The Cardinals are looking to prove that last year was a fluke. They bolstered their pitching staff to help them bounce back in 2024, but did they do enough? Major League Signings RHP : (including buyout of 2027 club option) RHP : (including buyout of 2025 club option) RHP : (including buyout of 2025 club option) RHP : (including buyout of 2025 club option) SS : 1B/DH : (Braves paying remainder of his 2024 salary) 2024 spending: $42MM Total spending: $107MM Option Decisions None Trades and Claims RHP from Mariners IF/OF off waivers from Cubs OF to the Red Sox for RHPs and OF to Rays for RHP 1B/OF off waivers from Angels RHP to Angels for cash considerations Notable Minor League Signings , Extensions Signed IF/OF to a to avoid arbitration Notable Lo ses (non-tendered), (non-tendered), (non-tendered), (non-tendered), (released to sign in KBO), , Its very rare for the Cardinals to go into an offseason on the heels of a ma sive disappointment. In this millennium, they have mi sed the playoffs eight times and only twice finished below .500. Last year was one of those two, as they went 71-91 and finished fifth in the National League Central for the first time ever. The rotation was a clear target area for change, as the clubs starters posted a collective 5.08 earned run average last year, a mark better than just four other clubs. Three spots were opened by last years trades of impending free agents and , as well as the retirement of . There were rumors that the club may use its position player surplus to swing a trade that would upgrade the rotation, but they instead jumped in the free agent market early. By the end of November, they had already signed , and . Whether that was the best way to go about upgrading the rotation is a matter of debate, especially with the club having also been connected to exciting names like , and at times this winter. Lynn will turn 37 years old this year and is coming off a rough campaign in 2023. He posted a 5.73 ERA between the White Sox and Dodgers while allowing 44 home runs, plus another four long balls in his one postseason start. Gibson has been a fairly reliable innings eater but doesnt have much upside at this point in his career. Hes now 36 and finished each of the past two seasons with an ERA near 5.00. Gray is the most exciting of their pickups, as he just finished second to in American League Cy Young voting after a 2.79 ERA season with the Twins. But theres some downside risk with Gray as well, as the Cards may have made a proverbial buy-high move. Grays 184 innings in 2023 were his highest tally since 2015, as he has had various injuries to deal with over the years. Hes now 34 years old and already going into 2024 with a health concern, thats left him questionable for Opening Day. Some fans wanted the club to continue adding to the rotation, especially with having struggled so much since signing a four-year deal in St. Louis. The clubs interest in Cease reportedly lingered even after making those three signings, but nothing came together. That leaves Matz still a part of the projected rotation, especially with Grays injury, and the Cards hoping for a bounce back. The much-discu sed position player surplus didnt end up factoring into the rotation, but it did affect the pitching staff in other ways. There was rumored interest in players like , and , but the Cards instead flipped as their biggest trade this winter. ONeill, who is an impending free agent and previously clashed with manager , was flipped to Boston for and . Robertson should be able to help the clubs bullpen right away, as he already has 22 1/3 big league innings under his belt. Santos adds some non-roster depth for the rotation, but he mi sed all of 2023 due to injury and has fewer than 45 Triple-A innings on his ledger. The club made another move that sent out a position player for a Duane Kuiper Jersey reliever, as was flipped to the Rays and . It may have been underwhelming for some fans as Kittredge is turning 34, mi sed most of the past two seasons due to Tommy John surgery and is a mere rental. But Kittredge was utterly dominant in 2021 and the Cards had just grabbed Palacios off the DFA pile in June. The bullpen was padded in other ways, as Middleton was brought aboard on a one-year, $6MM deal in free agency after a resurgent showing in 2023. The Cards also grabbed in a small trade and selected in the Rule 5 draft. On the position player side of things, very little has changed from last year, apart from those moves. and will still be the anchors at the infield corners. The big question is the shortstop position, as the era is now over. The club is hoping top prospect is the shortstop of the future, but hes just about to turn 22 years old and hit only .172/.230/.238 in his first 137 major league plate appearances. Theres probably a bit of bad luck in there, since his .196 batting average on balls in play in that time was well below league average. He also posted a solid slash line of .288/.359/.474 in Triple-A last year. The club has plenty of faith that he can post better results in a larger sample of work, but they also added a bit of insurance. Long-time Giants shortstop was signed to a modest one-year deal, though Crawford and the clubs decision makers made it clear that Winn is the starter. Crawford is merely around to offer guidance from his years of experience, and to serve as a safety net in the event of an injury or perhaps Winn not securing the job as hoped. Winns emergence pushed to center field, which is partially what caused such a logjam on the gra s and led to the ONeill and Palacios trades. On paper, Edman was going to be in center, flanked by and , with Carlson, Burleson and Donovan also in the mix for playing time. Those plans are currently on hold, as both Edman and Nootbaar are questionable for Opening Day due to injuries, though that will hopefully just be a short-term situation. The club also hopes to have bolstered its bench by bringing in old friend . His 2022 renai sance didnt continue into 2023, so San Diego traded him to Atlanta in a salary-dumping deal. Atlanta took on Carpenters salary to get lefty , then promptly released Carpenter. That freed him up to return to St. Louis, with the Cards only having to pay the prorated league minimum for any time hes on the roster. If he can have yet another renai sance, they will have found lightning in a bottle. If not, they can move on without really having lost much of anything beyond the opportunity cost. Though the club is making an earnest effort to return to contention in 2024, they also did little to commit themselves beyond this year. Other than Gray, all of their signings were one-year deals. They have some interest in extending , though president of baseball operations John Mozeliak they may kick those talks into the season until they see how things are going. I think right now, I think everybody just wants to see how this season starts. You know, obviously, we want to get off on the right track, and then we can addre s things like that, Mozeliak said. Goldschmidt is an impending free agent and will turn 37 during the upcoming season. The club obviously likes to keep franchise legends around, with , and Wainwright all running out the clock in St. Louis in recent years. But with Goldschmidt, perhaps the club wants to wait and see if their planned bounceback season actually comes to fruition before they start committing future dollars. If they fall back again, Goldschmidt could be one of the best rental bats available at the summer deadline. They may want to keep that door open. What also may be an i sue is the clubs TV revenue uncertainty. The Cards are one of the clubs who is under contract with Diamond Sports Group, who once seemed like they were going to cease operations after 2024. The company has managed to stay afloat for now by selling some streaming rights to Amazon, but its still unclear how viable their long-term plan is. The Cards get per year from Diamond and may want closure on that situation before making big decisions about the future. In the end, it amounts to a half-in, half-out offseason. They made one splashy move by signing Gray but otherwise kept various long-term paths open. Are they good enough to compete this year? How much TV money is coming in? Will they keep Goldschmidt around or pivot to a post-Goldy era? Theres a lot that needs to be revealed this year, but for now, the club patched their biggest holes. That may be enough in the NL Central, where theres no clear frontrunner and its arguable that each of the five teams are in position to potentially surge ahead. Though the signings of Lynn and Gibson werent as sexy as getting someone like Cease or Yamamoto, both and think the Cards are now the best team in the division, so maybe a couple of floor-raising moves and some bouncebacks will be enough to take the Central in the end. How would you grade the Cardinals' offseason? C 47.98% (2,130votes) B 22.75% (1,010votes) D 20.14% (894votes) F 6.80% (302votes) A 2.32% (103votes) Total Votes: 4,439 Jeffrey Leonard Jersey