Should the Cardinals be buyers or sellers this summer?

The answer isn't an instant reaction, not when you think about it.

Let’s point out the elephant in the room. The St. Louis Cardinals, led by Bill DeWitt Jr. and John Mozeliak, are very serious about their perception--how others see them. It’s not a complete over-reflection, but they don’t like hot, shitty air. That is, outside of what they’re sucking in due to St. Louis’s brutal summers.

When the Houston Astros hack broke in the news, the Cardinals responded with expected class, but they also sounded like shattered glass trying to find its way back together. So, when people shoot from the hip about the 2023 team being sellers this summer, it’s hard not to hold up the “chill” sign.

Then again, the sign is currently catching fire. The Cardinals are 26-37, losing to the Texas Rangers Tuesday night in a slow-stabbing sort of motion. They don’t get annihilated, choosing instead to let fans crawl in close before being let down. Games move so quickly these days, you have to get dinner cooked before the first pitch. In a nutshell, Rob Manfred’s puppet twirl has sped up an already intensely relentless game.

St. Louis is drowning, and running out of answers. Oliver Marmol’s beard-trimming skills look a lot better than his managing, but a Yes Man can only go so far before that leash tugs. This is Bill and John’s ship. We all know it. But I’m sorry, Mr. Mozeliak, I can’t believe a word you’re saying about *NOT* being sellers this year.

The All Star Break is a month from Sunday. The trade deadline is Aug. 1, which will be here before one sits back and counts the number of float trips they’ve been on. Mozeliak has been sailing down the Mississippi on a steel raft for years, aided by the De-vault. The team, though, has been anything but a steel trap of nonsense.

A stop and go offense. Weak starting pitching. A bullpen already looked like it was left in the air fryer during the season finale of The Last of Us. A manager who doesn’t have answers, even if he can articulate every emotion that a losing season can evoke on a human.

He can’t get on the field, and spark action into these players. He can’t stop Matthew Liberatore’s location from spiraling. Oli can’t coax three seven-inning starts out of Jack Flaherty in a row. He can’t pull the old Waino out of his hat. People age, modern baseball medicine changes and evolves. Teams adapt or die; the Cardinals are slowly dying, because they won’t change.

Will they be sellers this year? I would place a money bet on it, no matter what is being said to the media in early June. They really should be if this poor play continues. The cornerstone talent isn’t going anywhere, and that starts with first and third before reaching immovable prospects like Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker. Those guys will give you what $10-15 million on the market *may* get you. They are keepers.

Brendan Donovan is an interesting case. He wouldn’t be someone a team would like to lose, and there’s a good argument to be made that he means more to St. Louis than most teams. However, if his name is put into a big deal with a nice package of talent in return, you consider it.

Flaherty? Nope. He’s expendable. Pitchers nearing 30 who aren’t aces or consistent pitchers get that tag without an ounce of their off-field opinions. Miles Mikolas? New extension probably says no, but a good deal can’t be avoided sometimes. Tommy Edman, Alec Burleson, Tyler O’Neill (no shit). Jordan Montgomery and Giovanny Gallegos are on that block, simply due to their value. Jordan Hicks as well.

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Rolling the dice on another Wainwright miracle is not paying off. No offense to a future Cardinal Hall of Famer, but he’s not going to return the investment on that $17.5 million. Franchise icon territory, but the thrill is gone there. He can’t be traded, though, and not for a good reason.

Here’s the thing. The Cardinals need to think practically this season, understanding the difference between a real run and one that just deletes a couple levels of embarrassment. While it would be nice to recover the hunt this summer and get back to .500 baseball, that gets harder every week this team loses two series and/or splits another. For example, a series sweep-avoiding 1-0 win in Texas last night needs to be followed by a legit winning streak.

It’s not the third week of the season anymore, the earliness of the schedule leaving one decision at a time. St. Louis has less than 100 games left, and they are speeding out the door. It will come down to the front office’s battle with their league-wide perception, the one where they attempt to change their philosophy on roster construction without doing much change at all. The Cardinals don’t want to look like sellers, because it’s bad for their brand.

2023 is starting to beg for a remodel, though. Your thoughts?

Thanks for reading.