Cardinals Star Not Predicted To Receive $21 Million Qualifying Offer

With the St. Louis Cardinals not in the playoffs and free agency quickly approaching, each day there is more and more speculation about what the club will do.

Sadly, the Cardinals are no longer playing games, so there is nothing to report on from that front. The Cardinals missed the playoffs for the second straight season and finished the campaign with an 83-79 record.

St. Louis finished in second place in the National League Central, but was 10 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the top spot.

The 2024 campaign certainly was an improvement from 2023. In 2023, the Cardinals won just 71 games. St. Louis took a step in the right direction and now is at a crossroads. The organization has made it known that it will be using the 2025 campaign to reset the team.

St. Louis has been in unfamiliar territory the last two seasons, and although it finished above .500 in 2024, changes are on the way. One of the first decisions the Cardinals will have to make is about first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.

He has been with the team over the last six years, and it has been reported that the two sides wouldn't continue their partnership. The door certainly isn't closed, but it is something to watch for.

One of the easiest ways the Cardinals could continue their partnership is by offering Goldschmidt the qualifying offer. It would be a one-year deal worth just over $21 million. But, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Derrick Goold doesn't think that is going to happen.

"I don't believe so, based on what I have been told from sources," Goold said. "But I do reserve the right to circle back with them in the near future to see if the Cardinals have learned anything this month that suggests they might try to snag a draft pick there. The Cardinals have expressed a wish to accumulate draft picks, and I want to see if that conversation has taken them to a new view of the QO since I last checked."

This doesn't mean that Goldschmidt won't be back in 2025, but it does sound like the qualifying offer will be used on him.