Hochman: Just what are the Cardinals selling the fans for 2025?
On Aug. 13, 2025, in likely a day game, the perpetually wretched Rockies will play the Cardinals that Wednesday at Busch Stadium.
Will anyone go?
In 2024, Cardinals attendance dropped drastically, stunningly and tellingly in August and September. The fans were fed up.
In 2025, the fans will suffer even more because of a mess the organization made.
On Monday, the Cardinals announced that payroll will likely go down in 2025. The team is undergoing a "reset," per John Mozeliak, who's back as president of baseball operations for one final year (even though he oversaw the making of the mess that the franchise is now trying to clean up). The Cardinals will invest heavily in revamping their minor league system. That means the major league payroll will take a financial hit, which implies trades of proven, standout players.
In other words, the young guys are going to play in 2025.
We might've seen the last of Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras in a Cardinals uniform.
Oh, and as seen on social media and in comment sections on s, the fans are furious that Mozeliak is back (Chaim Bloom, the former Red Sox and Rays executive working with St. Louis, will take over after the 2025 season).
So not only will the 2025 team, likely, be worse — but the fans are also already irate, six months before the home opener. Heck, January's Winter Warm-up might be chillier inside than outside.
Now, a reset makes sense in many regards (again, though, they put themselves in this position to begin with). The Cards have missed the playoffs in five of past eight full seasons, including the past two years. The minor league organization needs a major investment in resources (notably, coaches and technology) to make up for lost ground. But things like these aren't quick fixes.The 2025 major league team will suffer.
And sure, some Cards fans understand this has to happen. Many of those fans understand that, say, the 2027 Cardinals could be significantly better because of it. But man, if the losing starts early in 2025, one has to think the stadium will be emptier than ever before in May, June and July.
So just what are the Cardinals selling their fans?
"This is going to be where we're not focusing on necessarily, like, building the best possible roster we can — but we're also excited about the roster," Mozeliak said Monday following the team's news conference at Busch. "We do have a bunch of young players. We also have some emerging stars at the minor league level. And then it's how we potentially could augment that over the course of the next few months. Time will tell."
No question, there are some talented youngsters. Masyn Winn very well could earn a Gold Glove Award for his 2024 rookie campaign. Andre Pallante had a 3.56 ERA in his 20 starts. And Jordan Walker still has the promise to become, well, the Jordan Walker we thought he'd be.
"We've got a really nice core of young players," team President Bill DeWitt III said, "so I don't think we're going to be short of marketing messages to our fans in terms of what to look for and what to be excited about."
OK, sure. But let's be real. Nothing about the 83-win Cards trading away top veterans makes me think the 2025 Cards will be better. The Cardinals will take a step back in 2025, even if the likes of Walker, Winn, Nolan Gorman and Alec Burleson all become standout hitters. And who the heck is going to start these games on the mound? Probably a lot of Michael McGreevey and Gordon Graceffo.
The St. Louis Cardinals, this great franchise and heirloom passed down in families across this city, are on hiatus. Who knows exactly who we'll watch and what we'll watch next season (if St. Louis even watches at all), but it won't have the luster and allure of a jewel of the National League.
Then again, and I've written this often in the past years (even after 2022), the Cards have already lost a lot of luster. The whole goal is to build a team that annually contends for a pennant — well, they haven't won one since 2013. And since the start of 2015, the Cardinals have won one playoff round. So yeah, the "reset" could help the franchise get back on track.
But at what cost?
The Cardinals are losing fans in real time.
And fans who are sticking with the Cardinals are losing faith.
And the Cardinals are losing fans they would've made — especially young kids — if the team had actually been good the past two years.
And the losing in 2025 might take its toll on everyone.
There is little, at this point, for the Cardinals to sell to their fans for next season.
Perhaps the best selling point would be that Bloom is here to revive the franchise. But even he won't be the main boss until after this season.
We will inevitably see some of the emptiest Cards games in decades. Who can blame the fans? The price of attending the games is high.
And the organization is paying the price with this reset.
Sports columnist
