The Cardinals must make four moves following the Winter Meetings.
The St. Louis Cardinals did not make a move at the 2023 MLB Winter Meetings. John Mozeliak stated that he did not feel pressed to make a move and that the team’s early action this offseason provided them with a cushion to gauge the trade and reliever markets.
With the signings of Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, and Sonny Gray, the Cardinals’ front office may be able to relax during the Winter Meetings this year. While the team does require some clarity before Spring Training, rash, irrational decisions and moves would not have helped the team in Nashville.
As a Cardinals fan, it would have been great to hear that the team traded for Dylan Cease, Tyler Glasnow, or Shane Bieber, but if the trade market was too high, or if teams were waiting for the big dominoes to fall, such as Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani, or Yoshinobu Yamamoto, it made no sense for John Mozeliak to make a move.
Pitchers and catchers do not report to Spring Training for another two months, and the Cardinals’ first games do not begin until February 24th. This allows management plenty of time to fill out the roster and finalize their overall team. There are numerous things that John Mozeliak and Michael Girsch can do within that time frame to make the Cardinals a legitimate contender in 2024.
The bullpen still needs to be strengthened, the team’s glut of outfielders and position players needs to be cleared out, the team could use another high-end starting pitcher, and the coaching staff needs to be modernized.
Move #1: Trade Tyler O’Neill
This shift has been obvious for quite some time.Oliver Marmol’s comments at the end of the season fueled speculation that Tyler O’Neill was a player who needed to be “weeded out,” and John Mozeliak said the quiet part aloud at the Winter Meetings when he ostensibly stated that O’Neill would be traded this offseason.
O’Neill, a former MVP candidate with multiple Gold Gloves and a 30-home run season on his resume, is still valuable to many teams, and the Cardinals should get a good return on him. The recent trade of Alex Verdugo, another player who has struggled in recent years, provides fans with an idea of what they might get if Tyler O’Neill is traded.
The Boston Red Sox received Greg Weissert, a bullpen pitcher with a 4.60 ERA in 29 appearances over the last two years, as well as prospects Richard Fitts and Nicholas Judice. Fitts and Judice were not among the Yankees’ top 30 prospects. If the Cardinals find a trade partner for O’Neill, he will most likely net one prospect in the #20-30 range or a bullpen arm with decent statistics and little team control.
Trading O’Neill will break up an outfield stalemate and open the door for Masyn Winn to demonstrate his potential in the majors. O’Neill no longer appears to be a member of the team.Mozeliak did joke that if O’Neill is traded, he wouldn’t be surprised if the 28-year-old righty receives MVP votes the following season. The Cardinals started this trend when they traded Randy Arozarena and Adolis Garcia, only to see them succeed on their new teams.
“I think (O’Neill) will get MVP votes. Do we wish we could have hit 1.000 (on trades)? Of course, we’re only human, and we make mistakes.”
Move #2: Beef up the bullpen
After the starting rotation was completed, the bullpen became a major focus this offseason. Players like Ryan Helsley, Giovanny Gallegos, JoJo Romero, and Andre Pallante are expected to be the most prominent relievers next year, but John Mozeliak has stated on multiple occasions that he would like to add at least one more high-leverage arm to the bullpen before the season begins.
According to recent reports, Mozeliak intends to find these bullpen pieces through free agency, but he isn’t completely opposed to filling the relief corps through trade. Mozeliak could find a plethora of relievers through free agency.Derrick Goold has rumored Phil Maton as a player of interest, but others with high-leverage success include Matt Moore, Matt Barnes, and Keynan Middleton.
As previously stated, the Cardinals could also look into trades for relievers. Tyler O’Neill could get a decent reliever in exchange, but any of Tommy Edman, Dylan Carlson, or a Cardinals prospect would be appealing to opposing teams. The Colorado Rockies’ Justin Lawrence is an intriguing reliever, and there are plenty of teams that don’t plan on contending next year that could trade one of their relievers for a prospect or two.
Improving a bullpen that had the 23rd-worst ERA and 24th-worst WHIP last year is critical. It would be ideal to add at least one bullpen arm, preferably one with high-leverage experience. Craig Kimbrel was signed for $13 million, so expect a deal along those lines if the Cardinals go to free agency to fill this void.
Move #3: Add to the coaching staff
The St. Louis Cardinals are said to have a smaller coaching staff than most MLB teams. They lack the depth that teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay Rays, and Houston Astros have. It was even rumored that in some cases, players didn’t know who to turn to for assistance.
The pitching coach is the primary position they would like to fill on their coaching staff. Last season, the Cardinals ranked 24th in team ERA and 29th in team strikeouts. Both of those numbers appear to be areas for improvement. By increasing the number of pitching staff members, perhaps positive dividends will be seen next year.
“(Yadi) will be a resource for Oli, and he will spend time in the Minor Leagues.” It won’t be catching-specific, but that will be his specialty. But the point of this is for him to help pitchers or even spend time with coaches and share his wisdom.
This offseason’s mantra was pitching, pitching, pitching. Mozeliak stated that he would add three starters to the rotation, which he did. The problem is that two of the three additions were not expected to be bottom-of-the-rotation arms. Fans and reporters alike expected Mozeliak to sign a starter to shore up the back end of the rotation before bringing in two pitchers who were both better than Miles Mikolas and Steven Matz.
Instead, when Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson were signed back-to-back, the St. Louis faithful were perplexed. Sure, the innings totals are impressive, and the player personalities are strong, but the team lacked a true ace and another high-end starting pitcher. Next year, there will be a lot of pressure on a rotation with an average age of 35.
Another high-end pitcher like Dylan Cease, Tyler Glasnow, Shane Bieber, or any of the Miami Marlins’ starters would be the cherry on top of this offseason. Cease and the Marlins’ pitchers would cost a significant amount of prospect capital, but they would immediately transform this starting rotation, propelling it into the league’s top ten.
St. Louis is likely to miss out on Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the price continues to rise, and Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery are also likely to be too expensive for a team looking to stay under the $237 million luxury tax, but the Cardinals’ surplus of position players puts them in a good position to continue exploring the trade market for another starting pitcher.
Adding four starting pitchers to a rotation in one offseason is a difficult task, but it would transform last year’s team’s greatest weakness into next year’s greatest strength.