Let’s take a moment to be brazenly honest with ourselves about where the St. Louis Cardinals stand at the end of the 2025 season. This year has yielded answers on players—albeit not entirely the ones we wanted—but answers nonetheless. Over the next few weeks, as Chaim Bloom begins moving his desk into Mo’s office, I’m going to look at some under-the-radar options with enough realism attached that the Cardinals could actually consider them this offseason, as the new front office begins paving a new frontier in baseball operations.

Starting with the starters seems like the most appropriate way to begin our own journey of external evaluation. But before we jump into names, let’s first establish some context. First, we know the Cardinals’ ownership group will, in all likelihood, not approve a

See Full Page