In the five months that make up Major League Baseball’s offseason, the St. Louis Cardinals have made just one major transaction. They traded utility player Michael Helman from the Minnesota Twins for cash, but the roster remains largely unchanged from the 2024 version aside from a few expiring free agents.

There have been no free agent signings or major trades surrounding the St. Louis Cardinals this offseason. Ten-time Gold Glover Nolan Arenado remains on the roster. Erick Fedde, Ryan Helsley and Steven Matz will be hired by the Cardinals next year. They have yet to sign a legitimate shortstop to fill the void left by Andrew Kittredge last year.

The growing apathy among the fan base last year has now turned into outright lethargy.

One of baseball’s largest and most loyal fan bases has now become resentful, distant, and disenchanted with the team. That’s bad news.

That sentiment is felt across the league, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. In his latest free agent update, Passan criticized the St. Louis Cardinals. According to Passan, St. Louis’ lack of moves this offseason “confuses executives across the board.” The Cardinals have a number of valuable players in trades, including Ryan Helsley, Erick Fedde, Sonny Gray, and Nolan Arenado. Rather than trade them or push harder to trade them, Mozeliak has decided to keep the roster he has.

Bill DeWitt Jr. doesn’t want to spend a lot of money on Arenado’s contract, and that’s been a point of contention between the Cardinals and the Red Sox so far. In a deal earlier this winter with the Houston Astros, it was reported that St. Louis would take over $15-20 million of Arenado’s contract to help facilitate the deal, but Arenado blocked the deal, as well as his rights to a no-trade clause.

Will that be enough to attract Boston, an organization that has relied on analytics over the past few years to build a competitive team? That remains to be seen.

Passan went on to write that the Cardinals are “an organization stuck in neutral, a feeling that led to John Moozeliak announcing he would leave after the 2025 season.” That decision to remain neutral has crippled any potential deals this offseason. While trading Arenado was the club’s primary goal all winter, that shouldn’t stop them from making other moves to help the team.

The St. Louis Cardinals could have taken several paths in this “rebuild”; they could have done some tearing down and traded away valuable players like Fedde, Helsley, Gray, and Arenado and brought in high-level prospects who could help in 2026 and beyond.

They could have committed to their current roster and added free agents to fill in the gaps or bolstered a mediocre roster. This would have given them a better chance of competing in the weak National League Central right now.

The final path, perhaps the worst option, is to do nothing. This is the most dangerous and least rewarding path both now and in the future. Now, the prospect pipeline has not been overhauled for a farm system that ranks in the middle of the league, and MLB’s 83-win list from last year has not improved.

Executives across the league have at least been inquiring with St. Louis Cardinal players and gauging management’s interest in making a trade. Rather than take advantage of a seller’s market that has seen free agent prices rise exponentially, John Mozeliak has chosen to do nothing.