The Cardinals were off to a hot start. They swept the Twins and started 3-0 for the first time since 2006, and we all know what happened that year. However, the momentum has quickly dissipated, and the Cardinals now find themselves under the .500 mark at 5-7. Now, they’re heading home for matchups against the Phillies and Astros before heading back out on the road to face the Mets.
The first signs of the Cardinals’ nosedive came in their series against the Angels. I know they’re off to a good start, but I don’t think it’ll last. The Cardinals fought in all three games, but in the two losses, they got creative in finding ways to lose.
I was willing to forgive the series loss after they won the finale. After all, they had a 4-2 homestand to start the year, which is pretty solid, even with a series loss. But it all came crashing down in Boston when they were swept over the weekend before ultimately losing two out of three to the lowly Pirates.
In losing their last three series, the Cardinals have shown us exactly what kind of team they are. It’s a team that is unlikely to contend and will be losing some very frustrating games.
Unlike 2023 and 2024, I like what I’m seeing from the offense. With the exception on Wednesday’s loss, they’ve put together a solid game plan. New hitting coach Brant Brown clearly has a good plan, and the hitters have bought into it. Where they’re struggling is on the pitching side.
Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde and Andre Pallante have all shown promise, but Matthew Liberatore and Miles Mikolas are proving why they shouldn’t be in the rotation. This is a team that is going to rely heavily on its offense to win games and likely will have to score a lot of runs to win if they want to contend, which I don’t think is possible with this group.
But in my opinion, these past three series losses served as a reality check for the Cardinals. Everyone, including myself was very excited after the 3-0 start. I even started thinking that a) the reset was going to work and b) that the Cardinals could follow the path of the 2021 Giants, who put together a mediocre roster and won 107 games with it.
I guess both of those things are still possible, but they’ve gone 2-7 since their 3-0 start, and it’s a reminder of where the Cardinals currently are. They may not be a terrible team, but right now they’re stuck in neutral and are also not a good team. It’s an organization that finds itself in the dreaded middle with two contradictory goals in mind. One being to squeeze as many wins out of a bad roster as possible and the other to give young players a chance and look towards the future.
This is why it would have been better for Chaim Bloom to take over after 2024. I truly believe he has a plan in place, but John Mozeliak can’t swallow his pride and accept that the glory days are long gone.
Even though Mo is still in charge, he needs to defer to Bloom when it comes to roster decisions such as trades. Right now, their ideologies seem to be at war with one another, and it could hurt the present and the future at the same time.
Obviously, I don’t know the ins and outs of the organization, and I can’t be sure of what everybody is thinking. I’m not going to pretend like I know more than I do here. But to me, it seems like Bloom is willing to accept that the Cardinals aren’t what they used to be and knows that work needs to be done to get them back to that. Meanwhile, Mo is stuck in the past and obsessed with not going out on a bad note, even though there really isn’t anything he can do to salvage his reputation, at least not in the near future.
Regardless of what Mo wants though, it’s not going to change that the Cardinals are a mediocre team with no hope of contending. Even with Nolan Arenado and Ryan Helsley still on the roster, this team can’t compete for a World Series title.
At least if they had picked a direction and were still struggling, we as fans would know what the plan was. But this is likely what we can expect from the Cardinals in 2025. They’ll be sellers at the trade deadline and will more than likely finish below .500 for the second time in the last three years.