Offseason Outlook: St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals officially have a new head of baseball operations for the first time in nearly two decades. As announced at the beginning of last offseason, longtime president of baseball ops John Mozeliak has stepped aside and passed the torch to former Rays and Red Sox executive Chaim Bloom, who’d previously been a senior advisor with the Cardinals. Bloom’s end-of-season press conference spelled out what had already become abundantly clear over the past 12 months: this will be an offseason unlike any the Cardinals have experienced in recent memory — the onset of what’s likely to be a yearslong rebuild.

Guaranteed Contracts

• Nolan Arenado, 3B: $42MM through 2027 (Rockies paying $5MM)
• Willson Contreras, 1B: $41MM through 2027 (includes buyout of 2028 club option)
• Sonny Gray, RHP: $40MM through 2026 (includes buyout of 2027 club option)

2026 guarantees: $75MM
Total long-term guarantees: $117.5MM through 2027

Option Decisions

• None

Arbitration-Eligible Players (service time in parentheses; salary projections via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)

• Jorge Alcala (5.165): $2.1MM
• JoJo Romero (5.045): $4.4MM
• John King (4.148): $2.1MM
• Lars Nootbaar (4.076): $5.7MM
• Brendan Donovan (4.000): $5.4MM
• Andre Pallante (3.145): $3.4MM
• Nolan Gorman (3.114): $2.9MM
• Alec Burleson (3.029): $3.5MM
• Matthew Liberatore (2.144): $2.8MM

Non-tender candidates: Alcala, King

Free Agents

• Miles Mikolas

For the early portion of last offseason, it seemed quite possible that the Cardinals would embark on the very type of rebuild that now seems far likelier. Instead, no-trade clauses in the contracts of veterans Sonny Gray, Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras threw a wrench into those plans. Gray and Contreras seemed unfazed by the idea of a youth movement and quickly let the team know they were content to remain in St. Louis. Arenado was open to trade scenarios but to a limited number of clubs. He wound up vetoing a trade to the Astros and remaining in St. Louis.

This time around, it seems overwhelmingly likely that at least one of those veterans will change hands. Gray candidly said after his final start that he has to consider trade scenarios this winter after talking to Bloom about the direction of the team. Contreras has said his preference is still to remain in St. Louis but he’ll consider waiving his no-trade protection in the right scenario. Arenado has voiced his intent to be more open to a wider array of teams this time around.

That said, there are prominent hurdles when it comes to trading everyone from the group, and there’s ample reason to wonder just how much — if anything at all — the Cardinals can get back in return for any of those pricey veterans. They’re reportedly open to paying down some of the remaining salary (which will be a necessity), but if they really want to extract meaningful prospect value, there are more notable trade avenues to explore.