photo: Bill DeWitt III, Bill DeWitt Jr., John Mozeliak, Chaim Bloom (Bally Sports Midwest)
A look ahead to what Brian Walton predicts may become the top stories developing during 2025 for the St. Louis Cardinals.
To begin our annual year-end series, we ranked the Top 10 stories affecting the St. Louis Cardinals in 2024. The number one story was how the drive for veteran leadership failed to bring the Cardinals back into the playoffs, followed by the end of the Goldenado era and the new focus on youth and player development.
The Cardinal Nation’s Top 10 St. Louis Cardinals Stories of 2024
To close the three-article series are my annual predictions of the top story lines that may grab the largest headlines throughout this New Year of 2025.
The top story is customarily the easiest and most logical one – the results of the team on the field during the upcoming season. However, that is assumed so will be excluded from these predictions.
As I compiled the list and set the rankings, I considered the staying power of the story – how long it might remain in the headlines – as well as its potential short- and long-term impact – both on the 2025 Cardinals and the organization’s future.
Without further ado, here are my projected top St. Louis Cardinals stories of 2025. As always, your comments are encouraged at The Cardinal Nation’s free message board.
| Prediction | |
| Top Story Predictions for 2025 | rank |
| How will Youth be Served? | 1 |
| Player Development to the Forefront | 2 |
| The Arenado Saga | 3 |
| Rotation of the Future | 4 |
| Gorman and Walker | 5 |
- How will Youth be Served?
At the big-league level, the Cardinals are cutting payroll from 2024, with a by-product being a 2025 roster that projects to be much younger than the prior edition.
Gone from 2024 are Matt Carpenter, age 38, Brandon Crawford, 37, Paul Goldschmidt, 36, Lance Lynn, 37, Kyle Gibson, 36, Andrew Kittredge, 34 and Giovanny Gallegos, 32, among others. Remaining in temporary limbo are Steven Matz and Nolan Arenado, both 33 years of age.
Only because they hold no-trade protection, Sonny Gray, 34, and Miles Mikolas, 35, are expected to be back to head the 2025 rotation. Former catcher and new first baseman Willson Contreras has the same contract protection, with the 32-year-old the remaining greybeard on offense.
Who will fill in behind them and how they perform will set the course for the 2025 Cardinals.
With contracts through 2027 and 2028, respectively, will Gray and Contreras become the new faces of the franchise?
Another departing face of the franchise in favor of youth is 55-year-old President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak, who will be replaced by 41-year-old Chaim Bloom following the season.
- Player Development to the Forefront
One of the few positives from the losing of 2023 is the Cardinals receiving the seventh overall selection in the 2024 Draft, which they used on shortstop JJ Wetherholt.
Even better for 2025 is the Cardinals’ number five position in the upcoming July draft. It is crucial for these very early picks to come through for an organization that is putting in place a major push to restore their player development pipeline to prominence.
In terms of investment, the team is planning an 8-12% increase in player development spending. We’ve already seen future PBO Bloom spearhead the hiring of a new assistant general manager plus multiple directors and coordinators, all from outside the organization, with more to come.
Also expected is the implementation of new tools and disciplines to help the Cardinals catch up with other systems.
It is the team’s long-term bet to reestablish a ready supply of talented (and low cost) players to feed the major league roster. The actions taken in 2025 should give us a better understanding of what is planned and how long it will take to bear fruit.
- The Arenado Saga
Acquired to help take the Cardinals to the next level in October, third baseman Nolan Arenado is not a fit with the team’s new direction. Everyone knows that, but the veteran holds the cards as to whether he will accept a trade.
Arenado has already vetoed one trade, to the Houston Astros. Likely his market will not solidify until the top third baseman on the market, free agent Alex Bregman, selects his new team.
However, because of Arenado’s age, declining productivity and large, complex contract, he may not be able to find a new home. That would create a very uncomfortable 2025 for all parties involved.
The Cardinals want the cost savings gained by unloading his contract, and Arenado wants to win a World Series. The sooner they can work this out, the better.
This story could be ranked even higher, but as soon as Arenado is traded, it will become a non-story. Whether that happens in January, March, July or even later remains to be seen, however.
- Rotation of the Future
As detailed in our Revisit to the Projected Top Stories of 2024, the Cardinals are no better off now than they were one year ago in identifying their future rotation.
Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz and Erick Fedde are all in the final year of their contract in 2025. Sonny Gray and Andre Pallante should be around through at least 2027.
What will happen with the other three spots is unclear. Michael McGreevy seems the first in line if or when a position opens in 2025.
After that is simply a long list of names that may or may not include those who have already been tried, such as Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson. Gordon Graceffo had a brief cup of coffee and Sem Robberse also has a 40-man roster spot.
Also with 40-man berths are high-potential injury risks Tink Hence and Tekoah Roby, but the duo has never pitched above Double-A. Prospect Quinn Mathews will be looking for an opening, as will newcomer Roddery Muñoz.
Finding their next wave of starting pitchers is absolutely crucial for the Cardinals to pull off their “reset” in a relatively short period of time.
- Gorman and Walker
The former first rounders have shown the ability to be productive major league hitters. However, neither outfielder Jordan Walker nor infielder Nolan Gorman have been unable to sustain. After having been with St. Louis for almost all of 2023, both spent significant time in Triple-A in 2024.
Both are penciled into the 2025 lineup and them finally realizing their considerable potential would be huge in helping the Cardinals successfully exercise their current “reset”.
This article concludes our annual series for another year, but we will be back in 12 months to see how we did and start the process all over again. Please join us!
Related articles:
- The Cardinal Nation’s Top 10 Stories of 2024
- Revisiting TCN’s Top St. Louis Cardinals Stories of 2024 Predictions
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Brian Walton can be reached via email at brian@thecardinalnation.com. Follow Brian and The Cardinal Nation on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky.
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