street. Lewis – In making his boldest announcement yet that the Cardinals’ club that fell far short of expectations will resign itself to its fate for the season and turn its focus to rebuilding for 2024, team president John Mozeliak didn’t even try to hide the whereabouts of the strategy. to move on.
It will be an effort to deal with an area the Cardinals ignored in the most recent offseason and will almost certainly determine how quickly they can recover from a disappointing and potentially even uglier 2023 as the team plays the series over the final 2 1/2 months.
“I definitely think we’ll treat the trading deadline as promotion, promotion, promotion, right?” Mozeliak asked rhetorically as he declared this season a lost cause and vowed to try to rebuild quickly so the Cardinals can be competitive in 2024. “I think the goal will be to tackle as much promotion as possible.”
Mozeliak admitted that a Cardinals franchise with a streak of 15 consecutive winning seasons and one that has been in the playoffs in each of the past four seasons will be out of the postseason search before August, which is completely against the system. However, the 10-24 start and the June 8-15 swoon period were enough to convince the front office that rallying late in the season would be unbearable and that major changes were needed as the roster was built.
“Well, it’s definitely different. I don’t know if I’d use the phrase ‘not trying to compete,'” Mozeliak said of the Cardinals mid-season rebuild. Of opportunities for someone else. I feel like where this club is at at the moment, we just know it’s not working properly and so we know we have to make some changes.”
The bulk of these changes will likely come down to staff struggling at the start and end of a match. Going into Monday’s game against the Marlins, the starting team has a 4.74 ERA (25th in MLB), while the relievers have a 4.50 ERA (25th in MLB) with 21 saves (most in MLB). Miles Mikulas and Stephen Matz are the only current starters under contract for 2024, while Adam Wainwright prepares to retire, and Jordan Montgomery and Jack Flaherty are two outstanding free agents pending. While the Cardinals signed Mikulas to an extension, they did not pursue agreements with Flaherty or Montgomery, and both could be dealt before the trade deadline in hopes of receiving some long-term pitching help.
“I think from a payroll standpoint, we should have room to grow there [to add pitching] of available resources,” Mozeliak said. Part of that is people getting out [the payroll]. We think about how we evaluate shooters and that’s something we’re taking a closer look at upstairs. …more swing and miss against the globe [pitchers] It will be incorporated into future thinking.”
Muzliak has expressed disappointment with the way free agent Wilson Contreras has been contracted this season, with veteran ceding time to Andrew Knysner and rookie Ivan Herrera due to issues dealing with the pitching staff. With the benefit of hindsight, Mozeliak said the team also erred in not adding more depth of tone.
“I mean, it’s a fair question and I think I’ll add more premieres and I’ll add more hits,” Mozeliak candidly admitted. “A lot of the decisions we made didn’t work out either, a, from injury or b, from performance. I mean, you don’t have enough depth, and we always knew that, but he obviously cracked this year.”
Some changes in the Cardinals’ lineup began Monday when the club designated disgruntled reliever Genesis Cabrera for assignment and signed reliever Ryan Tepera. The Cards also plan to return Tyler O’Neill to the starting role in left field – presumably for pitching. Head coach Oliver Marmul said his starting lineup will feature Lars Nutbarr at center, award-winning rookie Jordan Walker at right and O’Neal — which means Dylan Carlson and Alec Burleson will be out of playing time.
Mozliak said he wouldn’t actively look to swap starting stars Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, as they likely play key roles in the club’s ability to return to competing status in 2024. Mozliak said there isn’t even a hotline between now and August 3. 1 would likely alter the team’s plans to focus on planning for 2024.
“Does the performance, the wins, the losses change our direction? I would say probably not at this point,” he said. “I think with our place and our place in the standings, he’ll do it [a rally] It is very difficult to change it. From our perspective on how we think about using our energy and time, that’s not going to change.”