3 St. Louis Cardinals we’re glad will be gone by Spring Training 2025: Goldschmidt and more

Major changes are coming for the St. Louis Cardinals. That's incredibly obvious following their second straight season without a postseason berth, not to mention all the talk from John Mozeliak and Co. about how an aging roster needs to undergo a retooling of sorts.

That doesn't only mean letting some of their free agents land on their feet elsewhere; it also means that some of the team's veterans will be on the trade block. It's more important for the 2025 Cardinals to see some of their young building blocks play well than it is to see the team win games, as crazy as that sounds for a team that's managed to stay competitive for most of this millennium

As unfortunate as it is to see the team not care as much about winning in the short term, it is nice to see the Cardinals prioritize development. If their plan works, it can lead to sustainable winning once again. With that in mind, it'll be a nice breath of fresh air for Cardinals fans to not have to see these three individuals with the team in Spring Training.

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB offseason.

3) The Cardinals will be better off with a younger arm in the rotation than Kyle Gibson

Expectations were pretty low for Gibson, who signed a one-year deal to join the Cardinals last offseason. The right-hander was coming off a season that saw him lead the league in starts (33) but also hits allowed (198). He had a 4.73 ERA overall as a 35-year-old. Expecting him to be much better than that in 2024, at age 36, felt like more fantasy than reality.

To his credit, Gibson was better than expected. He posted a 4.24 ERA in 30 starts and 169.2 innings of work and even posted his highest strikeout rate (20.9 percent) since 2019. He was perfectly fine as a back-end starter, which is all the team could've asked of him.

Gibson's problem, though, is that he is what he is. He's a fine back-end arm, but he doesn't offer much upside at all, and with him now being 37, it's hard to see that changing. Andre Pallante might not offer as much certainty as Gibson, but with how he pitched as a starter this past season he makes a lot more sense for this team's trajectory. With prospects like Tink Hence, Sem Robberse and Michael McGreevy close to being MLB-ready, more excitement can be coming to this staff in the not-too-distant future.

2) Cardinals fans will be happy to see Lance Lynn avoid a third stint with the Cardinals

Lance Lynn's second stint in St. Louis went about as well as anyone could've expected. The 44 home runs he surrendered in 2023 led the majors, and his 5.73 ERA overall didn't inspire much confidence for his return to St. Louis for the 2024 campaign, but Lynn wound up shattering those (admittedly very low) expectations.

In 23 starts, the right-hander posted a 3.84 ERA while covering 117.1 innings. He did a much better job at limiting the home run ball, and the results followed.

While it's hard to complain much about Lynn's performance in 2024, it's time for Mozeliak to turn the page and let him go. He has done many good things in the organization, but again, the youth movement is one worth getting excited about. 37-year-old Lynn is a fine back-end starter for 2025, but the Cardinals can aim higher with one of their younger arms in his place.

1) It's been time for the Cardinals to move on from Paul Goldschmidt

The Goldschmidt trade worked out wonderfully for the Cardinals. Sure, it didn't result in much postseason success, but he was an MVP and played like one of the best players in baseball for a good chunk of his tenure in St. Louis. The problem is, though, that ever since winning that MVP award, he's regressed.

He had a decent year in 2023, but his .810 OPS was over 170 points lower than his MVP mark in 2022. This past season, that number dipped to .716. Goldschmidt went from an MVP winner to an above-average player to a league-average player in what feels like the blink of an eye.

Goldschmidt's struggles this past season were a huge reason why the Cardinals missed the playoffs. The offense was supposed to carry the team, but with Goldschmidt leading the way, they didn't score nearly enough runs.

The ideal time for the Cardinals to have moved on from Goldschmidt would've been at the 2023 trade deadline; he was still an above-average player, the team wasn't very good and he had an extra year of club control. Moving him even at this past year's trade deadline would've netted the Cardinals something. Unfortunately, the Cardinals are going to lose him for nothing when he signs elsewhere as a free agent.

That part stings, and it hurts somewhat to see Goldschmidt finish his career in another uniform, but this should've happened a long time ago. Opening up first base for someone else is for the best of the organization, and that's exciting.