TBNL: Troubles in St. Louis; Houston will retire Wagner's No. 13

Several items this offseason would suggest that these are challenging times for the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cardinals are one of three teams (Milwaukee and Miami are the others) that have yet to sign a single player to an MLB contract this offseason. Minnesota was also in this group until signing left-handed reliever Danny Coulombe early Tuesday.

Much of the uncertainty started in late September with the club’s season-ending press conference. Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. was candid about the club’s plans despite missing the playoffs for two straight years:

• President of baseball operations John Mozeliak and manager Oliver Marmol would return.

• Payroll would be trimmed so the team could invest more in its player development staff and technology. Chaim Bloom, who has led front offices in Tampa Bay and Boston and has been an advisor for St. Louis since January 2024, will oversee those efforts.

• Mozeliak will retire following the 2025 season, with Bloom succeeding him.

The outside speculation about where the team will cut payroll began immediately and naturally centered on the club’s veterans on long-term contracts. Sonny Gray made it clear he wouldn’t waive his no-trade clause. So did Willson Contreras. Nolan Arenado, however, was willing to provide a short list of teams he would consider accepting a trade to.

While public reports may not always be accurate, Arenado has changed the list of teams he might accept a trade to a few times since. Only once has a deal looked close. St. Louis and Houston had an agreement in place in mid-December, but Arenado vetoed it.

St. Louis hasn’t been able to deal their veterans. They haven’t entertained trading their younger, controllable players either (Brendan Donavan was briefly mentioned as a possibility for the Yankees’ infield need, but nothing ever developed beyond the suggestion from someone in baseball media).

Further complicating things, Mozeliak spoke with the St. Louis Dispatch’s Derrick Goold in late January and suggested the quiet offseason was strategic:

Goold delves closer into the dynamic between Mozeliak and Bloom, noting that Bloom has been limiting his public appearances and interviews by design. His focus this season is entirely going to be on “setting up the systems he’ll then benefit from as president of baseball operations.”

The entire situation is a bit unusual for Mozeliak — his retirement has been planned and a successor named, but in the interim, the job is to “do nothing” for a year until that successor is ready to take over.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals roster remains in a state of status quo and a massive fanbase (the team drew 2.8 million fans last year) grows frustrated, disappointed, and impatient.

As if all that wasn’t enough, the club now has its former players voicing their discontent.

FanDuel Sports Network Midwest released a statement on Friday announcing that Jim Edmonds, who spent 8 of his 17 seasons in the major leagues in St. Louis, would not be returning to the club’s broadcast team. Edmonds had been involved with the Cardinals’ television broadcasts in some capacity for almost a dozen years, primarily working either as a color commentator or studio analyst.

Edmonds spoke with 101 ESPN’s “The Morning After” show in St. Louis on Monday and in a 45-minute interview he didn’t pull any punches:

Edmonds continued to discuss the lack of clubhouse culture, insinuated the team doesn’t do enough to welcome their former players to spring training, and finally stated that he’s likely finished working for the organization.

There is talent on the Cardinals roster but an offseason of inactivity is troubling. The timing is less than ideal when the other teams in their division have all found ways to improve their rosters to varying degrees. Should the group fail to come together better than they did last season, it could very well be a long year in St. Louis.

Stat of the Day

This one was too good not to share.

BBWAA publishes HOF ballot results

BBWAA Hall of Fame voters are asked whether to make their ballots public after the final voting results are announced (there is literally a box they check on the ballot itself). The majority share their ballots publicly via social media as they’re submitted, but some wait until the BBWAA releases their full list two weeks after the results announcement.

394 ballots were submitted this year, but the BBWAA’s public list only contains 321 names. 73 of those ballots remain anonymous.

The voter who left Ichiro off of his ballot? They’re still unknown.

Signing twins

Most of the analysis over this year’s international amateur class will likely wrap up with spring training upon us (and most teams have exhausted most if not all of their pool space), but MLB.com’s Jesse Borek published a story with a few of the more interesting signings from this year’s class that went under the radar.

Among them was Kansas City signing a set of twins from the Dominican Republic: Luis Ramón King, an outfielder, and Luis Stiven King, an infielder. Both are right-handed hitters, but Borek notes that Luis Ramón has the stronger arm and more power.

The story includes a tweet from Francys Romero suggesting that the Kings are the first set of twins signed together during an international period, but that’s incorrect.

In August 2012, on their 16th birthday, the Boston Red Sox signed a pair of identical twins from Venezuela. Both hit right-handed and they were the same height and weight. Luis Alejandro Basabe, an infielder, and Luis Alexander Basabe, an outfielder.

The pair remained together in Boston’s system for just over three seasons before they were traded in separate deals — Luis Alejandro in July 2016 as part of the return for Brad Ziegler and Luis Alexander in December 2016 as part of the return for Chris Sale.

Luis Alejandro reached Double-A with the D-backs in 2019 and retired after the 2020 season was canceled. Luis Alexander had his contract purchased from the White Sox by the Giants just before the 2020 season and he would briefly make his MLB debut that year, collecting two hits in 18 plate appearances over nine games. The Giants removed him from their 40-man roster following the season and he’d see very little playing time in the minors during that 2021 season.

Elsewhere, around the league …

• Houston announced that they will retire Billy Wagner’s No. 13 in a ceremony on August 16. Wagner will be inducted into the HOF in July.

• Ngayaw Ake, the CPBL’s all-time leader in home runs, has announced he will retire after this season. The 43-year-old infielder has hit .309/.386/.526 with 304 home runs over his 21-year career in Taiwan. Taipei’s Sanli News Network reports that Ake is looking to transition into a coaching role after the season, but for now, his focus is on reaching 2,000 career hits (he’s at 1,846).

• The Yankees finally added a left-handed reliever, re-signing Tim Hill to a deal that will pay him $2.5M this year with a $3M team option (w/ a $350K buyout) for 2026.

• Ryan Brasier was a casualty of the Dodgers’ aggressive offseason, getting pushed off the roster when the team signed Kirby Yates last week. Brasier was traded to the Cubs Tuesday evening for a player to be named later.