Cardinals 'Should Have' Traded Pair Of Star Hurlers This Winter, Says Top MLB Insider

St. Louis dropped the ball this offseason

Apr 16, 2023; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; A general view of the St. Louis Cardinals scoreboard as a plane passes by during the seventh inning of a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

The St. Louis Cardinals won't look much different in 2025 despite the front office declaring an organizational reset shortly after last season ended.

In his final offseason as Cardinals president of baseball operations, John Mozeliak made it clear that he would focus on shedding payroll, implying that several valuable assets would be shopped on the trade market.

Unfortunately for Mozeliak, his inability to find a suitor for superstar Nolan Arenado stunted his reset plans. However, a top Major League Baseball insider believes the Cardinals should've pivoted to another pair of logical trade chips.

"If the Cardinals could not move third baseman Nolan Arenado, who blew his initial chance to leave when he rejected a trade to the Houston Astros, they should have at least dealt closer Ryan Helsley and right-hander Erick Fedde," The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal wrote Friday morning after criticizing Mozeliak and the Cardinals for failing to commit to the reset they promised their fan base last fall.

When Mozeliak announced his plans to reset the organization, Helsley was approaching a significant pay raise for his final year of arbitration after a dominant 2025 campaign. Fedde, despite having a career year in 2024, comes equipped with an extremely economical price tag of $7.5 million.

"Instead, they dug in, contradicting what chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said when they announced the team’s pivot in early October — and depriving the organization a chance to add prospects to the young core the club’s leadership is so eager to promote," Rosenthal continued.

After winning 2024 National League Reliever of the Year, Helsley could've reeled in a decent haul of top prospects for the Cardinals if they boldly traded him this offseason. The same goes for Fedde, who likely would've been looked at as an inexpensive rotation-bolstering opportunity for many clubs.

Rosenthal's criticism of how St. Louis maneuvered this offseason is warranted. If he genuinely planned on resetting the franchise, Mozeliak should've been more active in the trade market.

Now, the Cardinals are left with a youth-laden roster equipped with several expensive veterans -- Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, Steven Matz, Miles Mikolas, Arenado -- and a confused fan base hoping this year will somehow be different from the two previous seasons in which St. Louis missed the playoffs by a long shot.

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