The Cardinals promised their fans a much needed “reset” at the start of the offseason. Many fans, including myself assumed that this meant certain veterans would be traded. However, fast-forward to the end of March, the offseason is over, and nobody was traded.
I think we all know that no matter what John Mozeliak says, this Cardinals team likely isn’t going to compete for a spot in the postseason. The roster just isn’t capable of that. That’s why fans were okay with the front office potentially trading players.
Perhaps the most egregious mistake was not trading Ryan Helsley. Sure, the Cardinals can still get a haul for him at the deadline, and the Brewers didn’t get much for Devin Williams, but the haul for Helsley in the offseason would have been substantial after he saved 49 games and won the NL Reliever of the Year award.
Now, Mozeliak has risked him getting hurt and losing value, meaning that the Cardinals will then lose him next offseason for nothing more than a compensation draft pick.
While contending is unlikely for this year’s Cardinals club, let’s assume for a minute that they do contend and are in the mix at the trade deadline. I did a piece a while back discussing what should happen if the Cardinals end up being good and in the hunt at the deadline. In that piece, I suggested that players like Helsley and Erick Fedde should still be traded, allowing the Cardinals to take the Rays and Brewers approach.
While I think that’s what they should do, even if they’re in the hunt, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that they almost certainly won’t take that path if they’re over .500 and close to a playoff spot.
In that case, Helsley and Fedde, and even Phil Maton would be retained. The Cardinals would either add on the margins of their roster or stand pat. But this year, they can’t afford to do either of those things. This is a year in which they must be sellers at the trade deadline, at least to some degree.
If they don’t sell, then Mozeliak will have single handedly foiled the Cardinals’ reset plans, or at least delayed them. That is something that cannot happen this year. You can’t make the same mistake the Angels did by holding onto Shohei Ohtani in 2023, only to lose him for nothing.
I’m in no way saying that Helsley is the same type of player as Ohtani, but holding onto him, Fedde and Maton would be a grave mistake, and it’s one that Mo would make.
Think back to last year’s deadline. It’s a mistake that he’s already made once. He already delayed the reset by buying at last year’s deadline. Everybody knows he isn’t going to make that big move to put the Cardinals in World Series contention. Fringe buying only hurt them last year.
Yes, the Cardinals were over .500 and close to a playoff spot, but if they were really serious about contending, why didn’t they go for somebody like Nathan Eovaldi? And what evidence suggests they’d do something like that if they’re in it this year?
It’s also important to note that the NL Wild Card race was incredibly weak at that point in the 2024 season. The Cardinals were already starting to slide, and the only reason they were still in the mix was that other teams were underachieving.
If they were smart, they would’ve traded Helsley at last year’s deadline. This was the first chance they had to trade him. But when you look at the Cardinals’ farm system, it’s clear that it’s not in very good shape. The investments in player development will help, but it’s still lacking in terms of actual talent. Trading Helsley and Fedde, and perhaps even Maton would allow them to restock the farm with young, Major League ready talent. That’s what they should have been after last year at the deadline, and that’s what they should be after at this year’s deadline.
Now, the return is going to be diminished because they foolishly thought this team was a contender. They can still get some guys, but they have to capitalize on the value of these players at the deadline while they still can.
If Mozeliak doesn’t do that this year, then he will have single handedly foiled the Cardinals’ reset plans, at least for 2025. They need to rebuild. It doesn’t need to be a teardown, but it does need to include the departure of some tradeable assets.
Mozeliak and the front office need to wake up and realize that what they have isn’t enough to contend. They can try and spin it however they want, but fans aren’t going to buy it. I certainly am not buying it.
They need to stop worrying about how fans will react to a rebuild and just be honest for a change. They need to find a spot for Helsley at the deadline, or it will come back to haunt them in 2026 and leave new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom an even bigger mess to clean up.
The goal should be to accelerate the reset plans and allow Bloom to do what he does best, building a good team from within.
