COLUMN: Cardinals' youth movement takes center stage in Caravan visit

It’s a tradition unlike any other in Cape Girardeau.

When the climate is at its coldest, the St. Louis Cardinals send a Caravan of alumni and young up-and-comers to warm the spirits of the local fans with the reminder that we’re just weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training in Jupiter, Florida.

“It’s obviously just super cool to see all the fans and see how everybody supports the Cardinals,” Cardinals top infield prospect Thomas Saggese said. “Even in all this cold weather, to see how people are coming out and just watching us, it’s really cool just to see the support system.”

Three of the four Cardinals who visited the Osage Centre on Monday, Jan. 20, have either made their Cardinals debut or played out their rookie year in 2024. While sending younger players to these fan excursions is part of the tradition, their presence also brings up the theme of the mission of 2025 and beyond.

“I think it’s no secret that this team is going to be a little bit younger of a Cardinal team than fans are maybe used to seeing,” Cardinals pitcher Kyle Leahy said. “But a lot of us have come up together in the minor leagues. We’re close with each other. We want to go out there and we want to play well and we want to win. That’s the goal.”

The Cardinals are rebuilding on John Mozeliak’s way out the door. The outgoing president of baseball operations has based the offseason around parting ways with the aging stars he worked so hard to acquire years ago. Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado were traded in 2019 and 2021, respectively, with the hopes that such a star-studded duo would be the difference between exiting the playoffs early and winning the World Series.

Unfortunately, early playoff exits were the result before back-to-back seasons of missing the postseason entirely. A bounty of young talent left the nest in the process and were found soaring in other markets. While nobody from the Goldschmidt and Arenado trade packages has made the transaction regretful, the argument can be made that had Mozeliak simply sat on his hands and not made a trade with anyone starting in 2017, the Cardinals would have a rotation led by Zac Gallen and former Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara and a lineup led by Lance Thomas and Randy Arozarena.

The point is, there was a time in which the Cardinals had a farm system ripe with emerging talent that would put them against the mightiest of the game’s economic empires. Before Chaim Bloom can properly take over as the top baseball executive entering the 2026 season, the youth movement, as argued by those close to the Redbirds, needs to happen now.

“What the Cardinals are doing with the reset is necessary. They neglected the minor league system,” former Cardinals pitcher and current broadcaster Al Hrabosky said. “You used to have players come up in the minor leagues and they’re ready to play in the big leagues, and that’s not been the case.”

Cardinals fans in Cape Girardeau have been fortunate enough to see players from Tyler O’Neil to Nolan Gorman make an appearance before emerging as established big leaguers. Saggese has been the main draw this year, as he enters the 2025 season as the Cardinals’ No. 4 rated prospect by MLB Pipeline.

Coming off making his MLB debut and appearance in the Arizona Fall League in 2024, the power-hitting infielder is looking forward to the opportunity to compete for a spot in spring training and be a part of the Cardinals’ future foundation.

“I’m excited just because it’s a good opportunity for me to get up in the big leagues and play a lot, and hopefully spend most of the year there,” Saggese said. “I think individually and as a team we can open a lot of eyes.”

Relying on the youth has traditionally paid off for the Cardinals in the past. Whether or not it will lead to an improvement in the present is another story.