Redbird Droppings: Officially The 2024-25 Off-Season

Redbird Droppings looks at the Cardinals’ front office, the calendar for the next few months, and a few former Cardinals

After sitting on my thoughts on the big press conference, I’ve had a lot of mixed thoughts and I’ve seen a bunch of uninformed reactions.

• John Mozeliak is back for a reason: Chaim Bloom was not going to be put into another situation where he was going to be the guy to make cuts as soon as he was hired for the position. They did him dirty in Boston by making him deal Mookie Betts to cut payroll; as a result, he’ll forever be known as the guy that dealt Betts.
  
  If the Cardinals would have handed him the reigns and said trade Ryan Helsley and Sonny Gray, fans would have been against him from the start. By keeping Mo in place, he’ll be the guy “responsible” for selling off veterans.
• An example of what the Cardinals need: Since the press conference, the Red Sox hired Kyle Boddy as interim Director of Baseball Science; for those of you that don’t know, Boddy founded Driveline Baseball, a training facility that allows players to use state of the art technology and data to become better players. Guys like Clayton Kershaw, Alex Wood, Kenley Jansen, and Trevor Bauer (the first player to go to Boddy) have trained there in the off-season.
  
  Boddy previously was a pitching consultant for the Reds, which probably helped guys like Nick Lodolo and Hunter Greene; he also did some draft analysis for the Dodgers and Guardians in the past as well.
  
  I bring this up because he’s the type of guy that the Cardinals need to find. While the Cardinals missed out on Boddy, they did bring in Rob Cerfolio to be the Assistant GM, Player Development & Performance; it’s role he’s previously filled with Cleveland from 2022-24. To see how Cleveland did, look at their 2024 roster, which finished first in the AL Central; they had 5 hitters with over 100 games that were drafted or amateur free agents, 4 starting pitchers drafted, and 4 drafted relievers with 25 innings.
  
  They also had one of the top ranked system after 2024; more importantly, they went from 4th at the beginning of 2023 to 19th to start 2024 after graduating a lot of prospects to the Majors. He was able to restock the system.
  
  Cerfolio is a guy they wouldn’t have looked at prior to this off-season; the Cardinals have been notorious for promoting from within or recycling similar people from other organizations. While Cerfolio is moving to a similar role, he’s a guy that can think outside of the box.
• Turner Ward out as hitting coach, Brant Brown in: One of the changes that was made to the coaching staff is replacing hitting coach Ward; the offense was very inconsistent this past season, but it’s been an issue for more than one season. I don’t see Brown as the answer; he was fired mid-season by the Mariners after their offense struggled. I believe he’s a stopgap until Bloom takes over the reigns; at that point, we’ll see a new manager and probably a whole new coaching staff.
  
  We also learned that Willie McGee is leaving the dugout and will now be a special assistant to Mozeliak; he’ll be traveling around more to see the kids in the minors. Replacing him will be Jon Jay, who’ll work with the outfielders, among other duties.
• In Bloom We Trust: I continue to go back to the idea that Bloom is the right guy to take over the front office, and we’ve seen things he’s implemented. I believe he’s the guy who initiated the trade for Andrew Kittredge and led to the Cardinals taking Ryan Fernandez in the Rule V Draft. I also believe he was responsible for the Cardinals system leading minors in innings pitched for starters; this is important for the Cardinals, as they’ve struggled to develop pitchers in general, and they’ve overworked their bullpen for years.

The Off-Season Calendar
Here are all the important dates for the off-season:

• 10/31: Free agency begins; no signings outside of current organization. Trade market is open.
• 11/03: Gold Gloves announced.
• 11/04: Free agents can sign with any team. Contractual opt outs and options need decisions. Qualifying offers to be made by 4:00 PM CST.
• 11/04-07: GM meetings in San Antonio, TX.
• 11/12: Silver Sluggers announced.
• 11/14: Reliver of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year announced.
• 11/18: Rookie of the Year announced.
• 11/19: Players receiving qualifying offers must accept or decline; accepted players will receive a 1 year, $21.05M contract. 40-man rosters set to protect Rule V eligible players. Manager of the Year announced.
• 11/19-21: Owner’s meetings.
• 11/20: Cy Young announced
• 11/21: MVP announced
• 11/22: Non-tender deadline for team controlled players.
• 12/08-11: Winter Meetings in Dallas, TX.
• 12/08: HOF Classic Baseball Committee announcement.
• 12/10: Draft lottery.
• 12/11: Rule V Draft.
• 12/15: Closing of 2024 international amateur signing period.
• 01/09: Deadline for arbitration eligible players and teams to exchange salary figures.
• 01/15: 2025 international amateur signing period begins.
• 01/21: BBWAA HOF announcement.
• 01/27-02/14: Arbitration hearings.
• 02/12: Pitchers and catchers report.
• 02/17: All others report.
• 02/20: Spring Training games begin.
• 03/18-19: Opening series in Tokyo: Dodgers vs Cubs
• 03/27: Official Opening Day

Gold Glove Nominees
The Cardinals have 3 players nominated for Gold Gloves for this season: Nolan Arenado (3B), Brendan Donovan (UT), and Masyn Winn (SS).

Of the 3, Arenado is the most surprising for a few reasons. First, his defense is not where it was prior to St. Louis or even his first season with the team; that decline didn’t seem to warrant best defensive player at his position. Second, there are a lot of times that a good bat could sway voters; Arenado’s bat has been much like his glove the last couple of seasons. Finally, the defensive metrics don’t back it up; 10th in Zone Rating and tied for 5th in Defensive Runs Saved are below a Gold Glove caliber player.

What’s more surprising was Michael Siani being left out of centerfield; it’s because he didn’t play enough with his injury and missed the cutoff by 2 INNINGS. He is eligible for the Fielding Bible Awards, which typically go to the best defensive player.

Projected Arbitration Numbers
MLB Trade Rumors has their annual salary arbitration projections up:

• Donovan (3.000): $3.6MM
• Helsley (5.105): $6.9MM
• John King (3.145): $1.5MM
• Lars Nootbaar (3.076): $2.5MM
• Andre Pallante (2.145): $2.3MM
• JoJo Romero (4.045): $1.9MM

Helsley’s name has popped up on the trade market already. I think King could be the non-tender candidate, while everyone else should be back. I’ll have the salary matrix updated in the next week or so.

Former Cardinals in the News
Daniel Descalso and Skip Schumaker were candidates for White Sox manager, but it appears that both are now out of the running. While I don’t care about Descalso, I’m really hoping Skip doesn’t manage in 2025, because I think he’d be a candidate for Bloom after the season; he’s already familiar with the organization, has experience managing at a somewhat successful tenure, and it’s the right move for a young team.

Dakota Hudson has become a free agent; the Rockies designated him for assignment. He’ll receive a minor league deal with camp invite from some team.

Yadier Molina is managing in the Dominican Republic again. For all the fans clamoring for Molina to head the Cardinals dugout, please remember a few things.

• Molina was supposed to be in uniform as a coach for parts of the 2024 season but was MIA all season; that’s not a good look to start out a potential managing job down the line.
• Secondly, does he even want to manage in the Majors yet? He’s got young kids and we’ve seen him in uniform coaching; why would he be willing to walk away at this point?
• Third, look at the last former catcher we hired as manager with little to no experience. Matheny may have topped out as a little league coach, but we don’t know how coaching foreign winter leagues translates into MLB success. At least with Shildt and Marmol, they had minor league experience.

Finally, congrats to former Cardinals Tommy Edman, Jack Flaherty, Joe Kelly, Jason Heyward (who will probably get a share), and Nabil Crismatt (who probably won’t get a share) on being part of a World Champion roster.

That’s it for this week. I’ll be back soon with more thought, along with a GM Report Card for Mozeliak’s tenure.