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

[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.

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

Great point! Mo's leash is short. If they fail again he's gonna be done.

[go birds]

cards should pick up Brent Honeywell, who was just DFA'd

[Felix The Cat]

A lot of talk about three rotation spots to fill. The Cardinals will more likely fill two and let a cluster of guys occupy the fifth spot. Until someone gets hurt and they’re short. We’ve seen this show before.

Replace "getting hurt" with "sick call" and this sounds like my workplace!

[heyzeus]

A lot of talk about three rotation spots to fill. The Cardinals will more likely fill two and let a cluster of guys occupy the fifth spot. Until someone gets hurt and they’re short. We’ve seen this show before.

Replace "getting hurt" with "sick call" and this sounds like my workplace!

What we should do:

-Sign someone like Nola/Snell, trade for someone like Gilbert, then sign a 5th starter reclamation project type guy like Syndergaard to compete with our mediocre internal depth options (Liberatore, Rom, Thomas, Hudson, Graceffo, etc).

What we will do:
-Sign two 5th starter reclamation projects
-Claim we have tremendous internal depth (Liberatore, Rom, Thomas, Hudson, Graceffo, etc)
-call it an offseason

[Lesson]

A lot of talk about three rotation spots to fill. The Cardinals will more likely fill two and let a cluster of guys occupy the fifth spot. Until someone gets hurt and they’re short. We’ve seen this show before.

Replace "getting hurt" with "sick call" and this sounds like my workplace!

What we should do:

-Sign someone like Nola/Snell, trade for someone like Gilbert, then sign a 5th starter reclamation project type guy like Syndergaard to compete with our mediocre internal depth options (Liberatore, Rom, Thomas, Hudson, Graceffo, etc).

What we will do:
-Sign two 5th starter reclamation projects
-Claim we have tremendous internal depth (Liberatore, Rom, Thomas, Hudson, Graceffo, etc)
-call it an offseason

Not meaning to single you out here, but I keep seeing people say Nola>Montgomery.

Why is that? Nola has better overall career numbers, but not by much and they’re pretty similar altogether. Montgomery has been way better this year than Nola and arguably was better or similar to Nola last year depending on what #s you focus on (ERA, FIP, ERA+ etc.).

The only clear superior option to Montgomery is Snell. After that I think Montgomery and Nola are the next two best options followed by Giolito.

[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.

Just going to bump this post again, because it does a really good job illustrating the difference between this upcoming off season and previous off seasons.

Mo gets a well deserved mulligan for this season.

But if 2024 is anything like 2023, BDW won't have any choice but to fire Mo. So Mo's urgency has just skyrocketed big time. How he conducted previous off seasons is in now way how he will conduct this upcoming off season.

He will be very aggressive, more so than he's ever been. His job depends on it.

[vinsanity]

Not meaning to single you out here, but I keep seeing people say Nola>Montgomery.

Why is that?

Not to speak on his behalf but I think it's just a default position that if you trade a guy at the deadline, he's less likely to re-sign with the former team. Not as much about who they think will be a better pitcher.

[Lesson]

Not meaning to single you out here, but I keep seeing people say Nola>Montgomery.

Why is that?

Not to speak on his behalf but I think it's just a default position that if you trade a guy at the deadline, he's less likely to re-sign with the former team. Not as much about who they think will be a better pitcher.

That’s fair and a similar one that I share.

Just that if Montgomery coming back was a realistic possibility, I’d prefer him over Nola and I think it’s close.

[haltz]

Trying to think of some ways this could go, and some interesting huge upside guys that will be free agents after next season and presumably available in a trade only because everything is available for the right price are Sale and Glasnow. Like Zeus said they'll have the depth to take a shot like that. Less upside but also coming off injury is Quintana. The Mets would probably pay his salary for a decent prospect since they are punting 2024 apparently as well.

Bryan Woo seems more attainable than Gilbert but either way that move for a young starter is going to be the painful one that takes probably Gorman plus more if they want to do that.

Then you have the free agent starter and if they're serious I think they should take a shot at Yamamoto, who will probably cost double what Senga did, but is 25 years old and less likely to turn into a pumpkin than guys like Nola and Snell (happy to have either one don't get me wrong) who are 30 years old and lead the league in HR and BB allowed. Between him and international superstar Lars Nootbaar I don't know how much having a significant Japanese fanbase is worth but it would be cool.

Just wanted to make a post talking [expletive] about Nola and Snell, that also trades Gorman. @cardsfantx is on board with this plan for sure.

[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.

Just going to bump this post again, because it does a really good job illustrating the difference between this upcoming off season and previous off seasons.

Mo gets a well deserved mulligan for this season.

But if 2024 is anything like 2023, BDW won't have any choice but to fire Mo. So Mo's urgency has just skyrocketed big time. How he conducted previous off seasons is in now way how he will conduct this upcoming off season.

He will be very aggressive, more so than he's ever been. His job depends on it.

Yeah I think people are underestimating how important that factors in. Mo can't afford another bad season like this. He'll do what he has to, even if it's just for self preservation.