John Mozeliak, the President of Baseball Operations for the St. Louis Cardinals, met with the media at the Cardinals’ annual Winter Warm-Up. After initially fielding offers on starters Steven Matz and Erick Fedde at the beginning of the offseason, the Cardinals executive has now pulled the pair off the table, for the time being.

The Cardinals entered the offseason with the expectation of a “youth movement”. However, holding on to a handful of veteran starting arms does not align with that thought, especially with many young prospects looking to break into the rotation for the Cardinals. That list includes right-hander Michael McGreevy, who was excellent in his handful of appearances for the Redbirds.

Baltimore was a suggested landing spot for Fedde at the 2024 deadline but if there is any current interest from Mike Elias, it will have to wait. Fedde was a member of the Washington Nationals during their 2019 World Series Championship season.

Following performance issues with Washington in 2021 and 2022, Fedde went to play baseball in the KBO for a season, where he won the KBO’s Most Valuable Player in 2023.

After his return to MLB in 2024, Fedde was one of the few bright spots on the historically awful Chicago White Sox. He was moved to St. Louis at the deadline and finished the season with a 3.30 ERA between the two teams. Although Baltimore might not be interested as of now, Fedde is a name that could begin to come up again in July.

Steven Matz has been hampered by injuries and while he may not be the most enticing option on the market, he would give the Orioles another left-handed option. Matz is certainly the least sought after option that the Cardinals have. Along with the injures, he unfortunately comes with an abysmal payroll obligation. The Cardinals signed Matz to a four year contract in 2022, back-loading the contract and giving the lefty a $12.5 million salary this year.

Injuries have hampered Matz his entire career, back to when he was a piece of the puzzle for the 2015 NL Champion New York Mets. Matz has never lived up to the hype of being the number one prospect in Queens but if Matz is healthy in July and the Cardinals are out of contention, he may be a trade piece to look at.

However, the most eye-catching potential move would be trading for the Cardinals ace, Sonny Gray. Although, Gray emphasized that he would not be waiving his no-trade clause. Gray was also available to the media at the Cardinals’ Winter Warm-Up and of his commitment to St. Louis, he told fans “This is still where I want to be”.

After the loss of Corbin Burnes, if the Orioles had the opportunity to acquire a pitcher like Gray, you would think that they would have to consider the options. Gray would bring a mentality of dominance to the Orioles rotation and is one of the leagues truest competitors.

But for now, the Cardinals are standing firm with their guys and the Orioles will have to wait until the season begins to unfold before looking their way again.