Mozeliak: "Some Changes" Coming For Cardinals, But Not A Rebuild

[dmarx114]

The good news is that yesterday Mo literally said that 3 new starters need to be acquired, either by trade, or via free agency.

Liberatore/Hudson/Woodford/Whomever isn't a day 1 option for the starting 5.

My August 2nd guess is that we will shell out a $100M+ contract for 1 pitcher, and maybe half that on another, with the 3rd starter being acquired via trade.

[jagtrader]

This front office hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt. We’ll see. The big plans for the off-season usually turn to inaction. Last winter cost the team the 2023 season and maybe more.

[Magneto2.0]

This front office hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt. We’ll see. The big plans for the off-season usually turn to inaction. Last winter cost the team the 2023 season and maybe more.

True but this is the first time their inaction netted them terrible results. Every other season they could have done the whole "Our plan worked", no matter how much fans complained about their philosophy, it usually resulted in a playoff birth and always a winning record. This is the first time it failed miserably. I doubt they want to go through this again. They were the laughingstock of baseball. That's unheard of for the Cardinals.

[jagtrader]

I don’t know. They’re pretty arrogant and they just held their entire position player surplus through the trade deadline, thus reducing their already declining value.

[Spider John]

I'm encouraged that the FO has shown some motivation to make some changes, but we'll still need to see if they are willing to stand some financial pain, overcome their fear of making another Arozarena mistake, and do what it takes to build a strong pitching staff.

[dmarx114]

This front office hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt. We’ll see. The big plans for the off-season usually turn to inaction. Last winter cost the team the 2023 season and maybe more.

True but this is the first time their inaction netted them terrible results. Every other season they could have done the whole "Our plan worked", no matter how much fans complained about their philosophy, it usually resulted in a playoff birth and always a winning record. This is the first time it failed miserably. I doubt they want to go through this again. They were the laughingstock of baseball. That's unheard of for the Cardinals.

More importantly for Mo, his job relies on the success of the pitching staff.

[sighyoung]

This front office hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt. We’ll see. The big plans for the off-season usually turn to inaction. Last winter cost the team the 2023 season and maybe more.

True but this is the first time their inaction netted them terrible results. Every other season they could have done the whole "Our plan worked", no matter how much fans complained about their philosophy, it usually resulted in a playoff birth and always a winning record. This is the first time it failed miserably. I doubt they want to go through this again. They were the laughingstock of baseball. That's unheard of for the Cardinals.

More importantly for Mo, his job relies on the success of the pitching staff.

++

[heyzeus]

I think holding TON, Carlson, and Edman was the right call, because we would have been trading at their lowest, or close to lowest. Give them the final two months of the season to perform and they hopefully rehabilitate their value.

[jagtrader]

I don’t think they’re capable of doing what’s needed. Selling players with expired contracts is easy. Making a position player for pitcher swap is not. Signing free agents is not. They’re bad at both and afraid to do both.

[ghostrunner]

I don’t know. They’re pretty arrogant and they just held their entire position player surplus through the trade deadline, thus reducing their already declining value.

Doesn't look like there were many options there if they wanted to maximize return, vs the offseason. Most of the big deals with contending teams were for pitching.

The only outfielder who's performing significantly worse than our offerings and was traded to a contender is AJ Pollock, which seems like a very weird deal for the Giants. Maybe they wanted potential pop of the bench, so I suppose TON might fit there. Doesn't seem like average OFs had a lot of value.

There was more activity with infielders and we did trade DeJong. Donovan is injured. Edman just coming off. Leaving Gorman as the most attractive uninjured player. I don't think they want to get rid of Donovan. So just Edman, I guess? Winn?