Cardinals 'Listening' To Offers For $44M Starter, Per St. Louis Insider

Should the Cardinals trade the veteran this offseason?

Feb 26, 2021; Jupiter, Florida, USA; A general view of the St. Louis Cardinals logo on the stadium at Roger Dean Stadium during spring training workouts. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images / Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

The St. Louis Cardinals haven't really made many moves this offseason but they have one of the more talked-about teams in baseball.

St. Louis is coming off an 83-win season in 2024 which was a significant improvement over the 2023 season. The Cardinals failed to make the postseason, but they were in contention for a spot deep into the summer.

The Cardinals didn't finish the season as they hoped, but they weren't a last-place team. St. Louis was pretty solid overall last year, but changes are coming. Chaim Bloom will be taking over as the president of baseball operations after the 2025 season ends. With that big change coming, the 2025 campaign seems like a transition year.

There has been a lot of trade chatter swirling around the team, but it doesn't seem like all of the trade ideas will become reality. There was a time earlier in the offseason when Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, Ryan Helsley, Erick Fedde, Steven Matz, and others all had their names thrown around.

Contreras and Gray seemingly want to stick around and have no-trade clauses so they have control. There have been reports recently that the Cardinals won't completely tear down the roster, although some trades still could be on the table.

One player the club still reportedly is "listening to trade offers" for is Matz, according to The Athletic's Katie Woo.

"The Cardinals never intended to fully tear down next year’s roster, with both Mozeliak, advisor Chaim Bloom and ownership going to great lengths to avoid the term “rebuild” in the organization’s end-of-year press conference in October. While the approach can be viewed as a partial rebuild, at least by definition, the extent to which the Cardinals reset next year is helped by both Contreras and Gray’s decisions to stay with the organization.

"Contreras, who will move to first base in 2025 as part of his desire to remain in St. Louis, gives the Cardinals a trusted bat in the heart of their order. Gray will remain the ace of a veteran staff. Erick Fedde, Miles Mikolas, and Steven Matz are all in the final years of their contracts, though the Cardinals are listening to trade offers on Matz."

Matz is entering the final year of a four-year, $44 million pact with St. Louis. A deal involving him could lower payroll without changing the starting rotation picture too much. It seems like the right idea if another team wants to pick him up.

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