BERNIE BITS
1. John Mozeliak on Ryan Helsley: speaking to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Cardinals’ president of baseball operations spoke about the possibility of trading Helsley, who set a franchise record with 49 saves last season. But first, here is Rosenthal’s setup. “Teams talking to the Cardinals are under the impression the team will hold Helsley, and Mozeliak does not dispute that point.”
As Mozeliak told Rosenthal: “It’s something we will always remain open-minded to, but our plan is to have him be part of our organization,” Mozeliak said.
Translation: the Cardinals are unimpressed by what teams say they’re prepared to offer – at least so far – so Mozeliak is doing the smart thing here in trying to make them come to the table with considerably better proposals.
Helsley can become a free agent after the 2025 season. His trade value would be at its highest point right now, because (A) he’s coming off a career-best year and (B) a team that acquires Helsley will put him in place for the full ‘25 campaign including postseason.
Of course, the Cardinals could also put Helsley up for auction in time for the July 30 MLB trade deadline. But it’s also true that the Cardinals would receive nothing for Helsley if the superb closer is knocked out of the season by an arm/shoulder injury. And a rare opportunity to strengthen the future by adding a couple of good prospects by trading Helsley will be gone.
2. Jim Montgomery has made a high-impact difference since taking over as Blues coach on Nov. 25. As I type this, the Blues are 3-0-1 overall under Monty and that includes 3-0 on the road. In their three road wins, the Blues outscored opponents 12-3. In their four games with Montgomery directing them, the Blues have scored 70 percent of the goals during the competition. To put that in perspective, the Blues scored only 41.3 percent of the goals in Drew Bannister’s 22 games as coach this season.
One obvious change can be spotted in the territories near each team’s goal. The Blues didn’t generate enough close-in chances with Bannister as coach. The ice was tilted to the wrong side, with Blues goaltenders Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer getting pelted with a plethora of high–danger shots.
+ Percentage of goals scored in all games: 41.3% (Bannister) to 70% (Montgomery.)
+ Percentage of scoring chances: 45.8% (Bannister) to 52.5% (Montgomery.)
+ Percentage of high-danger chances: 45.7% (Bannister) to 58.3% (Montgomery.)
+ By tilting the ice in the Blues’ favor, Montgomery’s team has allowed the lowest rate of goals against per 60 minutes (1.5) in the NHL. Under Bannister, the Blues ranked 25th with a yield of 3.33 goals against per 60 minutes.
Yep, it’s only been only four games, but we’ve seen the Blues’ identity evolve. And that’s no surprise considering that Montgomery has the fourth-highest points percentage (.662) in NHL history among coaches that have worked at least 300 regular-season games.
3. Bengie Molina on the campaign trail: Yadier Molina’s big brother stopped by the 101 ESPN morning show this week. He told the audience Yadi wanted to manage the Cardinals. Bengie also said that Yadi has “offers” from other major-league teams to come manage their clubs. Bengie also said that if Molina managed the Cardinals, imagine what it would be like if Albert Pujols signed on as hitting coach, and Adam Wainwright moved in as the pitching coach. Bengie also said that Yadier prefers to wait a couple of years until his son graduates from (high) school.
Instant reactions from this corner:
– The Cardinals already have a manager in Oli Marmol, and he’s under contract through 2026. Now, you may not like this, but he is the manager and he does have a contract. That’s a fact. And management has shown patience with Marmol and seems to like him … even if you don’t.
– I don’t know what jobs Molina has been offered to manage in the majors, but all 30 positions are filled right now.
– Pujols also wants to manage in the big leagues. So what happens if Pujols and Molina are vying for the same job?
– Chaim Bloom will be in charge of the entire baseball operation at the end of the 2025 season. He was given a five-year contract by Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. And Bloom has DeWitt’s full support.
– The Cardinals haven’t hired a head of baseball operations from outside the organization since club president Mark Lamping hired Walt Jocketty in October, 1994. (Mozeliak, already in the front office, was promoted to the top job after the 2007 season.) DeWitt thinks highly of Bloom, and he’ll give Bloom the authority to hire the manager the next time the Cardinals are looking for one. You don’t bring Bloom in here and overrule his choice of a manager in order to hire a Cardinal legend. That wouldn’t be fair to Bloom. It would damage Bloom’s credibility. DeWitt won’t undermine Bloom’s authority over the baseball office.
4. Jim Bowden (The Athletic) is among the many baseball pundits doing some offseason matchmaking, and he’s pitching this idea: the Cardinals bundle Helsley and third baseman Nolan Arenado, send them to Philadelphia, and in return the Phillies would trade third baseman Alec Bohm and a prospect. Bowden suggested outfielder Dante Nori, 20 years old, who was Philly’s first-round draft choice in 2024.
My reaction? Alec Bohm? No thanks. If the Cardinals trade Arenado, they’ll do so (in part) to open third base for an audition of sorts. The candidates are Nolan Gorman, Thomas Saggese, Brendan Donovan, and top position-player prospect (J.J. Wetherholt.) Though, if you ask me, Donovan is more valuable as an all-purpose piece that can be moved around to several positions.
But adding Bohm does little for a team that supposedly is using 2025 as a tryout showcase for their younger players. And third base is a prime position in the planning. And based on arbitration estimates, he’ll make $8.1 million in 2025. I’d rather see the position opened up to internal competition.
OK, so why am I growling about Bohm?
– He’s 28 and will turn 29 next August. Not old. But not young. And he’d come with two years of service time. Which doesn’t really help the Cardinals because Wetherholt has a chance to emerge as their third baseman of the near future … unless Gorman has a huge rebound in 2025. Bohm will make around $10 million in 2026 before heading to free agency.
– Bohm’s career slugging percentage is .416. That’s fine. But not robust. His OPS+ over the past three seasons is eight percent above the league average offensively. In fairness, Bohm did slug .448 in 2024. Can he do it again?
– Bohm had a good first half last season and started the All-Star game for the NL at third base. But after the All-Star break Bohm had a .299 OBP and .382 slug … and broke down late in the season – batting .196 with a .272 slug in the final 24 regular-season game.
– Bohm, who bats from the right side, has a career .377 slugging percentage against right-handed pitching. Busch Stadium is a hard yard for hitters.
– Bohm was benched for Game 2 of the NLDS, reportedly because of a bad attitude. He went 1 for 13 in the series loss to the Mets.
OK, what about the attitude? Retired MLB catcher A.J. Pierzynski, a two-time All-Star, offered details on his “Foul Territory” podcast:
“There are some people around that organization that aren’t huge fans of the way he acts sometimes,” Pierzynski said. “And I am just going to leave it at that. There are some people that have said he needs to basically grow up a little bit. He got benched in the playoffs …It came from people around and have a lot of knowledge about the Phillies. That he needs to take the next step as a maturing adult.”
Does that sound like a dude you want hanging around your young, impressionable players?
5. Finally today, here’s an excerpt from longtime baseball analyst Joe Sheehan, who used his insightful newsletter to write about Bloom’s hiring.
“During the playoffs, the Cardinals announced their plan for the future. Chaim Bloom, who spent 2024 as a consultant focused on pitcher development, will become the team’s president of baseball operations after the 2025 season,” Sheehan wrote. “GM Michael Girsch, who I long thought was John Mozeliak’s successor, instead becomes the VP of special projects. Mozeliak will step aside for Bloom after the coming season.
“The Cardinals are coming off what is, for them, a slump, missing the playoffs in consecutive seasons. They’d become more reliant on outside talent, especially pitching, with a 2024 starting rotation signed almost entirely out of free agency and a lineup filled with expensive stars in early or late decline. Most importantly, and where Bloom spent his time over the last year, the team was falling behind in player development staffing and processes. They’d stopped keeping up with what the best organizations were doing.
“Bloom, in three years in Boston — one during a pandemic — rebuilt the Red Sox system into one that now may be the best in baseball. (Red Sox executive) Craig Breslow will be dining on the meals Bloom cooked for years to come. The Cardinals have every reason to expect the same from Bloom, and the hope is that the five-year contract they signed with him means he’ll get the chance to finish the job, unlike in Boston.
“As someone who has been a defender of the Cardinals’ organization, the problems with player development were becoming hard for me to ignore. The need to sign three starters last year because the organization couldn’t develop its own was a red flag. I think John Mozeliak has done an excellent job for the Cardinals, and some of what he didn’t do was more about ownership.
“Replacing him with Bloom, though, is a step forward. What Bloom does won’t show up immediately — it’s only now taking flight in Boston, five years after his hire — but given time he’ll have the Cardinals back as the dominant team in the NL Central.”
You should subscribe to the Joe Sheehan newsletter. It would make a nice Christmas gift for the baseball fan in your life. Or it would be a nice gift from you to you. Go to JoeSheehan.com
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
A 2023 inductee into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Bernie has provided informed opinions and perspective on St. Louis sports through his columns, radio shows and podcasts since 1985.
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Stats used in this column were sourced from Baseball Reference, FanGraphs, Statcast, and Baseball Prospectus.
