The 2025 season is officially a lost cause. On Wednesday night, the Cardinals fell 4-3 to the Giants and were officially eliminated from postseason contention. That marks three straight years without a trip
to October for the Cardinals. The last time that happened was from 2016-18. At 78-81, the Cardinals are also at risk of recording their second losing season in three years.
This has been a frustrating season to say the least, and for different reasons than one might think. I think I speak for almost everybody in the fanbase when I say that. It’s fair to be frustrated that things didn’t go well, and it’s fair to be frustrated about the direction of the club heading into 2026.
But there were a lot of annoying things about the 2025 team and season. In this piece, I will list the three I found most annoying about this year.
1. They couldn’t pick a lane
This was the most frustrating thing for me. At the beginning of the offseason, it looked like they were going to rebuild and trade players at their highest value to bring back quality prospects, restock the farm system and set themselves up well for 2026 and beyond. I personally was okay with them deciding to take a step back from contention and focus on rebuilding the infrastructure. That needed to happen.
However, all of that changed in December when John Mozeliak announced that he did not plan on trading Ryan Helsley and even came out and said that he intended for the Cardinals to be a contender this year. This comes after he and ownership had previously acknowledged that they wouldn’t be building the best possible Major League roster.
This was the moment that the 2025 season was a lost cause. Not in terms of them contending. We all knew that was unlikely. But it was a lost cause in terms of allowing the organization to take certain steps forward. They’ve made some upgrades to the infrastructure, but they could have really restocked the farm with elite talent if they had traded Helsley in the offseason at his highest value.
I don’t blame Mo for Nolan Arenado not being traded, but he should’ve capitalized on Helsley’s value while he still had the chance. Instead, Helsley lost value and ultimately didn’t bring back a great return for the Cardinals.
But beyond that, there were just mixed messages. It was more of the same tired nonsense that got fans frustrated in the first place, and it let to even more frustration.
2. The term “Runway”
This was a term that was thrown around from the start of the season when they couldn’t decide whether they wanted to win or rebuild. They framed it as a season in which young players would receive opportunities to prove themselves.
While it’s an accurate term, and while young players got opportunities to play, they weren’t fully committed to it. For example, Miles Mikolas and Erick Fedde remained in the starting rotation and they kept Michael McGreevy at Memphis until late July when Fedde was finally designated for assignment.
Other players such as Thomas Saggese were blocked, and there were still a lot of aging veteran players on the roster that could have potentially been traded. This is more of just a personal thing for me, but this was something that bothered me.
3. Announcers glazing the team
This was probably the most frustrating thing for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the announcers. Chip Caray, Brad Thompson, John Rooney, Ricky Horton, Alexa Datt, Scott Warmann, Mark Sweeney and Jim Hayes are great at what they do, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for all of them. But there were times this year when they just were a bit too optimistic about things, or maybe, weren’t blunt enough.
While the Cardinals were in their September slide, Chip and Brad kept talking about the Cardinals’ playoff chances, even though they were well out of the race and had several teams in front of them. I get that they can’t trash the team, but you have to be honest with yourself. Instead, they should’ve been talking about them playing spoiler on contenders if they wanted to talk nice.
There were also times when certain announcers would praise the Cardinals for certain things, even after a bad loss, and would somehow find the positives in something really bad about the team. On the flipside, after the Dodgers lost a no-hitter in the ninth inning against the Orioles in a game and ended up losing, their postgame crew was honest and called it an “unacceptable loss.” These were the announcers of one of the best teams in the league that is going to the postseason. Meanwhile, the Cardinals announcers were seemingly afraid to give honest assessments of the team.
Again, I’m not saying that they have to trash the team, because they can’t do that. That’s their job. But them pretending that this team was better than it really was really annoying, and it happened a bit too much for my taste.
Fans aren’t stupid. They know the state the team is in, and would rather hear the truth than hear people say what they think they want to hear. Expectations were low, and it’s hard to be super disappointed that the Cardinals missed the playoffs when they never had a chance to make it in the first place.
