The Cardinals have seemingly shifted their direction in a way only Ross could appreciate.
This past season, on May 13th, the Cardinals theme night give away was Goldy and Fredbird carrying a couch down the steps to recreate the iconic scene from the TV show “Friends.” In this scene Ross (played by David Schwimmer) continuously exclaims “Pivot!” in comedic fashion after trying to move a couch down a flight of stairs and the couch becomes stuck.
This scene seems to have become a metaphor for the Cardinals offseason. At the outset, President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak expressed that the direction of the offseason would be to clear playing time or “runway” for younger players or players who had struggled to take that next step in their progression as big leaguers, players such as Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, Ivan Herrera, Victor Scott II, etc. Mozeliak, was informed that neither Sonny Gray nor Willson Contreras had a desire to waive their no-trade clause and would be staying put. That, coupled with the frustrating saga that has been the Nolan Arenado trade discussions and the growing possibility that he remains in St. Louis for the 2025 season, has caused Mozeliak to pivot his messaging.
It was at the Winter Meetings when Mozeliak began shifting that message as he stated that he thought there was a chance that the team could be better than some expected and could even surprise a few folks. Fast forward through the rest of December and into the middle of January as we are just a couple days away from Winter Warm Up and the Cardinals have still yet to get close (again) to dealing their future HOF 3rd Basemen, and seem intent on carrying most if not all of their impending free agents into the season including 2024 NL Reliever of the year and All Star Ryan Helsley, deadline acquisition Erick Fedde, injury prone lefty Steven Matz, and the much maligned Miles Mikolas. It appears now that the Cardinals intent is to begin the season trying to compete, and if they surprise and everything falls their way, they’ll continue on with a business-as-usual attitude. If it falls apart then they could look to cash in on those assets at the deadline and use the back half of the season to further evaluate what they have going forward.
Mozeliak, also spoke to 1120 KMOX this past week on their “countdown to opening day” show hosted by Matt Pauly and Mike Claiborne and spoke about a desire to add some depth to their relief corps and a right-handed bat. I don’t anticipate either of those additions being ones of real significance. A couple names to watch would be Keynan Middleton, who missed the entirety of the 2024 season because of a forearm issue, but could be of interest on a minor league deal or potentially an MLB deal for a near minimum guarantee. Jon Berti would be another name I continue to circle back to as someone who’s profile could be of interest to the Cardinals in a bench role, who can platoon against left handed pitching and play all over the diamond, including Shortstop. If the team decides they want Saggese to play everyday in Triple-A and not sit the bench 5 days a week they may be more inclined to a Jon Berti type who, once again, had his 2024 season cut short by injury, but would represent a solid veteran role player for virtually no salary commitment (the Cardinals favorite kind.)
Things have not gone the way the Cardinals blueprint seemed to be laid out at the beginning of the offseason, which caused them to get stuck on the staircase, and now are pivoting to a new direction. If Mo takes 2026 off and returns in 2027 and claims “we were on a break!” I will simply throw my hands up in the air in resolve knowing that the more things feel as though they may change it appears to always be the same. Thanks for reading.
