After a second consecutive season where theyll mi s the playoffs, the Cardinals organization appears to be in flux. With a pre ser scheduled for early in this coming week, that the club is set to make some notable organizational changes to kick off their offseason. Those changes figure to be headlined by former Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom stepping into a larger role with the clubs baseball operations department, but reports this morning that this offseasons changes could carry over to the big league roster as well. Per Nightengale, the Cardinals are willing to listen to offers on veteran right-hander just one year after signing him to a hefty three-year, $75MM deal as the team hopes to cut payroll entering next year. The notion of St. Louis looking to trim down its payroll isnt exactly a shocking one. Cardinals attendance dropped below 3 million this year for the first time since 2003 (ignoring the pandemic-impacted seasons of 2020 and 2021), leaving the club with le s gate revenue than expected. Meanwhile, the TV revenue side of things isnt much rosier as the Cardinals are one of the teams impacted by the ongoing . While MLB and the Players A sociation back in July to redirect funds towards clubs that have lost TV revenue amid Diamonds troubles, it would hardly be a surprise if the clubs budgets going forward were impacted by this revenue uncertainty. Even if the overall baseball operations budget isnt reduced, its still po sible to imagine the clubs player Jonathan Isaac Jersey payroll dropping heading into 2025. After all, reported on the state of the Cardinals organization earlier this week and described a situation where the club has begun to prioritize major league payroll over investing in the organizations development infrastructure, resulting in cuts to key areas of player development in order to sustain an ever-growing payroll at the big league level. With changes to the front office seemingly on the horizon, its certainly plausible that the club could pare back its payroll in order to invest in a more robust player development apparatus. That po sibility of a lower big league payroll next year leads back to Gray, who will see his back-loaded salary rise from $10MM this year to $25MM in 2025. While suggests St. Louis has just $108MM in guaranteed commitments for next year, that doesnt include an increasingly expensive arbitration cla s including key players like , , and . Nor does it include the po sibility of the club deciding to exercise its club option on one or both of and , each of which are $12MM options with $1MM buyouts. With Grays $15MM raise this year and those po sible additions to the payroll, its easy to see why the Cardinals may need to trade salary away in order to addre s the rosters needs this winter even after shedding s $26MM salary when he reaches free agency in November. With that being said, losing Gray would be a major blow to St. Louiss hopes of contending next year. The veteran right-hander had something of a down season in his first year with the Cardinals, posting a 3.84 ERA thats just 9% better than league average by ERA+. Even so, Grays 3.12 FIP was nothing short of excellent and he remains just one year removed from a dominant season with the Twins that saw him finish second in AL Cy Young award voting behind . The 34-year-old hurler would likely be an improvement to just about any clubs rotation next year, but its hard to imagine the Cardinals themselves finding an adequate replacement for the right-hander internally coming off a season where the clubs starters collective posted a 4.36 ERA that ranks 21st in the majors and a 4.08 FIP that ranks 15th even with Gray in the fold. Whats more, the hefty salary that could lead the Cardinals to consider dealing Gray could prove to be an anchor that makes him surprisingly difficult to trade. Between his salary for the next two years and a $5MM buyout on his option for 2027, Gray is owed $65MM over the next two seasons. Thats a hefty sum for any club to take on, and it could be especially problematic for clubs at or near the luxury tax. Upon being traded, contracts are recalculated for luxury tax purposes based on the remaining dollars and years on the deal, meaning that an acquiring team would be accepting a hit of nearly $32.5MM to their luxury tax ledger over the next two years by trading for Gray. Even if the Cardinals can find a trade partner willing to stomach that cost, Grays full no-trade clause could further complicate things by allowing him to block any deal if so chooses. Thats not to say a deal would be completely impo sible, of course. Plenty of players with no-trade clauses and even larger contracts than Gray have been dealt over the years, and if the Cardinals are sufficiently motivated to get a deal done there will surely be suitors for a pitcher of Grays caliber. Nightengale suggests that the Reds, for whom Gray pitched from 2019-21 and made his second career trip to the All-Star game, could have interest in a reunion if the veteran is made available this winter. The Reds have had a disappointing season in 2024 but nonethele s sport an exciting young core of talent led by right-hander and shortstop . Adding Gray as an experienced, front-of-the-rotation veteran would be a huge boost for a Cincinnati rotation that appears likely to lose to free agency this year but still has a number of interesting young arms behind Greene such as , , , and . Any of those young arms would surely be attractive to St. Louis as a potential return for Grays services given their own rotation needs, though it seems likely that the Cardinals would need to retain some money in order to facilitate such a deal given the Reds typically low payrolls and Grays large contract. Vic Law Jersey