The Winter Meetings are underway, and the St. Louis Cardinals are coming off their third consecutive baseball-less October, and brought in a new era in the front office with Chaim Bloom as the President of Baseball Operations, but this likely will not be the offseason Bloom and the Cardinals pursue the big fish.
The Cardinals have some housekeeping to do before they know how their roster will shape out for Opening Day; one of those tasks included trading starting pitcher Sonny Gray to the Boston Red Sox for Brandon Clarke, the now No. 7 prospect in the St. Louis organization, according to MLB Pipeline.
Gray is not the only high-paid veteran that Bloom and the Cardinals intend to move on from this winter. The lengthy process of trading third baseman Nolan Arenado began last winter and is still at the forefront of the Cardinals’ to-do list this winter. As veterans walk out the door, it will be on the youth to push the Rebirds forward.
Once again, we visit the logjam among the Cardinals’ positional players. There have been rumblings of teams being interested in Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar, and even Alec Burleson. Katie Woo of the Athletic reported, “The Cardinals do not need to trade Brendan Donovan, and will do so only if they are blown away by an offer, a team source said.” The Cardinals should either extend Donovan or trade him this winter if the team does not believe they will be competitive before, or if they will retain him, his team control expires.
Once the Cardinals have made their moves and have a vision for how their roster will shape up, it will likely be too late to make a splash. Last season was supposed to be the runway season, but due to injuries and failing to move Arenado last offseason, the Cardinals are still stuck in limbo with their young players. If the Cardinals decide to move on from parts of their collection of left-handed hitters and let their youth in the minors take those spots, entering next offseason, the front office could be more inclined to attempt to court one of the marquee free agents if they believe that they have found the answer and constructed a contending roster.
The start of the Bloom era is filled with as many foggy options as the ending of John Mozeliak’s; it is up to the new regime to decipher the correct path forward and bring one of the National League's most historic and iconic franchises back to the forefront of Major League Baseball.