Cardinals On The Rise: 3 Reasons To Be Excited About St. Louis Next Season

It's never fun heading into an offseason as a fan when you don't feel like your team has a shot at a championship next season. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case for most St. Louis Cardinals fans this winter.

Following a 78-84 season, the Cardinals are likely to subtract more major league talent than they add this winter. Longtime president of baseball operations John Mozeliak is out, successor Chaim Bloom is behind the wheel, and St. Louis will need to determine what sort of rebuilding moves are required for future success.

But even if the Cardinals aren't going to be in the playoffs for the fourth-straight season next year, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about this team, both in the immediate and long-term future. Here are just a few of them.

Cards have young talent everywhere

Shortstop Masyn Winn has perennial Gold Glover written all over him. Catcher/designated hitter Iván Herrera has ridiculous pop and put up a 136 OPS+ this season. And Alec Burleson, Willson Contreras, and Brendan Donovan all had well above-average offensive seasons.

Top infield prospect JJ Wetherholt will be knocking on the door for a roster spot in spring training, so there will soon be even more young lineup talent to get excited about.

And although the rotation lags behind the lineup right now, 25-year-olds Michael McGreevy and Matthew Liberatore showed some moxie this season, and prospects Quinn Matthews, Tekoah Roby, and Liam Doyle aren't far from the big-leagues.

Clarity should be coming for positional logjams

One of the most frustrating things about this Cardinals team has been seemingly too much talent and not enough at the same time. Even after trading away players like Tyler O'Neill, Dylan Carlson, and Tommy Edman in the last couple of seasons, St. Louis has struggled to find ideal lineup combinations while having to juggle playing time all over the roster.

Winn isn't going anywhere, and neither is Herrera. But in addition to obvious trade candidates like decorated veterans Nolan Arenado and Sonny Gray, look for younger, but established players like Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbar to be available as well.

Bloom has sneaky impressive track record

Jul 27, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom talks with the media before a game against the Cleveland Guardians at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images | Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

Most Cardinals fans know that Bloom arrived in town before the 2024 season, after he was let go as the chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox. But his fingerprints are all over a Red Sox team that made the playoffs with a roster full of young talent this season, and there's no reason to think he can't draft and develop talent in St. Louis as well.

Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Wilyer Abreu, Kristian Campbell, and Connelly Early are just a handful of players drafted or acquired by Bloom who look to have exciting futures ahead of them in Boston. He was around when players like Wetherholt and Doyle were drafted in St. Louis as well, but now, he really gets the chance to develop his perfect pipeline.

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