Cardinals Rumors: Sonny Gray trade likely, Jordan Walker's miscues, Schumaker favorites?

When the St. Louis Cardinals went 71-91 in 2023, finishing with their worst record in decades, John Mozeliak vowed that the team would be improved the following season. St. Louis did improve, and even hung around the NL postseason race enough for them to buy at the trade deadline, but it wasn't enough.

The Cardinals weren't playing meaningful baseball in September and have been eliminated from contention for quite a while. They'll finish above .500 avoiding a second straight losing season, but for a Cardinals organization that once prided itself on being one of the most successful organization in the sport, barely finishing above .500 isn't good enough.

With that being said, major changes should be expected this offseason. The latest Cardinals rumors cover some of the changes we can expect to see.

Cardinals Rumors: Don't hold your breath on a Skip Schumaker reunion

When Skip Schumaker requested to have his 2025 club option removed from his contract, it felt inevitable that his days of managing the Miami Marlins were numbered. Sure enough, it was revealed on Friday that the skipper will not be returning to Miami for the 2025 campaign and that he's set to hit free agency this offseason.

Naturally, Cardinals fans had reason to get excited about the news. Not only is Schumaker a really good manager, but he's a former Cardinal. He played in St. Louis in parts of eight of his 11 MLB seasons, specializing as a utility player for some really good Cardinals teams. He was even part of the 2011 squad that bested the Texas Rangers in the World Series.

Schumaker replacing Oli Marmol in the dugout would kill two birds with one stone for Cardinals fans, getting rid of one of their top punching bags while simultaneously bringing aboard one of the game's best young managers. Unfortunately, this move shouldn't be seen as likely.

Not only do the Cardinals appear set on keeping Marmol, but ESPN's Jeff Passan revealed that he's expected to be a top candidate for both the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox, with other teams potentially looming as well.

Schumaker's availability might get the Cardinals to rethink their Marmol stance if he's even interested in coming to St. Louis, but with where things are right now, a potential return to the Cardinals should be seen as unlikely at best with Schumaker.

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Cardinals Rumors: Jordan Walker's defense leaves a lot to be desired

Jordan Walker was seen as a top prospect because of his bat, but in his brief MLB career thus far, his offense has left a lot to be desired. He had a solid first season, but has slashed .200/.253/.369 with just five home runs and 20 RBI in 50 games played in 2024. It was so bad in April to the point where the team sent him down to Triple-A, never to be seen again with a regular spot in the majors until the team was virtually out of postseason contention.

Walker's bat has looked better since his recall in late August, but is that improvement enough to overshadow his biggest flaw on the diamond? His defense is inexplicably bad in the outfield. It looks awful, and despite his short stint in the majors this season, he has -4 OAA in the outfield according to Baseball Savant.

Plays like these that virtually every MLB-caliber outfielder makes in his sleep prove to be a struggle for Walker.

Walker's struggles both offensively and defensively after being deemed such a highly-touted prospect raise a lot of questions regarding St. Louis' player development.

The player development concerns are real, and one team employee who spoke to Katie Woo of The Athletic ($) feels that it'll take a while for this to get fixed.

“We’re in trouble,” one team employee said. “This is not easily fixable within the next year, or year after. This is going to take some time."

Time is one thing that the Cardinals, an organization clearly headed in the wrong direction, has right now.

“People would always ask in the minors, do you care about winning or do you care about developing players?” one staffer said. “The answer would be, we develop winning players. We are no longer developing winning players.”

He's still young, but at this stage of his career, Walker is far from a winning player. His bat is unproven, and his glove is a disaster. Is he a player that, despite his clear faults as a player, the Cardinals can afford to keep around and play every day? Would they be better off trading him for more of a sure thing? This is one of many questions that this front office is going to have to answer this offseason.

Cardinals Rumors: A Sonny Gray trade appears to be likely

One of several moves that the Cardinals made last offseason to fortify what was one of the worst rotations in the league was to sign Sonny Gray, the reigning AL Cy Young runner-up, to a three-year deal worth $75 million. The expectations from that signing were abundantly clear. The Cardinals expected Gray to be their ace.

For a large chunk of the season, Gray did pitch like an ace. He had a 2.81 ERA through his first 14 starts, and the team went 10-4 when he took the ball. The team had its ups and downs, but Gray was, for the most part, lights out.

His next 14 starts went about as poorly as the first 14 went well, as the right-hander posted a 4.88 ERA, raising his season ERA to 3.84 - not what St. Louis expected when giving him that contract. There are reasons to expect a better 2025 performance from Gray like his 3.12 FIP and his 3.03 K-rate, his high for a full season (excluding 2020), but it sounds like that comeback season might not take place in St. Louis according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

"The St. Louis Cardinals, who will announce a series of personnel moves on Monday with Chaim Bloom taking on a greater role, plan to shop veteran starter Sonny Gray while reducing payroll. Gray, who signed a three-year, $75 million contract last winter, has a full no-trade clause, with the Cincinnati Reds expected to be among the teams aggressively pursuing him."

What the Cardinals expect to receive in a Gray trade, especially since he still has $65 million remaining on his deal, remains to be seen, but the fact that they seem intent on simply dumping the right-hander to reduce payroll is a major red flag. Gray didn't meet expectations, but this rotation without him and without a clear replacement figures to be even worse than they were in 2024, which would be nothing short of disastrous.