Perfect time to go all in on a teardown/rebuild

[billybaseball]

Most teams that are in the Cardinals position enter a rebuild with an over-the-hill team that's window has closed. Their farm system would be barren due to trading prospects in a win now situation. Like the San Diego Padres for example. The Cardinals enter their rebuild with a system that is at least top 10 but fangraphs just valued it as #1. We'll likely be adding at least a top 10 pick(unless they get ridiculously unlucky) and adding some top prospects through trade this offseason.

We have multiple injured pitchers that have potential to be top end prospects and guys like Lin, Dutkanych and Molina who looked to be on the verge of a big breakout to finish the season.

A few guys offensively who could have breakout years.

-Deniel Ortiz who made his way through the hitters hell that is palm beach and broke out in peoria with a .938 ops in 30 games. He has the statcast data to back up his success too. Kind of surprised he hasn't moved up our prospect list more.

-Yairo Padilla. Still just 18(6/28 bday). He has an advanced hit tool with a good eye and contact skills but he is a twig and hasn't hit for any power yet. Some guys just never can beef up but if he does, his potential is sky high. Plus arm, defense and speed.

-Sebastion did Santos. Don't know much about him outside of his statline. 17 yr old put up an OPS of 1.022 with an 18% BB and 17% K. Will be very interested to see if he gets any offseason helium like Rodriguez and Padilla did after their DSL seasons. This is the only scouting report I could find.

For $75,000, the Cardinals signed 17-year-old Venezuelan shortstop Sebastian Dos Santos, who stands out for his glove. He’s a skinny 6-foot shortstop who defends his position well. He’s not a big runner, but he’s an instinctive fielder with a nose for the ball, soft hands and a good internal clock. Dos Santos is a switch-hitter who tracks the ball well with a contact-oriented approach and will need to add strength to drive the ball with more extra-base impact.

-Emanuel Luna. Not technically a member of the Cardinals organization yet but he's out top international FA signings this year. Ranked 8th OA and is the type of big name DR prospect we haven't been able to sign since the Wagner Mateo fiasco. He's a physically mature prospect so he's the type of international prospect who could move quickly

[craviduce]

Strop and Hunter are probably going to get the DSL attention. Hunter for his 2025 line of work (no power, but plenty of other good things). Strop for his name... but he did have loud contact....couldn't stay on the field, oft injured.

[Ronnie Dobbs]

Most teams that are in the Cardinals position enter a rebuild with an over-the-hill team that's window has closed. Their farm system would be barren due to trading prospects in a win now situation. Like the San Diego Padres for example. The Cardinals enter their rebuild with a system that is at least top 10 but fangraphs just valued it as #1. We'll likely be adding at least a top 10 pick(unless they get ridiculously unlucky) and adding some top prospects through trade this offseason.

I agree with you, but will take slight issue with the terminology. For the reasons that you stated, I don't think I would consider this a full teardown and rebuild like we've seen other teams do. And I think a lot of that reason comes from the way that the Cardinals have traditionally operated for years, as well as how they handled the situation with bringing in Bloom.

Just traditionally, the Cardinals weren't a team that was going to be weighed down with a bunch of huge contracts to a bunch of veterans. Yea, we gotta trade Arenado, but keeping Grey or Contreras will not kill the rebuild. It might actually help the young guys to have those guys in the team to learn from. And the team never really got that bad. A .500 team is unacceptable for this organization, but still better than some teams when they start their rebuild. The Cardinals have a pretty decent core to build around, and some decent parts to trade as well.

Also, I've said it before, but I think that they were able to get a jumpstart in this rebuild by bringing Bloom into the fold for an entire year, letting him work on rebuilding the developmental system in his vision for the entire next year, before fully taking over a few days ago. I know people wanted Mo fired last year or whatever, and I'll say that they probably should have started their rebuild after 2023 when the writing was on the wall, but that didn't happen. And maybe it ended up working out since we then had the chance to get Bloom on board. This way, Bloom got a year to totally evaluate the organization, then he got a full year after he was hired to build it up, and he never had to take the hits of the losing season.

Mo got hit with all that negativity and now Bloom gets to come in with the system already set up for the most part l, he avoids having a bunch of the fan base angry about this last season, and he can get to work. To your point we actually have a decent farm system right now to build from. Might not pay off next year, aside from JJ, but they'll be more coming in 2027. And we won't have big money locked in for that season as well. We will be able to supplement via free agency or taking on some money in a trade if needed.

So, yea, I think that we could end up getting out of this quicker than people might think.

[C-Unit]

We can only hope that the injuries to guys like Roby and Hjerpe (and still Hence, I guess) will put them on a nice timetable to be coming up in a closer time window to R. Rodriguez or Deniel Ortiz. You can get Wetherholt and Winn both extended and settled, and then let the rest of the core develop around them.

[Dicktar2023]

BDW is going to try to win 85 games next season and scrap for a WC spot. Bloom will be allowed to make one major move this winter, and then he's going to start talking about how we all need to be patient, because 2026 is going to be a make-or-break year for some of these young players like Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker.

This is our life now.

[AZ_Cardsfan]

BDW is going to try to win 85 games next season and scrap for a WC spot. Bloom will be allowed to make one major move this winter, and then he's going to start talking about how we all need to be patient, because 2026 is going to be a make-or-break year for some of these young players like Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker.

This is our life now.

I think we just saw the make or break for Gorman. I agree 2026 is Walkers time to put up of fade away.

Not saying dump Gorman. I might be wrong and given an everyday role at 3B he might emerge.