during the 2024 season. Their starting rotation was a major contributor to that number, with the average age of the five veteran starters they went into camp with being 35.6 years old. Offensively, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and Willson Contreras were the only regulars over 30 years old, but they did carry both Matt Carpenter and Brandon Crawford on their bench. The bullpen was pretty young, all things considered.

There is a good number of those elder statesman don't return to the Cardinals roster in 2024. I'm sure a few will remain, but John Mozeliak forecasted to media in a call last week that young players will be getting a lot of opportunities in 2025.

Considering how old the Cardinals rotation was last year, that is the unit you are most likely to feel that shift the most. Andre Pallante has cemented himself as one of the club's five starters moving forward, and right-hander Michael McGreevy really impressed in his brief opportunities for St. Louis this year. Even more exciting than those two is the imminent debut of left-hander Quinn Mathews, who was named Minor League Pitcher of the Year by Baseball America, the Cardinals organization, and will likely receive more awards as the weeks go on.

Other names knocking on the door of St. Louis include Sem Robberse, Gordon Graceffo, and Adam Kloffenstein, and the club could always see what Matthew Liberatore or Zack Thompson look like in a return to the rotation. Other top pitching prospects in the organizatoin like Tink Hence, Tekoah Roby, and Cooper Hjerpe are unlikely to find their way to St. Louis in early 2025, but it would not shock anyone to see them later in the season.

Young pitching alone has the chance to breath fresh life into this Cardinal team. Gibson and Lynn did their jobs in 2024, but fans want to see starters with higher upside in this rotation - or at least have potential to fill those same roles at a much cheaper number salary wise. Seeing McGreevy on the mound is going to get people to tune in more than a Lynn or Gibson at this point.

Now, going young does not guarantee exciting times ahead. For as much upside as fans can dream on, it's also very possible that their young pitching takes quite the beating when being unleashed to lead the team, especially as arms are stretched to inning markers they have never hit in their career.

While the Cardinals young bats struggled as a whole in 2024, allowing Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, Lars Nootbaar, Alec Burleson, Ivan Herrera, Nolan Gorman, Brendan Donovan, Luken Baker, Victor Scott II, Thomas Saggese, and other youngsters on their roster to play every day or have increased roles will give both the club and the fanbase extended looks at what these guys can do. The Cardinals need to figure out which of these bats they can build with moving forward, so that Chaim Bloom the revamped front office can make changes and improvements to their position player group as needed.

There is a wide range of outcomes for the youth movement version of this team in 2025. It would not be the least bit surprising to me to see a very young Cardinals team win 80 or so games next season if things go well. I could also see a world where this team is a trainwreck, and while development is happening, it is accompanied by one of the worst records in baseball.

There are so many factors at play that are going to influence how the team looks and feels in 2025. What veterans do they let go of? What kinds of smaller additions do they make? Do their young arms have what it takes to compete right away? Which of the Cardinals' young bats take a step forward or rebound from a rough 2024 campagin? Do any of them regress? How does the rest of the NL Central look next year? All of these things and more will dictate how the team plays.

Personally, I don't have a huge care for what the Cardinals record is next year - as long as they are developing. If they are lose 90+ games and their young core looks like a mess overall, that's going to be extremely concerning. But if they lose a ton of games while they have a young core taking shape for the future, that's encouraging.

If the club wins 80 games again but does so in spite of their young talent, not because of it, it is not as meaningful to me. But if the club is competitive because of the young talent on their roster, that's going to be a huge development.

Winn, Walker, Mathews, Gorman, Donovan, Nootbaar, and Herrera specifically have the potential to be very exciting next year if things go well for them. Burleson, Scott, Saggese, Baker, McGreevy, Pallante, and other young pitchers can provide a lot of encouragement as well, and if more of those young names succeed than those who flop, there will be a lot of reasons to like this team moving forward.

What exactly qualifies as exciting? Winning baseball certainly does. Players making strides and establishing themselves among the better in the league does. Playing with flair and joy does the trick. Speed and power from the bats will help. Keeping runs off the board with great defense will do that. Pitching that involves more swing-and-miss will light up eyes.

All of those things are possible with this new young core. Again, there are no guarantees, and yes, there will likely be some players who flop along the way, but one of the things the Cardinals have had a hard time balancing in recent years has been consistent playing time and opportunities for development for their emerging talent. While the hope is that this "reset" is truly just a year, it really could be a good thing for the organization at it accesses there it currently stands and Bloom takes it in new directions.

I, for one, am excited for this. And hopefully the baseball we see on the field backs that up.