rewrite this title Cardinals POBO staying ‘fluid’ and ‘open-minded’ as deadline looms

DENVER — St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said he is getting an increased number of phone calls as the MLB trade deadline approaches.

For a Cardinals team that looked to be a potential postseason contender in the season’s first half, that’s not a positive sign about the team’s direction.

St. Louis is just 3-7 over its last 10 games, and that includes a three-game sweep at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks to start the second half of the season. The Cardinals entered Monday’s series opener in Denver against the Colorado Rockies 3.5 games out of the final National League wild-card spot and at 51-49 overall, sitting in fourth place in the NL Central.

“Obviously, where we are in the standings definitely affects our decision-making moving forward in the trading deadline. So playing those three games (in Arizona after the All-Star break) and losing all three is not helpful,” Mozeliak said. “Obviously, we wanted to come out of the break have a positive start to it. We didn’t.

“So as we reflect on really what’s best for the organization, there is the long review. Are there decisions that we can make that would better situate the franchise in ’26 and beyond? So obviously, we have a lot of players that people have interest in, and we have to sort through all that before we make a determination exactly what a scenario would look like.”

Mozeliak said that the decision about how much the Cardinals will sell (and if at all) is still “fluid” and the franchise is staying “open-minded” about what could happen between now and July 31 at 6 p.m. EST.

“Clearly the weekend was not what we wanted to see,” Mozeliak said. “Now we’ve got to understand what the future looks like.”

That future could include one without All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado. Under contract through the 2027 season and armed with a no-trade clause, Arenado rejected a trade to the Houston Astros based on the timeline needed to swing a deal.

Heading into the trade deadline, Mozeliak said he would have “a good understanding” of where Arenado stood on that, planning to talk to the third baseman about his trade deadline thoughts in the coming days.

Mozeliak indicated he would listen to all offers on Arenado or other members of the roster.

“Obviously putting emotions aside, if something were to make sense that allows us to feel like we’re improving for the future, then it might be worth a conversation,” he said. “I don’t know if any of that will exist or that’ll happen, but I don’t want to put ourselves in a situation where we just don’t want to explore anything.”