Inside The Cardinals

Cardinals Predicted To Have Uneventful Winter; 'Reinforcements Aren't On The Way'

St. Louis might leave it all up to the youth core in 2025
Nate Hagerty|
Jul 30, 2023; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak talks with the media after the Cardinals traded relief pitcher Jordan Hicks (not pictured) starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery (not pictured) and relief pitcher Chris Stratton (not pictured) at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
Jul 30, 2023; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak talks with the media after the Cardinals traded relief pitcher Jordan Hicks (not pictured) starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery (not pictured) and relief pitcher Chris Stratton (not pictured) at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

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St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals entered this offseason with the intention of reducing payroll but doing so has been much easier said than done.

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak is amid his final winter as head honcho for the organization before Chaim Bloom takes over in 2026.

Surprisingly, Mozliak and the Cardinals are having one of the quietest offseasons of any big-league team and it doesn't look as if that will change anytime soon.

"Asked if it’d be accurate to say the ability to score runs this coming season will rest largely on the individual improvement of the club’s young players, Mozeliak’s responded, 'Of course,'" as transcribed by St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Derrick Goold on Friday. "The outgoing head of baseball operations then highlighted some of the specific young players the Cardinals hope will make good on their potential, a group led by Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker and Lars Nootbaar. Yet his initial two-word response spoke volumes. In other words: It’s on them. Reinforcements aren’t on the way."

St. Louis ranked 22nd in the league with 672 runs scored this past season. With the offense being the Cardinals' Achille's Heal in 2024, it'll be interesting to see how the lineup performs this year.

"The Cardinals will have to look inward to find the offense that eluded them last season," Goold continued. "The youngsters won’t have the safety net of established run producers like Paul Goldschmidt (and maybe not Nolan Arenado) or a free-agent addition to shoulder the blame for offensive shortcomings. They also won’t have the excuse of veterans blocking their paths to playing time."

Predicting how well the Cardinals will perform in 2025 is nearly impossible. The pressure of winning the National League Central is off the table, so perhaps the club's youth core will play more relaxed and, consequently, better.

The loyal and dedicated Cardinals fan base deserves better after having only witnessed five playoff wins throughout the past decade. Hopefully, St. Louis' next wave of homegrown stars can return the once-revered franchise back to dominance.

More MLB: Yankees Loosely Linked To Cardinals Fan Favorite In Potential Blockbuster Trade

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Nate Hagerty
NATE HAGERTY

Nate Hagerty joined “Inside The Cardinals” as a content creator to spread knowledge about his favorite childhood team. A hometown native of Boston, Hagerty chose at an early age of six years old to follow the St. Louis Cardinals. The miraculous season of 04’ for the Red Sox did not deter Hagerty from rooting against his hometown team, nor did it in 2013 against the Red Birds. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding Inside The Cardinals, please reach out to Scott Neville: nevilles@merrimack.edu 

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