The Cardinal’s offseason has brought many questions to the minds of Cardinal fans. Not only the additions, but also the subtractions as well as position changes.

One of the major additions this offseason was the trade for Marcell Ozuna. The Cardinals had to give up four prospects to the Marlins in order to acquire Ozuna including Sandy Alcantara, Magneuris Sierra, Zac Gallen, and Daniel Castano. Before the Ozuna trade talks broke out, the Cardinals were seriously interested in raining NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton. The Cardinals came up short losing to the Yankees for Stanton. Because of the acquisition of Ozuna the Cards had to make some space in the outfield. The Cards then were forced to give Stephen Piscotty up to the Oakland Athletics for minor-league infielders Max Schrock and Yairo Munoz. Mike Girsch wasn’t done trading his outfield. Just recently the Cardinals traded Randal Grichuk to the Toronto Blue Jays for two pitchers Dominic Leone and Conner Greene.

After Paul Dejong came up and had a huge offensive season and ended third in the NL Rookie of the Year voting, there wasn’t much room for Aledmys Diaz. Diaz was traded to the Blue Jays for J.B. Woodman, an outfield prospect. Diaz in years past was one of baseball’s brightest young stars. In fact going into the 2017 season Diaz was the Cards starting shortstop, but was then beat out by Paul Dejong.

Lots of trades have occurred, but there were also a couple of free agent signings such as Luke Gregerson and Miles Mikolas. Luke Gregerson spent his past years with the Houston Astros and actually just came off of a World Series win! He also spent his earlier years with the San Diego Padres.

There was a problem at the beginning of the offseason. With Jose Martinez playing so well this past year and no room to stick him in the outfield, the cards have announced him as their starting first baseman. There’s only one problem about that, where is Matt Carpenter going to play! Mike Girsch was interviewed and he said that Carp is going to have to play a major utility role. For those of you who don’t know what a utility role is, it is a player that can play multiple positions. Matt Carpenter has played a number of positions in the past. In 2013 he was the Cards starting second baseman and he actually made his first All-Star appearance that year. Since then he’s been moved from second base to third base, third base to the outfield, and from the outfield to first base. So this is nothing new to Carpenter.  

The final part to the Cardinals offseason was probably the most shocking to the fanbase. Yadier Molina said that after his current 3 year contract expired, he was going to retire. That means that Yadi’s final season will be the 2020 season. Yadi made his MLB debut on June 3, 2004. After his final season Yadi would have played 16 seasons in the MLB all for the Cardinals. Many think that after he retires he will comeback to be a coach for the Cardinals.

In the end this has been a really wild offseason for the Cards. There have been ups and downs, but in the end there is nothing better than going to Busch Stadium and watching the St. Louis Cardinals take the field no matter who is on the field.