Cardinals Face 'One Big Question' That Could Define Their Season

The St. Louis Cardinals have been one of the most compelling teams of the 2025 Major League Baseball season.

St. Louis entered the season with low expectations with many around the league pretty much expecting the season to be over before it even began. Trade rumors and speculation popped up pretty much every day picking the team clean with hypothetical deals to send the Cardinals' top starts to expected contenders.

The Cardinals have been better than expected and have a 36-30 record right now. The Cardinals are just 1 1/2 games out of a National League Wild Card spot right now. After all of the months of noise, we are just about six weeks away from seeing what the team is going to really do this summer.

The 2025 Major League Baseball trade deadline is on July 31st and these next roughly six weeks will be a sprint to it. St. Louis still seems to be in a spot where it could go in either direction. One long winning streak would shut down fire sale rumors whereas a losing streak could open the door to deals. They aren't heavily leaning in either direction, it seems.

The Athletic released their newest power rankings and had the Cardinals at No. 10 and had their "one big question" unsurprisingly as what the team will do at the deadline.

One big question: What do you do at the deadline? For a team that emphasized development above all in 2025, the Cardinals are certainly playing well," The Athletic's Johnny Flores Jr. said. "Sitting just one game back in the NL Wild Card standings, the Cardinals have as good a shot as any to make the postseason.

"So what do the Cardinals do at the deadline? Any one of Erick Fedde, Ryan Hesley, Phil Maton and Steven Matz could fetch a pretty nice return, especially with how the pitching market has shaped up. They could also help the Cardinals complete a surprise postseason run. Whether it’s a full fire sale, a deep October run or something down the middle, the Cardinals have some tough decisions to make in the coming weeks."

This is the question that has been on the minds of Cardinals fans all season to this point. We still are a few weeks away from an answer, though.