Cardinals left-hander JoJo Romero was a logical trade candidate this summer but wasn’t moved. In a chat with readers this week, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that “at least one team” was in touch with the Cardinals, looking for a lefty reliever. However, Goold relays that the Cards let that team know they would be willing to listen to offers on John King, seemingly preferring to make him available as opposed to Romero.
The interest in Romero is understandable. His career strikeout and walk rates of 23% and 8.3%, respectively, are both pretty close to league average. His 53.1% ground ball rate is quite strong. He has a 3.70 earned run average in his career and that number is down to 1.98 here in 2025. He is making just $2.26MM this year and can be retained via arbitration for 2026. The Padres were connected to Romero prior to the deadline but there were likely plenty of other clubs interested without that interest being made public.
It seems the Cards didn’t have much interest in making him available, as they tried to put King out there as an alternative. King is somewhat akin to Romero as a lefty grounder specialist, but his numbers aren’t quite as strong. His 62.2% ground ball rate is better than Romero’s but he has only punched out 15.1% of opponents. That’s a notable difference, especially in the modern era where front offices love strikeouts. King has a 3.87 ERA in his career but is at 5.18 this year. He is making $1.605MM this year and can be controlled via arbitration for two more seasons. That’s one extra year compared to Romero but King is two years older, about to turn 31 while Romero is almost 29. King landed on the IL with a strained oblique just before the deadline.
Ultimately, neither player moved, so the Cardinals presumably didn’t get an offer they considered compelling enough in either case. What will be interesting to monitor going forward is if there will be a shift once their regime change takes the next step.
It was almost a year ago, in late September of 2024, that the impending front office change was announced. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak would stay through 2025 before handing the reins over the Chaim Bloom. In the interim, Bloom would be focusing on the club’s player development systems, occasionally advising on front office moves as well.
The Cards were also open about 2025 being a transition year where they would be less focused on investing in the big league roster, with more of an emphasis on those player development elements. It was widely expected that they would make veteran players available last offseason, particularly the expensive ones. However, guys like Willson Contreras, Miles Mikolas and Sonny Gray showed little to no interest in waiving their respective no-trade clauses. Nolan Arenado was more open to trade possibilities but blocked a deal to the Astros and ultimately wasn’t moved.
The club could have then pivoted to trading other guys in the offseason, such as Erick Fedde or Ryan Helsley, but ended up mostly staying pat. Their most notable move of the winter was signing Phil Maton for one year and $2MM.
Their deadline, too, was modest. They made a few trades but only moved impending free agents like Fedde, Helsley, Maton and Steven Matz. They reportedly got interest in controllable guys like Romero, Alec Burleson, Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan but held all of them.
What remains to be seen is if those decisions were a function of the weird limbo year. Perhaps Mozeliak preferred to leave the decisions on those controllable guys to his successor. If so, then maybe it’s possible those guys will be more available this winter once the keys are handed over to Bloom.
It also depends on various other factors. What sort of payroll parameters will Bloom get from ownership? Will the club wait for expensive contracts to expire before spending on the team again? How does Bloom feel about the system he’s been monitoring for the past year? Does the club still want to keep giving playing time to players like Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman despite lackluster results in 2025?
The decisions to not move Fedde and Helsley in the winter seemed to backfire. Both players posted worse results in 2025 than in 2024, which presumably led to lesser trade returns this summer than if they had been moved a few months earlier. Perhaps Bloom will look to avoid the same path with guys like Romero this winter, though his decisions should be impacted by the answers to the questions surrounding the franchise.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images
This whole thing is weird. In a transition year why would you have a lame duck making decisions that will impact the future? Was Bloom involved in the decisions? What is the plan for 2026? Is there one?
Bloom was involved and consulted on the decisions during the transition is what I read.
There was no compelling reason to move anyone but the pending free agents. I expect more impactful trades during the offseason.
I don’t think Mo wanted to move more controllable guys and just leave to Chaim for the offseason.
The more I look at this team as currently constructed, I’m not convinced they’re going to make any significant moves in the off-season.
-Walker and Gorman are coming along
-Herrera seems destined for every day left field
-Burleson has emerged as an everyday fielder
-Victor Scott II seems like a permanent thing
-Contreras seems set
-Sonny seems set
-JJ seems poised for third base (part time?)
-Donovan at second base
-Quinn Matthews looks ready to start
-Leahy it is getting stretched out
-Pallante back to the pen?
-O’Brien, Romero, Graceffo, and Svanson are ascending
-Would definitely like some more hitting from the catching position, but I’m guessing an internal candidate will be in that spot for a while
Would not be surprised if the Cardinals make almost no moves until next year’s trade
deadline.
I expect Donovan and Nootbaar to be moved this offseason. Arenado is on third for the next two years unless the team eats most of his salary. Wetherholt will be on second next year.
The catching prospects are also piling up. This offseason or next at least one will be moved.
I agree. I’d offer noot, Donovan, pages and romero to the Yankees for Dominguez, schmidt( who is out all next year) and a prospect or Warren. Would be a win win for both teams.
My biggest concern about Bloom is that he appeared unwilling or unable to stand up to heavy-handed ownership in Boston. The Arenado situation will be an interesting test for him this winter. The best move for the team is to eat the money and find Arenado a place he wants to go. I don’t think ownership will agree to it unless Bloom can really throw his weight behind it. We’ll see if he has that kind of weight.
Think the time to move Donnie was at the deadline. But that didn’t happen seemingly (?) because Bloom is pushing for JJ at 3rd. JJ has already played three games at 3rd in the last week in Memphis.
Think they’ll ease JJ into 3rd and if he plays well…we’ll see. If JJ can do it, wouldn’t be surprised to see the Cards eat a lot of Nado’s contract or split time with Nado. JJ can also play all over the diamond, so there are a lot of options, especially since Saggesse looks like he’ll be back in Memphis next year.
Think a lot could depend on how Nado’s shoulder recovers. Maybe he’s not totally cooked? Think we’ll see JJ and Quinn called up in a few weeks.
Noot seems destined for the trade block or the bench. Either is fine with me.
Well, what has happened to past POBs and GMs who have stood up to John Henry and Red Sox Ownership?!
All those guys were thrown overboard: Theo Epstein, Dave Dombrowski, Chaim Bloom???
I’m not sure who slots where, but I’d love to see Donny get an extension this winter. I agree that Noot is getting squeezed out. There will be plenty of teams interested if they want to trade him. A LF/DH time share between Herrera and Burly makes plenty of sense to me. Gorman is also squeezed out. He has been ok at the plate, so I think he is also tradable.
That still leave room for Saggese as a utility player as long as Noot, Gorman, and Arenado are moved.
Gorman is coming along????
Last twenty games, Nolan Gorman is hitting .250 with 16 hits, 4 home runs, 13 RBIs and 12 runs scored.
Small sample, but his at bats look better, strikeouts are down…baby steps, baby.
Jesus Baez is a good candidate to replace Arenado in 2028. He’s a good fielder with a strong arm. He’s a prospect who may or may not pan out. I’m penciling him in at third for 2028.
I was curious if they even considered moving a couple of major league players they have to acquire Mason Miller from the A’s?
That would replace Helsley without missing a beat, instead of the A’s receiving minor league prospects. Not Donnie or Burly, but others.
I think Doyle will be the future closer. I could see a deal for Fairbanks in the offseason hes from the St Louis area. Miller costed way too much.
We don’t need to replace helsley. He was not that good this year. Svanson, Leahy, and Obrien all look great.
Gorman needs to be gone, no field, no hit, no arm, no power ( nothing between the ears either)
He’s been absolutely awful at 3B. He can’t come in on a ball, and teams should continue to expose that as word gets out.
Tons of power…when he connects.
Still has minor league options and can DH/1B. No real value in trading him at this point, so may as well keep giving him ABs…this season. His batting numbers since the All-Star break have been good and his at bats/plate discipline have been a lot better.
We’ll see.
Romero is one of the few good trades made by Mo. Mo could not let him go.
I wish they had dealt either Donovan or Nootbaar but its not that big of a deal. They can trade one in the offseason or at next years deadline.
Not trading Fedde or Helsley was the right thing to do because it kept the team competitive for most of the first half. If the team hadn’t played so poorly after the all star break they wouldn’t have sold at the deadline. And because the Cardinals picked 5th in last years draft they are not eligible to pick earlier than 10 in next years draft do there wasn’t an advantage to tanking.
My guess is they will sign 2 relievers and a starter in the offseason. Specifically a closer, a lefty reliever and a right handed starter. High risk high upside makes sense. Perhaps Walker Buehler for the rotation.
What to do with Gorman and Walker is a big question mark. I really dont know. I think there are too many guys without a position or much defensive value on the roster so moving Gorman might make sense. But I think hes better than Walker.
I think they are still eligible to draft top 10. You can’t be a lottery winner 3 years in a row, they were not 2 years ago. I could be mistaken but I thought that’s how it went
They are not. Look it up.
I understand the Cardinals are in no real rush to deal Romero unless their price is met, but it’s sort of cringe to respond to a Romero ask by trying to tempt the other team with John King. The other team is asking about a potential late-inning playoff piece and you respond with saying you’d listen to “offers” for your 5th inning mop-up man who’s a non-tender candidate.
Mo hasn’t had a clue in a decade, and just lengthening the amount of time where Bloom has effectively no say is doing the organization such a disservice. I say this as a 25+ year Cardinals fan.
1 losing season in how many years?
Entitled fans kinda suck.
I’ve wondered for most of the season why King is even on the roster. He has overperformed the past 2+ years and has a 5+ era this year. Laughable that they would even position him as available for a trade thinking someone would want him.
He’s a cheap, long-relief mop-up guy. Every team has at least one John King.
Mo didn’t make any decision out of deference to Bloom. Mo resisted trading any of the controllable players because he has no spine. He is so sensitive to all the criticism he deservedly receives for the players he traded that broke out elsewhere, it leaves him in a state of paralysis. He would rather sit on his hands and do nothing than allow his “legacy” to suffer one more blow. Thin skinned narcissism has been the prevailing attitude of the Cardinals front office for a long, long time.
Oh good gosh. You are just making it up as you go.
Sure
Cards are too scared of the impending lockout after ‘26 as well as the odd TV rights issues. I don’t expect much to be done as far as free agents or impactful trades this off season.
Haven’t seen anyone mention Walker, he hasn’t shown much this season, seems likely to be on the move too.