ST. LOUIS – John Mozeliak will remain the St. Louis Cardinals’ lead executive for one more season before passing the torch to Chaim Bloom. With growing pressure for change, Mozeliak emphasized the organization is focused on a “reset,” rather than a traditional rebuild, in his final year up top.
Based on his remarks around Monday’s state-of-the-team address, Mozeliak feels there is a difference between the two terms in how the Cardinals approach their front office operations.
“This is a reset,” said Mozeliak during Monday’s televised news conference. “Yes, this is going to be where we’re not focusing on necessarily building the best possible roster we can. We’re also excited about the roster. We do have a bunch of young players. We also have some emerging stars at the minor league level. How we could augment that over the next few months, time will tell.”
Following the news conference, Mozeliak doubled down and told reporters, “I don’t see this as a pure ‘rebuild.’ I see it as ‘reset.’ There are some fundamental things we want to do different in the organization, and ultimately, as we continue to have success at the minor-league level, and the procurement level, we can time it right and try to reinvest at the major-league level.”
So what’s ahead this offseason into the 2025 campaign and beyond? It’s hard to know definitively, but there are some offseason outcomes that aren’t out of question.
For one, Mozeliak also admitted Monday that the Cardinals are looking to reduce payroll. In order to accomplish that, St. Louis will need to find a combination of players to dump and acquire that get the team below its mark of roughly $175 million from last year.
Paul Goldschmidt, who just completed the final year of the richest contract the Cardinals offered within the organization, is not expected to return, according to reports from Katie Woo of The Athletic. That would shave around $28 million.
The Cardinals will need innings, but could cut back in dollars spent on the pitching staff. Veterans Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson, anchors of this year’s rotation, have club options that could allow St. Louis to cut costs, if declined. Relief pitchers Andrew Kittredge and Keynan Middleton could also become free agents.
The Cardinals could possibly explore trades of other veterans to reduce payroll if the goal is to maximize returns that could help with building around a younger core of players. USA Today baseball writer Bob Nightengale suggests that Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray could be trade candidates, though it’s unclear if the organization is ready to part with high-profile names to accomplish the goal of a lower payroll. All three also have various contract obligations and provisions that could make trades difficult.
Whether some or most of those possibilities come to fruition, it seems the Cardinals also want to pivot toward a youth movement. In theory, St. Louis may take a step back in spending in performance in 2025, but hope some of their younger talents – like Masyn Winn, Jordan Walker and Alec Burleson – keep building toward their athletic prime over the next few years.
By then, the Cardinals could could have some of their current top prospects – Chase Davis and J.J. Wetherholt, for example – still rising through the ranks as Bloom begins operations around minor league development and prospect evaluation, and with the next wave of Cardinals prospects not too far behind.
A reset would require lots of trust into the current state of the farm system and what’s to come, though Bloom does have an encouraging track record for revamping the prospect pools of the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox for nearly two decades, largely behind data-driven analysis and methodical prospect evaluation.
The idea with working around young ballplayers currently at the big-league level, possibly, is to position the team where the long-term future looks notably stronger than the immediate future by lining up strengths in players’ production, skill sets and financial flexibility for years to come.
Early remarks and outlined plans seem to indicate the Cardinals may take a step back in 2025, which isn’t necessarily promising for fans after record-low crowds last season and limited postseason success over the last decade.
FOX 2 Sports Director Martin Kilcoyne says, “This new vision creating a new pipeline will be hard. Getting the current fan base on board, even harder.”
However, Mozeliak is hopeful that taking calculated risks will prevent the team from falling to rock bottom and a lengthy rebuilding process to improve the team, like the Houston Astros of the early 2010s or this year’s Chicago White Sox who set MLB’s modern-era record for losses.
An ideal “reset” would presumably set up the franchise for 2026, 2027 and beyond, even if 2025 alone doesn’t lead to a surprise playoff run, winning season or anything too memorable in Cardinals history.
“The market’s changing, and how players prepare and play for games, that’s moving,” said Mozeliak on Monday. “We don’t just want to be reactionary to it, we really want to be out in front of this. We want to put a lot of time, energy and money into being on the innovative side of maximizing player performance.”
“We know we can find better ways to do things, and that’s ultimately our goal.”
As for the immediate future of the Cardinals, MLB free agency opens five days after the end of the 2024 World Series. The Cardinals can also start discussing offseason trades with teams, though cannot officially complete any trades until the offseason officially starts for all 30 MLB teams upon the conclusion of the World Series.
After the 2025 MLB season, Mozeliak’s final planned year as the Cardinals’ top executive, he will have spent nearly three decades in the organization and almost two decades as either General Manager or President of Baseball Operations.
