St. Louis Cardinals | 2025 Preview

40 comments

1. As a cardinals fan I'm looking forward to this season more than last, letting the young guys play and seeing if they can be staples or move on

2. As a cardinals fan, it’s amazing how off their analysis is on this years team and direction. Might need to stay in your national coverage lane boys.

3. I for one am shocked the nats are ranked below the cardinals

4. The Cardinals administration have destroyed their team and legacy. They want money but don’t want to win.

5. Lower than the pirates is AMAZING

6. These cardinals the past few years have confused me so much. In a division where its basically a tossup year in year out, cards could put in minimally more effort than they have the past few years and taken it. I guess make enough terrible trades/let enough actual talent walk and it catches up to any team.

7. At least they have a plan.

8. Please send Hells Bells to Rangers please

9. As a cardinals fan I love this. Its been long overdue and worst case scenario you find out the young core isn’t gonna be that and you restart or they are who they projected and we are in a good position to add next year

10. I’m stuck on Goldschmidt giving Plouffe vans

11. MO-ZAY-LOCK

12. If the name on the jersey was the pirates or white Sox people would be very excited about this team I stand by that

13. feels to me that the ceiling is 88 wins and the floor is 70. but as a mariners fan as well i would not put the cards below the mariners, who have a similar floor but a lower ceiling imo. at least you can believe in the cardinals to spend money. god being a mariners fan sucks. wouldn't trade it for the world

14. All the mispronounced names, the miss understanding of roster construction, this was a tough watch as a cardinals fan. Can’t say much of this was accurate

15. To counter Trev’s point about that they are for sure going to make trades at the deadline. Some writers are saying that Bloom may value keeping them and collecting the comp pick with the qualifying offer. He turned comp picks into Campbell and Anthony for Boston

16. Just a couple things coming from a Cards fan:
    -It's not a retool per se, more of a refocus. They are rebuilding the farm system at the org level. Used to be the one thing the Cards were known for. That has been neglected for SOOO many years as far as being able to develop new players that they need to put in some serious effort to bring it up to league standards. More coaches, coordinators, etc., new facilities such as pitching labs, catching labs and hitting labs in Jupiter (ST site), expanding presence in Latin American scouting, as so forth. It's a long overdue overhaul that needs serious attention, and that's what it's getting. It will take a while for all of this to start paying off, but pay off it will. Quality future big league teams at a fairly low payroll. I'm good with a lame duck season for that payoff.
    -Saggese is pronounced more like sa-JAY-see. Nice try, though.
    -I am expecting a 76-78 win season, but I do see .500 as a real possibility. After all, they won 83 last year with Goldy and 'Nado both having REALLY bad years, Contreras hurt for 1/2 the season, and Noot being hurt a lot with his standard issue of Nootcidents. Donovan, Burleson and the like really stepped up with their bats. Michael Siani was a HUGELY pleasant surprise in CF defensively, but the bat needs work, and the new catchers, Herrera and Pages, showed some real promise. Herrera with the bat, Pages behind the plate. So there is potential to surprise, I think.
    -I SERIOUSLY expected Helsley to be dealt over the winter, and possibly Fedde and MAYBE Matz. Man was I shocked when none of them were moved. I feel Helsley had the highest trade value he's ever going to have, and injuries are a SERIOUS concern. So yeah, I was SHOCKED when he reported to camp. He does look good, though!
    -I expect the butts-in-seats numbers to be way off this year. But if the team does start winning, those numbers will most definitely tick up quickly. St. Louis LOVES this team, and they will support it if they start playing good, competitive ball. I'm not looking for a contender this year, but I do want to see competitive ball being played. I only expect them to be battling for 3rd place in the division with the Reds, but we'll have to see how it goes.
    -I think 'Nado is going to have a bounce back year. It FEELS like he thinks he has something to prove again. I love it when he's got that fire. And I'm here to watch it.
    -The young guys I want/need to see take huge leaps forward: Walker, Gorman, Baker. Winn is there, just needs some seasoning, but he's got it. The other 3 need to really step up their game, though.
    -I don't expect these guys to finish strong in Sept. They really aren't used to a long, grueling season yet. I don't expect them to start strong, either, due to lack of previous coaching/development and experience. Do I expect to see some interesting things worth watching? Absolutely. Contenders? Nope.
    -Speaking of Big Boyz, have you guys seen Jordan Walker this ST?!?? The dude is an absolute HULK! Luken Baker sure as hell ain't putting him to shame!
    -2023 was absolutely HORRIFIC!!! Worst season since '90, if I remember right. Let's not talk about that, please. 😉

    Sorry for the lengthy dissertation, but felt that I had to give you the viewpoint of a Cards fan that doesn't just think the Cards are going to be contenders every single year. I'm just a fan, but I do pay attention to stated goals, what they are doing to achieve those goals, and I am more closely paying attention to the Farm since the '23 season. Great episode, guys!

17. Pirates gotta be worse……

18. The cards left there staff / front office suffer so long they need a year to beef it up. Best case jwalk and Gorman bounce back and noot plays a full season. Then they have a few prospects that could be huge plus a high draft pick this year. Worst case the above listed doesn't happen but like last year there in a wild card spot at the deadline and they buy only to suffer and make miss the playoffs. And your suck with arronado's money and hells walk for nothing.

19. If only arenado is tradeable

20. It’s John Moh-Zey-Lock

21. We still have katie woo, no team can keep up

22. It baffles me that the pirates are ranked higher than the cardinals are in this ranking. Sure, the pirates have some decent top end pitching, but over the past few years of the pirates doing absolutely nothing significant in free agency, it shocks me the cardinals are here

23. Just allowing a bevy if young talent to play without pressure can be a tremendous long term advantage if it’s executed correctly. You never know who might emerge or level up given hundreds of plate appearances they’d never get on a team attempting to win. Baseball is bizarre like that….you have to adjust and adapt at every level. Dominance at AA/AAA may portend greatness or it may portend nothing. A year or two like this allows top young players time to maximally develop while leaving openings for unheralded players to seize opportunities. Also gives the organization an accurate picture of what they have going forward, enabling them to eventually become bigger players in FA, the trade market, etc. The Cardinals haven’t been “the Cardinals” in awhile….hopefully this allows them to get back on track. I’m a lifelong Mets fan but there’s something I appreciate as a baseball fan about the Cardinals being good.

24. Sonny Gray is trade bait. Im betting to the Dbacks, Rangers or Astros

25. They missed & mismanaged their window when they let Schildt go and brought in Marmol

26. I’m hoping Quinn Matthew’s gets called up

27. This team could be extremely good if everyone is firing on all cylinders but that is very unlikely.

28. I think this Cards season will go about exactly as the last thirty seconds of this TPP went.

29. The botching of names is actually hilarious.

30. As a Cardinals fan, Helsley is the one guy I don’t wanna lose.

31. I’m tired of John Mo

32. It’s been a weird energy in STL since about 2019. Dewitt’s have no direction, minimal willingness to spend to win. Mo lost his edge years ago. They both let our developmental system be stuck in the past. So frustrating as the NL Central is there for the taking. 2025 is a lame duck year and Mo is a lame duck POBO. But hey, what’s yet another year of these fools asking for more patience?

33. Lars is my favorite flavor of Nootbar

34. As a Cards fan, I do not hate that we are talking about dealing helsley, Nado, Sonny, etc. I hate that we havent done it already. I hate that we arent trading them AND paying their contracts to get prospect hauls like the mets did a couple years ago. I hate that we kept goldie until the end of his contract instead of selling high on him two years ago.
    The writing has been on the wall for a while now. This franchise needs a rebuild, and this half ass method is just going to get us nowhere. The org has been content to shoot for winning our weak division, then hoping for a miracle. Its getting really old.

35. I appreciate hearing the objective thoughts on where the Cardinals are at right now. I'm fortunate to have seen them win two World Series in my lifetime so far, and watched some of the best players of all time play for my franchise. However, over the last several years, it's been clear that there has not only been a lack of investment in free agency, but also in player development that has landed us where we are right now. Every offseason for the last five or six years has just been quiet and they'll pick up an inconsequential piece just to say they did something, and then say they have some internal pieces that they think can make an impact, but then those players flail at the big league level. They also made some pretty bad investments over the last five years, including the Mikolas extension, which if they hadn't done probably could've allowed them to keep Goldy around and let him retire as a Cardinal. Like, they went out and got Goldy, they got Arenado, likely the two best players at their positions at the time they were acquired and for some time after, but they failed to invest the money that fans were spending to come see those great players to build a winning organization that could last for the next five to ten years. From my perspective as a fan, it feels like there is a feeling of laziness and apathy in the front office; the fans are still showing up, the money is still coming in, but it hasn't been invested in free agents and it hasn't been invested in our young talent either, which means the only place it could be going is into the pockets of the executives. This is a proud fanbase that wants to see championship baseball in St. Louis; I moved to California almost 20 years ago, but I have remained a loyal Cardinals fan because players like Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, David Freese, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and Adam Wainwright have all made an impact on my love of the game. I could never abandon my loyalty to the Cardinals, but I certainly struggle with seeing the money the fans are spending to support the franchise not being reinvested in building a strong, competitive organization.

36. Serious Cardinals fan here, if this whole plan works and we’re winning 90 games in 2 years, I’ll be fine
    If it fails and we still can keep the right young players on our team, I will lose my mind.
    Also Masyn Winn is going to be a top 5 shortstop, not maybe he will be

37. 24th is an interesting ranking for a team that finished 12 games better last year than the prior year (and over 0.500 to boot). I could see maybe in the 18-20 range, but I find it hard to believe there are only 6 teams worse than the Cards.

38. Noot is like 6'3 220; he's an absolute horse who runs/defends solidly, kills the ball, and is the most patient hitter in the game. If he stays healthy he's AT WORST a .750 ops 3.5 WAR starting RF.

39. As a Cardinals fan, I am not excited about this season. They didn't commit to a rebuild, and they didn't try to retool to win the easiest division in MLB to win. Expectations are low, and this is the least excited I've been about the start of a new season that I can remember.

40. Older Cards fan here. Why are the Cards sticking with Nootbar so much and not giving Koperniak a chance. Koperniak has some power and an overall good batting average in the minors. And what has happened to Cards players who hit .280 or higher……..300 plus type hitters……..like Keith Hernandez, Ted Simmons, Gary Templeton, Lou Brock, Bake McBride, Reggie Smith??? J. J. Wetherholt might do that someday but he’s not ready yet. It sure would be nice to have a line-up with 4 or 5 hitters who hit .280 or higher. Of course, the Cards are tightwads compared to some other teams…….like the Mets and Dodgers.