
Cardinals, John Mozeliak chase results while building transitional runway
As the St. Louis Cardinals close in on the quarter mark of the 2025 season, there's still uncertainty around their direction.
A season-best five-game winning streak has propelled the team back to .500 after spending the majority of April three to four games under that mark. Their 19-19 record has them in striking distance in the National League Central, just three games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs. Multiple players have taken several encouraging steps, including Brendan Donovan, Victor Scott II and Matthew Liberatore.
Advertisement
Still, the 2025 season is six weeks old. It's too early to draw definitive conclusions about the Cardinals, from either a team or an individual player standpoint.
Throughout the offseason, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak reiterated that the Cardinals would be undergoing a transition season. Granting playing time and opportunities to an array of the organization's young or up-and-coming players would be the priority. It's why the organization was mostly inactive in the free-agent market, and why the majority of their traction in the trade market involved the idea of offloading key players (such as Nolan Arenado), not acquiring them. But Mozeliak never advertised a tanking season, and he went to great lengths to avoid using any reference to the term 'rebuild.'
In fact, Mozeliak preached the opposite. Despite the emphasis on in-house talent and player development this season, Mozeliak doubled-down and pledged the 2025 Cardinals would still try to compete. The strategy would just look (vastly) different than his usual operations.
And so the defining question for the season was born: Can the Cardinals balance runway and results at the same time?
'Right now, we're trying to straddle that fence,' Mozeliak said in a recent interview with The Athletic. 'By mid-June, there might be a fork in the road for us, but at this point we can at least provide ourselves that opportunity to try (to do both).'
In other words, allow the next several weeks to answer that question.
The Cardinals have played somewhat consistent baseball. Their starting rotation's 4.08 ERA is higher than the league average, but it ranks fifth in MLB in innings pitched (337 and 2/3) and has done a respectable job keeping games within reach. They are a much better team offensively than they were last season: Entering play Thursday, St. Louis ranked first in team average (.260), sixth in on-base percentage (.334) and 11th in both slugging percentage (.401) and OPS (.740).
Advertisement
Their bullpen has plagued them, but the Cardinals feel confident about some newly restructured roles, which will see Gordon Graceffo and Steven Matz play shorter relief stints ahead of set-up men Kyle Leahy and Phil Maton, then closer Ryan Helsley.
They feel they have the pieces to remain competitive — at least within the division — but that doesn't mean things are perfect.
'We do feel like our starting pitchers are keeping us in games,' Mozeliak said. 'We do feel like we have an excellent closer. We need to find the right formula in our bullpen, but we do have an array of options internally where we can keep reshuffling that deck. From the position player standpoint, it's creating that chance for these guys to grow.
This is a hard league to grow, right? You either do or you don't. But we've been very clear this year that we are going to try to have that patient hat on, and from that standpoint, we're going to give it some time. But some things we're measuring might not simply be a box score result.'
Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman, that's your cue.
Mozeliak pointed toward an assortment of position players off to encouraging starts this season, acknowledging Scott's play on both sides of the ball. He also highlighted Lars Nootbaar's health and the poise of both catchers in Pedro Pagés and Iván Herrera (who has missed a month of play with a left knee bruise, but is set to be activated off the injured list Friday ahead of the team's three-game series against the Washington Nationals). Still, Mozeliak knows Walker and Gorman are the two players facing the most scrutiny this season.
'Jordan Walker, from a defensive standpoint, he's made major strides,' Mozeliak said. 'From an offensive standpoint, you still want to see more consistency. Throw in Nolan Gorman, we were challenged to try to find him at-bats early on, but I think we've navigated that a little better and I hope he makes the most of it.'
Advertisement
Intentional or not, Gorman, 24, and Walker, 22, are the designated faces of this transition. Perhaps it's their pedigree as former top prospects and first-round draft picks, or the fact that both players have floundered in the big leagues since debuting in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Either way, as the Cardinals focus on 2026 and beyond, they need to know if they can count on Walker or Gorman as consistent offensive contributors. That's why Mozeliak and manager Oli Marmol identified them as the players who will see the most opportunity early on, regardless of results.
Neither player has seized the moment, however. Gorman has played in 22 games after missing roughly two weeks with a minor hamstring strain in early April. He's hitting just .182 with an OPS below .600 and has struck out 23 times in 81 at-bats. Walker hasn't fared much better. In 31 games, he's hitting .196/.262/.268 with a 31 percent strikeout rate. Both are still battling the issues that afflicted them in prior seasons. Walker is struggling to lay off pitches outside of the zone and hit the ball in the air. Gorman is struggling to make consistent contact.
The Cardinals were prepared for a situation like this. The benefit of giving both players continuous playing time is that Gorman and Walker will have ample chances to make changes without the looming sense of a possible demotion. But that runway has a limit.
'It's an important year for both,' Mozeliak said. 'You only get so many chances this year. That's not to say that because of their ages, they won't get more, but ultimately, trying to have personal success as well as team success is always the needle you're trying to thread. For them, they have to make the most of their opportunities, and you hope to see incremental growth throughout the season.
'We are trying to win out here. We did state we're going to be patient, and so we are. But there are some strategic things that these young men need to be doing to start showing they're making those changes. We can't continue to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome. Yes, they are going to be given a long opportunity to try to get themselves where they need to be. But it's not infinite.'
The Cardinals will continue with their current plan for the foreseeable future. But Mozeliak's comments suggest that if St. Louis has a chance to contend for the division, he will deviate. There is no set blueprint for how Mozeliak will navigate the team approaching the trade deadline — it's much too early to know whether the Cardinals will buy or sell come July. But the team's play over the next six weeks or so will certainly help dictate those choices, and Mozeliak hopes that process won't be easy.
'Things will be determined by how we play and what our record is,' Mozeliak said. 'We hope we're in a position where we're adding to our club. But if we're not, we have a lot of exciting pieces that teams would value as we get closer to July 31. Time will tell. But I think it's a fun team to watch, I think it's entertaining. And I hope we have to make some really hard decisions.'
(Top photo of John Mozeliak: Justin Ford / Getty Images)

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Washington Post
22 minutes ago
- Washington Post
From baseball cards to big leagues: Jac Caglianone makes his home debut for the Royals vs Yankees
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jac Caglianone spent his first day off in his new home city searching for someplace to live. And buying baseball cards. Just what you might expect from a 22-year-old prospect — one of the best in the game — who was still playing college ball about this time last year, and who just made his big league debut for the Royals last week. Caglianone played three games in St. Louis and three against the White Sox in Chicago before finally making it back to Kansas City on Sunday night.


Washington Post
22 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Soto stares down Gore and helps Mets rally past Nationals in extra innings
NEW YORK — Juan Soto is starting to feel it. Following a May slump that dropped his batting average to .224, the New York Mets slugger has eight hits in his last four games. And when he homered Tuesday night at Citi Field, he stared down Washington Nationals pitcher MacKenzie Gore a couple of times while rounding the bases.


Washington Post
22 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Dodgers' pitching injury woes culminate in a punt. Matt Sauer takes one for the team in 11-1 blowout
SAN DIEGO — The Los Angeles Dodgers have 14 pitchers making more than $100 million combined this season on their injured list, They've been signing, promoting, playing and releasing pitchers almost daily as they engage in a perpetual scramble to assemble enough healthy arms to compete. When the Dodgers fell behind in the third inning Tuesday night while desperately short of options on the mound, the defending World Series champions essentially decided to punt a game away to the San Diego Padres. Matt Sauer, a 26-year-old minor leaguer getting his fourth callup already this season, threw 111 pitches while giving up 13 hits, three walks and nine runs and facing 30 batters in the Padres' 11-1 victory . The Dodgers allowed Sauer to pitch 4 2/3 innings with nothing close to his best stuff, and the Padres' loaded lineup feasted on him while turning a much-anticipated rivalry game into a laugher. Utilityman Kiké Hernández then took the mound during the sixth and pitched the final 2 1/3 innings, allowing three hits and one earned run while throwing 36 pitches — none faster than 57 mph. Manager Dave Roberts grimly acknowledged that the Dodgers essentially had to give up on trying to win this game after falling behind 3-0 in the third inning. 'You've just got to look at where our 'pen is at, and appreciate what we have the next couple of days,' Roberts said. 'I felt it just wasn't smart to chase and red-line guys. I've got to give credit to Matt. That was as much as he's ever pitched, and (he) essentially took it for the team to try and stay away from other guys and give us a chance to win a series. That's what we came in here to do, and we're in position to do that.' Indeed, the Dodgers used four high-leverage relievers for five total innings while hanging on for their 8-7 victory over the Padres in 10 innings on Monday night. That left the bullpen weary behind Lou Trivino, who went out as the opener Tuesday and threw one hitless inning. The Dodgers' rotation is profoundly patchwork. With Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, Tony Gonsolin and Gavin Stone headlining the list of potential starters sidelined by injury — and with Shohei Ohtani still proceeding quite deliberately in his mound comeback — Los Angeles can currently send out Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 37-year-old Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May. The other two spots in the rotation are being filled by temporary callups and/or bullpen games. The Dodgers didn't even want to try a bullpen game Tuesday after falling behind early, since Roberts thought it would be more prudent to have his bullpen largely available Wednesday when Justin Wrobleski — another rotation filler by the desperate Dodgers — takes the mound. 'It's where our staff is at right now as far as who's available, who's not,' Roberts said. 'Who we can kind of push, who we can't. And these are the starters we have, so we've got to go with it and make the best.' Sauer accepted his bizarre fate, realizing the Dodgers needed his arm to fill innings while they regrouped. 'I've just got to be better with locating the ball,' said Sauer, who signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers last winter. 'I wouldn't necessarily say (it's) a pride thing. I know my role is to eat up innings, and I feel like I've got the frame and the repertoire to do that, and I'm going to go out there and compete every time.' Everyone recognizes that the deep-pocketed Dodgers' success over the past several years has happened despite a jaw-dropping slew of major pitching injuries. Last season was similar to this campaign, with practically every pitcher on the roster missing large chunks of the season and postseason. Los Angeles won the World Series last season with an October starting rotation of late-season acquisition Jack Flaherty, Yamamoto (who missed three months of the regular season) and Walker Buehler (who also missed three months) supported by multiple bullpen games. Flaherty and Buehler then left in free agency. Roberts disagreed with the notion that the Dodgers' unlikely success with bullpen games last season — particularly in the NLDS against the Padres — could have given them false confidence in their ability to solve these major pitching woes with that strategy. 'Today wasn't really a bullpen day,' Roberts said. 'If you look at last year, certain games, you have nine guys that you have available, and we certainly didn't have that today. Somebody was going to have to take three to five innings. We weren't in that situation last year, so I don't think that's a fair comparison. When you get behind, you've got to kind of just ride it out.' ___ AP MLB: