ST. LOUIS – It’s John Mozeliak’s final year as St. Louis Cardinals President of Baseball Operations makes a switch and promotes Chaim Bloom to the position.

Mozeliak spoke to media members for nearly half an hour Saturday during the Cardinals’ annual Winter Warm-Up event, addressing the team’s offseason and future in depth.

These are among the most notable remarks from Mozeliak at the 2025 Winter Warm-Up ahead of the new season.

Nolan Arenado’s future in St. Louis

In his opening statements, Mozeliak admitted that the Cardinals have had a quiet offseason in terms of player acquisitions, hinting that some decisions might be influenced by the team’s ongoing efforts to trade Nolan Arenado amid a roster reset. He says the Cardinals are in a “holding pattern” with completing a trade after Arenado reportedly used his no-trade clause to block a deal to the Houston Astros.

Mozeliak hopes to have some clarity on Arenado’s future with the Cardinals, but says that’s not guaranteed.

“It is something in time he and I will have to talk to if the reality is he has to join us and camp, and what that looks like. We’ll continue to try to find a place that he’s happy with, and we’ll use our time as best we can.”

Free Agency

Mozeliak says he has not made any aggressive offers for any free agents this offseason, but has had some conversations.

As for Roki Sasaki, a Japan pitching star who just joined the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday after competitive sweepstakes, Mozeliak said “We knew early on we were not a landing spot for him.”

Cardinal Direction

As Chaim Bloom prepares to take over as the Cardinals’ lead executive after the 2025 season, Mozeliak says the team’s ongoing reset is essential to provide roster flexibility for the next leadership team.

“My ultimate goal is to try to create a pretty clean slate for my successor so they would have the ability to do really whatever they wanted to do,” said Mozeliak.

As for the current team, Mozeliak says it’s largely one where young guys will compete to claim larger roles.

“I’m still pretty optimistic about this current group, hedging a lot the bat on these younger players stepping forward, but I really think some of these young guys are very talented, and given the right opportunity and the right setting, they could be successful. That’s the play.”

Broader look of Cardinals

Where do the Cardinals stand among MLB’s biggest spenders? Mozeliak touched upon evolving markets for talent and how the Cardinals hope to regain an edge.

“When you think about the arch of the last 30 years of baseball, there’s always been some big players in terms of if they want to dictate the market. I think there are new teams to emerge to join them, and a couple of teams that seem to be in and out of it [year-after-year]. There’s that natural ebb and flow.

Specifically about where that fits with the Cardinals, for 25 years, we’ve always been able to punch above our weight. Part of that was our fanbase, part of that was the TV deal we had, and we’ve always been able to leverage that. As these markets start to shift, clearly there are teams willing to invest at a higher rate than they were 15-20 years ago. That competitive playing field is getting more difficult to navigate. In the end, you still see teams with lower payrolls competing.

We’re going to have to find that sweet spot between scouting, development, and augmenting with the free agent market.”

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