What will happen if the Cardinals reset goes horribly wrong in 2025?

The St. Louis Cardinals are planning to reset in 2025 to set the team up for 2026 and beyond, but what if things fall off the rails once again next season?

Well, that one-year reset will most likely turn into a full-scale rebuild then, the likes that few Cardinals fans have ever seen this organization go through before with their own eyes.

It seems likely to me that the Cardinals will not have to blow things up after the 2025 season. If even just a few of Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, Ivan Herrera, Alec Burleson, or other young position players show encouraging signs, then there's hope for the offense moving forward. If just a few of Quinn Mathews, Tink Hence, Andre Pallante, Michael McGreevy, Matthew Liberatore, and other young arms pitch well, then there's a bright future pitching-wise as well.

But considering how much things have spiraled for the Cardinals since being knocked out of the 2022 postseason by the Philadelphia Phillies, we can't rule out a world where the bad luck continues to flow for this organization.

What if most of the young bats fall apart again, the pitching implodes, and the Cardinals lose 90+ games in 2025? What if this “young core” looks more like a 65 win team in its future rather than building toward future contention? What if the Cardinals decide they truly have to rebuild this whole thing from the ground up?

I was listening to my friend Bernie Miklasz's latest videos over on his YouTube channel the other day, and his thoughts on how pivotal the 2025 season was for the future of the club got my gears turning about what a doomsday scenario looks like. I commented my off-the-cuff thoughts, and Miklasz suggested I flesh out a blog post on it. So here I am! Thanks Bernie!

Side note, I greatly appreciate Bernie's words of encouragement and support of my writing as well as the podcast I host with Andrew Wang and Sandy McMillian called "Dealin the Cards". Like many of you, I've long admired and appreciated his own written work and voice on St. Louis audio platforms for years. I hope you are subscribed to his YouTube channel, turning in to his appearances on KMOX, and reading his work over at Scoops Sports Network.

Back to the topic at hand.

So what would happen if the Cardinals implode again in 2025? I'd like to list a few of those for us today.

1. John Mozeliak's legacy would take an even greater hit than we could have imagined

I know, some of you already think John Mozeliak is the worst baseball executive you can think of. The last nine years of his tenure have been dissapointing and trending in the wrong direction, but the first eight were some of the best by a Cardinals executive ever, and that has to be acknowledged by fans. Yes, even those of you who want to just give all of the credit to Walt Jocketty.

But man, if Mozeliak's last year in charge ends by handing Chaim Bloom a tattered organization that must go into a long rebuild, his tenure will be left with an even darker stain than anyone would have imagined, and fans will have even more reason to question the DeWitt family's loyalty toward Mozeliak for as long as they have.

2. While Chaim Bloom won't be to blame for the long rebuild, some fans will associate the early years of Cardinals losing under Bloom as a sign that he's a bad executive

Again, if you thought some fans were already skeptical of Chaim Bloom's resume, imagine how fans would view him if the first few years of his tenure in charge of the Cardinals were marked by fifth-place finishes in the National League Central and empty seats at Busch Stadium.

Bloom has the experience and expertise needed to lead the Cardinals through such a difficult time, but he may feel the heat from the fan base rather quickly when the rebuild would need to take some time.

3. Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray will be as good as gone

If the Cardinals are clearly not returning to contention in the near future, then the loyalty of Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray will likely go away rather quickly. I can't imagine either player would want to undergo an actual rebuild, and it would not make sense for the Cardinals to hang onto them.

Both players would be shopped and dealt away for as much value as possible, and the Cardinals would truly be left with a young core as they nosedive toward a top-five draft selection.

4. Members of the Cardinals young core will join the veterans as trade chips

If the Cardinals' timeline to return to contention goes from the 2025-2027 range to more like 2028-2030, then players like Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, Andre Pallante, Ivan Herrera, and even someone like Jordan Walker would likely be shopped by the club in order to strengthen the farm system and push their value further down the line.

The older players of that bunch just would not be necessary to have around in St. Louis if the club is not going to contend in 2026 or at the latest 2027. By the time a long rebuild would be over, Donovan, Nootbaar, and even some of those other players would be free agents, and the Cardinals would have completely wasted their cost-controlled years. Bloom would be wise enough to capitalize on their trade value if the club was plummeting.

5. Payroll would plumet to levels we have not seen before

While I do not see the Bill DeWitt Jr. or Bill DeWitt III totally changing philosophy and wanting to contend on payrolls similar to the Brewers, Guardians, and Rays, I do think they'd prefer their payroll to be near the bottom of baseball if the club is going to be consistently losing 100 or so games a year.

I would expect them to reinvest in payroll when the club is on the ascent, but I would expect some very lean years in St. Louis.

6. Perhaps the Cardinals would try to win the good will of some fans by putting a former Cardinal legend in the manager seat

If the club does take a nose dive in 2025, I doubt Oliver Marmol will keep his job. It's hard to believe he'd remain the manager for a full-scale rebuild and be in charge of developing young talent when the young core they just had flopped on them.

I also think they could try and leverage Albert Pujols or Yadier Molina's interest in managing at the Major League level as a way to draw fans to the ballpark and eyes on their streaming service. I think both men, but especially Pujols, could do a really nice job of leading a young ball club through some lean years, teaching them how to be winning players, and then leading the next generation of contending Cardinals teams.

7. Cardinals Nation's interest in the club would be severely tested

If a long rebuild did occur, one the likes of the Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, or other teams who have completely torn things down, this would put Cardinals fans' interest in the club to the test in a real way. And honestly, I don't think ownership wants to test that.

Not because I don't think Cardinals fans are loyal, I know they are. But consider the culture and circumstances right now. Interest in baseball is waning. The Cardinals have not been a powerhouse since the mid-2010s. Viewership and attendance have been going in the wrong direction already. If the Cardinals go another four or five years without competing,

Honestly, I'm just scratching the surface of what would happen if the Cardinals flop in 2025, but I think you get the overall point. 2025 being a reset year is not just some flippant gap year from Mozeliak as they transition to Bloom. This could make or break the club's timeline for returning to contention in a very real way.

As I said at the top, this feels unlikely to me that things go this poorly. There's a world where the reset extends in 2026 and then they may have to have this kind of reckoning, but in general, I feel confident that the Cardinals will have a path back toward contention by 2026 or 2027.

But if things do go sideways in 2025, the Cardinals are facing a really uncertain back half of the 2020s.

Thanks for reading!