The St. Louis Cardinals are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and it starts up top. John Mozeliak is a lame duck president. He has already announced his plans to retire, with team advisor Chaim Bloom slated to take over GM duties in the offseason. That leaves a tenuous imbalance of power in the front office. Mozeliak is calling the shots, but Bloom's vision becomes more important with each passing day.
It doesn't help that St. Louis is so awkwardly suspended between contention and, well, not contention. On the surface, the Cardinals are 51-49 with a real chance to crack the NL Wild Card picture. Dig a little deeper, however, and there's a pervasive sensation of fraudulence with this team. The Cardinals are an old, expensive roster with severe offensive limitations and a feeble rotation. The bullpen has its bright spots, but St. Louis is not built like a contender. Elite defense can only get you so far in October, if the Cards can ever get to October.
Will Mozeliak push all his chips in on his final season, or will he try to free up flexibility for the incoming Bloom regime? That all remains to be seen. But here are a few rumors Cardinals fans probably hope become truth.
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Cardinals should absolutely sell high on Ryan Helsley, top bullpen arms
With Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray and Miles Mikolas all able to exercise no-trade clauses, the Cardinals are limited in terms of which top talent is actually movable in the coming days. That said, closer Ryan Helsley is clearly their best trade-worthy asset. The market for high-end relievers is always robust at this time of year.
Helsley, 31, is a free agent at season's end. The Cardinals are financially viable, so re-signing him is not out of the question. But why risk it, honestly? And why not cash in on a reliever in his early 30s at peak value? St. Louis needs to restock its farm system.
The Cardinals are expected to take calls on Helsley, Phil Maton and Steven Matz, with the latter looking especially likely to end up in earnest trade conversations, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. St. Louis' bullpen has been a strength this season, but if the Cardinals take a step back in order to better position themselves for the future, that is good business.
2. Cardinals should trade Erick Fedde to set up Michael McGreevy
The Cardinals continue to trot out Erick Fedde for every fifth start despite extended struggles on the bump. Through 19 starts, Fedde has a 4.83 ERA and 1.47 WHIP, notching 58 strikeouts in 98.2 innings. It would make baseball sense for the Cardinals to demote or even cut Fedde. But instead, St. Louis is hoping to capitalize on "somewhat of a market," as The Athletic's Katie Woo phrases it.
Ideally, the Cardinals can pitch Fedde to suitors as a durable arm with plenty of experience. The 32-year-old was excellent in his return to MLB last season and he has been a paragon of availability since coming back from Korea's KBO. The production looks bad right now, but there ought to be a contender in search of pitching depth that at least has interest in taking a flier on Fedde, whose expiring contract makes him affordable and expendable.
The Cards aren't going to receive a dream prospect package for Fedde at this point, but any sort of young talent or even just added financial flexibility is a win. But it would give them the chance to start 25-year-old Michael McGreevy regularly. The Cards desperately need more youth in the rotation.
1. Cardinals should swap Lars Nootbaar for controllable pitching
Ideally, if the Cardinals don't sell outright, Mozeliak and Bloom can find a way to thread the needle between the present and the future. Such as swapping one controllable player for a different controllable player of more pressing need. Josh Jacobs of FanSided's Redbird Rants came up with a great hypothetical: swapping Lars Nootbaar for a long-term starting pitcher.
"Last year, the Cardinals traded Tommy Edman to acquire Erick Fedde, and I could see them exploring a similar path with Nootbaar being the centerpiece of a package for a starting pitcher with team control," he writes. "This kind of trade is becoming more and more common at these trade deadlines, where even teams that are selling will also consider flipping players for other big league talent that can help them in future years."
Nootbaar has become a fan favorite across five years in St. Louis, so trading him would be a difficult pill to swallow. But here's the simple truth of the situation. Nootbaar is experiencing is worst season to date with a .227 average and .712 OPS through 331 at-bats. Both would be new career lows for the 27-year-old. While Nootbaar's contract runs through 2027, this could be an opportune moment for St. Louis to maximize his remaining value while setting up Bloom's new-look roster for success in 2026.
St. Louis, again, needs to get younger in the rotation. A dependable starter with multiple years of team control left would certainly be worth exploring a Nootbaar trade, even if St. Louis needs to tread carefully. These "baseball trades," as Jacobs puts it, can turn sour. Tommy Edman was a World Series hero for the Dodgers last season. Fedde is now viewed as damaged goods in St. Louis.