The St Louis Cardinals are off to a mediocre start this season. After an Opening Weekend sweep of the Minnesota Twins, they dropped a series to the Los Angeles Angels and the first game of three to the Boston Red Sox. Their 4-3 record should not be fooling anybody; they are starting to rebuild. This offseason, they tried to trade Nolan Arenado but could not find the right suitor. Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley was on the trade block as well and spoke to ESPN's Jesse Rogers about that experience.

“I'll be the first to admit, I thought I was gone for sure,” Helsley told Rogers. “I mean if it's a reset, and this is my walk year, I thought I would be first to go. I was kind of surprised they brought me back.”

Helsley will be an unrestricted free agent after the season, which makes him a prime target for the trade deadline. The Cardinals should be active at the deadline, as there are other pending free agents on their team. This season also marks a transition from John Mozeliak to Chaim Bloom as their general manager. The former told Rogers why they are looking to rebuild.

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“Our business model has changed. There's less revenue on the TV side, we have less revenue on the ticket-sale side right now. We're trying to make adjustments as best we can. The one lever to pull is payroll when you're dealing with that.”

The Cardinals had 22 winning seasons from 2000-2022, with the only outlier coming in 2007. But after consecutive losing campaigns, the tide is changing in St Louis. Bloom is coming in after a year of refurbishing their minor-league operations. They hope that a new era of Cardinals baseball starts with Bloom after an active trade deadline. Helsley should be among the first go.