Cardinals' John Mozeliak Will Be Surprised If He Doesn't Make Trade Involving Outfielders

The St. Louis Cardinals addressed their initial need to upgrade the starting pitching staff and can safely move on to address other areas of the roster.

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak spoke multiple times on Monday about a problem not many teams have -- St. Louis has too many big-league caliber position players, which limits at-bats for the young blossoming core.

Mozeliak was asked about the possibility of clearing up the outfield logjam and was surprisingly transparent.

"The assumption is John, as you know, I'm sure, that you have so many great young outfielders, that there'll be a deal made at some point involving one of those outfielders. MLB Network's Matt Vasgersian said Monday. "Should we be surprised if there is no deal made involving those outfielders?"

"Yeah I do think it would be a surprise if we weren't able to do that," Mozeliak said candidly. "We still would like to try to improve our bullpen and if we could use one of those pieces to maybe do that, that's something we'll definitely try."

Mozeliak has been laying all his cards on the table since arriving at the Winter Meetings. He's already mentioned Tyler O'Neill as someone he's listening to offers on and even listed his current starting lineup if a game were played this week.

Notably, Mozeliak listed Tommy Edman as the center fielder alongside Lars Nootbar and Jordan Walker with Dylan Carlson as the fourth outfielder. Alec Burleson was not mentioned.

It sounds as if both O'Neill and Burleson are on the trade block. Mozeliak revealed that he's "getting a lot of hits on his outfielders" so a deal appears to be a matter of when, not if.

The Cardinals almost certainly will use those chips to bolster the pitching staff. A younger player such as Burleson could be used to acquire a controllable big-leaguer or enticing pitching prospect while someone of O'Neill's value could bring back a serviceable reliever. The latter return is most likely.

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Published Dec 5, 2023

SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the St. Louis Cardinals for FanNation's "Inside The Cardinals" on Sports Illustrated. Before starting "Inside The Cardinals", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join FanNation and the Sports Illustrated Media Group as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." After a few months as the top Major League Baseball site in the program, Neville sought expansion and pitched "Inside The Cardinals," one of the newest additions to FanNation and the Sports Illustrated Media Group. The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Cardinals" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu

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