With the deadline less than a month away, the Cardinals will have to make some decisions about their plans. If they decide to be buyers, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak expects ownership to support that. “I do think ownership, if they saw we were in a spot and it made sense to do something, I think they’d support it,” Mozeliak tells Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Mozeliak elaborated that he hasn’t done a “deep dive” into how ticket sales and the club’s broadcast deal have impacted things, but he expects ownership to invest in a contending club.
The Cards went into the most recent offseason looking to transition into a new era. The club struggled to compete in 2023 and 2024 and their broadcast revenue was going to drop in 2025. The plan was to shift focus away from investing in the big league roster with a greater priority on development. As part of that shift, this is going to be Mozeliak’s final year in his role, with Chaim Bloom to take over after that. Currently, Bloom is focused on overhauling the club’s player development apparatus.
As part of that transition, it seemed the franchise hoped to cut payroll, but they struggled to do so. Well-paid players like Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Miles Mikolas were apparently unwilling to waive their respective no-trade clauses. Nolan Arenado was open to waiving his but blocked a trade to the Astros in the offseason and ultimately ended up staying.
When those efforts to trim the roster and the payroll stalled, the Cardinals essentially pivoted to standing pat. They could have tried trading players without no-trade clauses, such as Erick Fedde or Ryan Helsley, but didn’t seem inclined to. Their investments in the club were modest, to put it mildly. Their $2MM deal for Phil Maton was their biggest expenditure.
They now find themselves in a sort of limbo position, in more ways than one. Not only are they in this transition season between front office regimes, but they are also hovering close to contention. Despite the lack of investment in the roster, the club has gone 47-42. That puts them just half a game back of a playoff spot, as of this writing.
Taken all together, it would be fair to wonder about the bottom line. Even with the winning record, would ownership want to invest in a club when they were trying to cut the budget just a few months ago? Nothing is confirmed and Mozeliak suggests some conversations still need to be had, but he has been with the club for decades and presumably has a decent feel for the room in St. Louis. He adds that he has not been told to trim payroll.
It’s possible that the next few weeks will be key for the Cards. If they stay in the race through the end of the month, buying will be more likely. If they fall a few games back, the odds of selling should increase.
They could also do a bit of both, as Goold lays out. He mentions that the club believes in Michael McGreevy and wants to give him a shot in the rotation, but he doesn’t currently have a spot. The starting staff currently consists of Gray, Mikolas, Fedde, Andre Pallante and Matthew Liberatore. Perhaps a trade of someone in that group could be used to open a spot for McGreevy while the club simultaneously adds elsewhere.
Fedde would be the most likely candidate to go as an impending free agent. As mentioned, Gray and Mikolas have no-trade protection while Pallante and Liberatore can be cheaply controlled for years to come. They also have Helsley, Maton and Steven Matz as impending free agents in the bullpen. Perhaps the Cards would consider flipping someone from that group while still hoping to have an effective bullpen overall. If other clubs are interested, the Cards will seemingly pick up the phone.
“Trying to understand what someone may want to give you for something is probably worth hearing or at least listening,” Mozeliak said. “You can always say no. The mindset of us going in is to remain open-minded.”
For now, it’s all still speculative. Much could change in the coming weeks. The club’s wins and losses will be a factor while player health could also be a key factor. “I do feel like when you look at where we are that week leading up, the 72 hours leading up to the trade deadline, that may affect how we make our decisions,” Mozeliak said. He added that he and Bloom will both be involved in the deadline decision making as part of a collaborative process. “I hope we have really hard decisions to make come July 31 because that means we’re playing well.”
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images
lol
Valuable, insightful contribution.
The Cardinals DID trim payroll significantly just by letting their free agents walk and only signing one cheap Major League free agent in their place. They didn’t trim as much as if they had been able to trade Arenado, but claiming their efforts stalled simply isn’t true.
Also, they were always going to keep Helsley and Fedde to start the season even if they had traded Arenado, as there was always the possibility that they could wind up contended as they indeed have done so far.
Mozeliak expects ownership to invest in a contending club. The only problem is that this team is not a contending club.
That’s the only reason he said that, this ownership group is way to cheap to spend more money. The crowd size is down this year, so the fans have had enough of the terrible ownership.
Cardinals ownership has been fine for the most part
Check the standings again. Whether or not you think they can keep it up is irrelevant to their current status.
Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
It’s called “facts”, loser. The FACT that they are in contention for a playoff spot makes them a contender. Maybe try being less incompetent if you plan on replying.
You two are so cute together. Maybe you two can admire the amazing standings whereby the Cardinals become sellers and miss the playoffs, AGAIN. Miss the playoffs, AS PLANNED.
Loser? I love a good keyboard warrior. Especially one that is oblivious to what the facts REALLY are. Keep on dreaming pony boy.
Like the Cubs used to say every year, “what ’til next year.”
The team is contending. Try opening up your eyes and watching the games. No excuses…..
3-6 in their last 9 games with 5 of those 6 losses being shutouts.
Try opening your eyes and watching the games. No excuses…..
The season is more than 9 games long.
So you just started watching the last 9 games?
Ok fella
Sorry, Layne, but you’re wasting your time going back and forth with a bunch of know-it-alls on this site
I’ve watched every game this year, unlike you geniuses apparently. I’ll help you out. This team is made up of a few veterans that have mailed it in (Mikolas and Fedde), a few veterans that are trending way down (Arenado and Helsley) and a bunch of younger players, some that are showing out well and some that don’t belong on a 26 man roster.
Yes, the season is longer than 9 games. So far their 91 games games have put them on pace for an 85 win season. 85 wins will not win this division and will likely not land them a wild card spot. The front office SHOULD sell. The plan this year was to roll it out with the kids and a few select veterans. No one in their right mind should have ever thought that this bunch would make the playoffs. But I know a few of you are not realists and prefer to look through your rose colored glasses.
I’m sure you’ll respond to this thread again on 9/28 when the season is over and our team is on the outside looking in. Until then, back to your mom’s basement to play your video games.
Remind me again how many regular season games the 2006 Cardinaps team won. Would you? That season was such a Grind……
Great song. Just listened to it yesterday.
How wouldn’t Mo know? Are we to believe he hasn’t discussed the situation at all with ownership?? If not, why not?
They waited way too long to trade Arenado.
They will have to practically give him away now just to save a few bucks.
His salaries for the last two years of his contract are more reasonable, especially for 2027. If anything, holding on to him will allow them to eat less dead money (alongside helping them contend this year), if they ever move him at all.
They tried. He refused to be traded.
The Cardinals have a good record, but their core issues (none of the offensive core has a high ceiling – Brendan Donovan’s 120 OPS+ aside – and pitiful strikeout totals from their rotation) haven’t really changed since Opening Day. They’ll move Fedde to open up a spot for McGreevy, but Fedde has badly struggled in his last two starts (8.2 IP, 14 ER, 2K) and fits in the back end of any postseason rotation.
I figure they’ll try to get a AA return (ideally a right-handed outfielder) for Fedde, less than what they got for Montgomery at the 2023 deadline, and acquire a rental bullpen piece. Shelby Miller fits the bill if the D-backs are willing to sell. It’s not an organization that makes unexpected moves often.
You don’t actually need that many high ceiling players when the depth of average or better players is so high.
You need both. You need good depth but you also need stars. The team has depth. Its a bit lacking in stars.
Need to move Helsley and Fette, release Mikolas. See also if they can move Arenado.
Also, Gorman needs a new place to play and new approach. Gorman believe it or not has a big upside that will benefit the Cards getting return in Double A or Triple A potential. King also will bring in low level but minors talent potential
Have you been watching Gorman lately? He’s finally getting back to where he was. The issue now is how to get him playing time once Herrera returns from the IL.
Now Walker is the one who might need a change of scenery..
Meanwhile, Fedde could be movable in the right deal, but they need Helsley to continue to contend this year. He’s not going anywhere until the offseason unless the Cardinals fall out of the race before the trade deadline.
They had Pozo playing first today and he could not figure out which foot to use at first to stretch to get an out on a close play. It’s the right foot Pozo Bozo to have the best stretch.
Clearly need to rebuild, and are already in the process. You can’t re-tool with a mediocre farm system. I’m a lifelong Cardinals fan and I’ll take a few rough years at this point to get us out of the consistently middling teams under Mo and Oli. Sell Arenado, Mikolas, and Matz for whatever they’re worth. We’re stuck with Contreras. Sell high on Helsley. I’m down.
Wow, everythiong you just said is wrong!
They don’t need to rebuild. They have not started doing so. The farm system isn’t great but neither is it mediocre. Even if it was, retooling with a mediocre farm system is perfectly achievable as long as you have a good enough core at the MLB level, which the Cardinals do have. They’ve done an excellent job with the retool so far, and they should improve even further over the next couple of years.
Arenado, Matz, and Helsley are helping the team contend right now, so they aren’t going anywhere as long as that remains true this year. We’re glad to still have Contreras rather than being stuck with him.
Mikolas has a no trade clause he probably would’ve waive, so he’s the one we’re stuck with unless his recent stinkers continue and he gets DFAed. It’d be a shame, since he was so much better in May until he started sucking again, but that’s baseball.
Yeah farm system is not mediocre. And its about to add the number 5 overall pick in next week’s draft. The farm system has always been good. The problem is the decisions made when big money is spent.
Sorry, I meant Mikolas probably *wouldn’t* waive his no trade clause.
Mikolas acts like he’s pitching in the 60s his stuff just looked like little league pitches to the cubs today
Well, that’s what most MLBTR commenters seem to want, for pitchers to stop throwing hard. It really doesn’t work well as far as getting these hitters out though, does it? At least Mikolas won’t be having Tommy John, so he can keep going out there every 5 days and throwing his junkballs.
They left Miles out there as he threw lollipops. Just gave up. Cubs brought in position player Berti who threw everything under 50 mph and they got themselves out scoring on 2 of their 3 hits. Otherwise they were almost no hit after 3 straight shutouts. Ollie and Dusty are just nothing but lineup makers and bad at guessing
Hope for their fans sake this is true, because we Reds fans know what it’s like not to have ownership support when it is needed.
I was at the game today and it appeared they gave up on winning after the top of the third and made Mikolas “wear it”. It was obvious he didn’t have it today, hard to believe he made it through six at 102 pitches. He looked uninterested in being out there.
The Cardinals can make some trades without sacrificing the future. The team has too many catchers trading Jimmy Crooks makes sense. Gorman has potential but even if he hits he doesn’t really have a defensive home so I don’t think he would be missed. Walker needs to go. There are guys that teams could take a chance on that would help the Cardinals acquire some short term help.
Seems like horseshit
Smells like horseshit
Looks like horseshit
Cover it in horseshit
And move it in next door
No one is taking on the contracts of Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray or Nolan Arenado. They’re good players but, they aren’t young and the contracts are excessive.
Arenado’s contract isn’t all that excessive and will only be more club friendly. Only 16m in 2026, 15m in 2027. I was never a fan of the Contreras signing, but Sonny Gray has been performing just fine for his contract.
Arenado is paid $27k and $22k by the Cards the next two seasons.
A lot of it is deferred, but for budgeting purposes he is effectively at a 16m base salary for 2026 and 15 for 2027.
Pick a lane/plan and stay with it.
The way the Cardinals lack of offense been lately makes me less desirable to go to any games, but I will stick with them in spirit. The Cardinals really need to get back to the early 2000’s style with the right amount of star players and rookies that can make a real difference. At one time every ballplayer would want to come to St. Louis to play for the fans. That being said the 2025 Cardinals need at least 2 more big thumpers and 2 more starting pitchers along with bringing up McGreevey. Hopefully Mo needs to make a big move before he leaves, if not hopefully Chaim Bloom will in 2026.
You’re definitely right, but I think one of the big problems we have as an organization, and in baseball as a whole, is that star power is not nearly as affordable. Having Pujols as a homegrown talent in some of those years helped a ton, but take a look at Edmonds… unfortunate for him he had a down year going into FA, and the contract was very affordable compared to his production here. I would argue that it wasn’t a star power signing, but a value signing and he ended up being a star. Rolen was given an 8 year, 90 million extension when he came. Larry Walker had cash ate up by the Rockies, and was an aging player whose stardom was fading at the end of his career. Chris Carpenter was not a star when they brought him but he became one.
I guess the point is, the cardinals need star power but the game has changed, and I’m not sure they’ll be willing to spend on star power. Looking back at those early 2000 years, there were a lot of late career trades / signings, and players that became stars once in the organization. I think the players union has successfully pushed salaries up to the point where it is less likely to see some of those club friendly signings anymore without adding a bunch of years.