In John Mozeliak's final trade deadline with Cardinals, ‘long-term view' of team was the priority

New York Times

4 days ago

SAN DIEGO — In his final season as the St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations, John Mozeliak acknowledged the obvious.
He did not want to sell, but his club had not performed well enough to warrant any other option. During this transition season — one that prioritized player development from the start — building towards the future was the sensical solution. By trading Ryan Helsley, Phil Maton and Steven Matz for an assortment of prospects, Mozeliak hopes he's accomplished that, though the organization likely won't see the true payoff from these trades for multiple seasons.
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'The goal of this trading deadline was about the future,' Mozeliak said. 'I don't think it's necessarily about the immediate future. It's about the long-term view of the St. Louis Cardinals.'
Speaking on a Zoom call from his office at Busch Stadium, Mozeliak touched on a variety of trade deadline topics, ranging from why he only traded pending free agents, why minor-league talent — not soon-to-be-major-league-ready talent — was the top target in returns and why he did not trade any of his position players, despite a high interest level from rival clubs.
It was not an easy decision for the front office, but it was a familiar one. The Cardinals have sold just twice throughout Mozeliak's 18-year tenure, but this year's sell-off marks their second in the last three years. However this year's purpose was much different. While the Cardinals also only traded expiring contracts in 2023, Mozeliak's first sell season, he targeted pitching depth and upper-level minor-league talent in efforts to avoid a rebuild.
That was not the case this year. Mozeliak, with input from incoming successor Chaim Bloom, opted for best overall talent in returns for his top three relievers — a clear sign that bridge year will span much longer than first advertised.
'We went into this deadline trying to move our expiring contracts,' Mozeliak said. 'We were able to do that. The goal of these moves was to position the organization for future talent — not necessarily just guys that are knocking on the door for big-league opportunities next year. It was really about trying to create as much prospect value as possible, and we felt we achieved that.
'It's a cliche answer, but (we were looking) for best talent available.'
St. Louis acquired six total prospects: shortstop Jesus Baez and right-handers Nate Dohm and Frank Elissalt from the New York Mets for Helsley, corner infielder Blaze Jordan from the Boston Red Sox for Matz, and pitching prospects Mason Molina (RHP) and Skylar Hales (LHP) from the Texas Rangers for Maton. Though the deadline is over, plenty of questions remain.
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The Cardinals garnered significant interest on an assortment of position players with multiple remaining years of control. The most popular area? Their left-handed hitters. Rival clubs consistently inquired about Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbaar (two remaining years of control) and Alec Burleson (three remaining years of control). But St. Louis asked for a remarkably high return, with one rival executive describing the ask as 'insane' and another terming it as 'sky-high.'
'We got hit a lot on our left-handed hitters,' Mozeliak said. 'But none of the types of offers we were getting for those players were compelling for us to do it. To say we went into this solely with just the focus of moving three expiring contracts is not necessarily accurate, but we were not motivated to move players that we had under control unless we were, to put it mildly, blown away. And we just weren't.'
So the Cardinals instead kept their position-playing core. Nootbaar and Nolan Gorman are on the 10-day IL, but both are expected to return to the big-league club at some point over the upcoming trip against the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers. That will create another logjam for manager Oli Marmol, who has had to juggle playing time all year.
When asked how he envisioned that shaking out, Mozeliak hinted it would be something to monitor over the offseason when Bloom takes over the organization.
'Maybe we reflect on it a little bit more in the sense of what does this really mean for next year?' Mozeliak said. 'When the question was asked if we were not willing to move players under control, the answer is the timing wasn't now. The question is a good one, and one that will ultimately be resolved probably over the next six months.'
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Helsley was the Cardinals' big ticket, and rival evaluators had mixed reviews about his return.
With no true front-line starting pitcher on the market, contending clubs pivoted to maximizing their bullpen — significantly upping the market cost. St. Louis traded Helsley on Wednesday afternoon with over 24 hours remaining before the deadline. Why did Mozeliak feel that was the right time?
'My concern was that there were four big-name closers out there, and obviously two of them had multiple years of control,' he said. 'In our case, Helsley had two months. I was cognizant of how far we had leverage. What I didn't want to have happened was to take this into the final day, and not be in a position to try to do the best deal possible. A lot of times in this business, people think the longer you wait, the better the deal. I was scared that the longer we wait, the music might stop and we might still be standing.'
Jhoan Duran (traded from the Minnesota Twins to the Philadelphia Phillies), David Bednar (dealt to the New York Yankees by the Pittsburgh Pirates) and Camilo Doval (acquired by the Yankees from the San Francisco Giants) all have multiple years of team control remaining. That's to say nothing of the biggest relief pitching deal made: The San Diego Padres stunned the industry by trading for Athletics' closer Mason Miller, who will not be a free agent until 2030.
Helsley's value, while considerably high given the market, was not going to match the above.
'You can see there were other closers that were traded that have years of control, and their returns were different,' Mozeliak said. 'We were trying to focus on maybe some young starting pitching, but as you can tell, that was not really our highest level of return. It came down to the potential suitors that we were speaking with, and we tried to navigate it the best we could, but ultimately ended up deciding to go with the players that we thought had the highest upside.'
With their top three relievers gone, the Cardinals have three active roster spots to fill. One will undoubtedly go to Ryan Fernandez, who has turned things around in Memphis with a 3.12 ERA after a disastrous start to the season in April.
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As for currently rostered players, Mozeliak said left-hander JoJo Romero will see more high-leverage situations. Riley O'Brien and Gordon Graceffo were also identified as pitchers who will see more distinctive roles in the bullpen. St. Louis has used Kyle Leahy in late innings semi-regularly; that usage is expected to increase as well.