In their first official transactions in weeks, the St. Louis Cardinals settled with three of their six arbitration-eligible players ahead of MLB’s deadline on Thursday afternoon.
Ryan Helsley, JoJo Romero and John King agreed to one-year contracts for the 2025 season.
The Cardinals were unable to reach agreements with Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan and Andre Pallante, and are likely to proceed to hearings for those players during spring training. All three players are eligible for arbitration for the first time in their careers.
That St. Louis did not come to terms with Nootbaar, Donovan and Pallante is relatively surprising, as all figure to be pivotal pieces in 2025. The organization has spoken at length about the importance of providing consistent playing opportunities to their upcoming core next season and plans for Donovan and Nootbaar to be everyday players. St. Louis also penned Pallante into its rotation plans after his encouraging second-half performance last year. His 3.47 ERA in the latter half of the 2024 season was the lowest mark of the Cardinals’ rotation.
However, the first year of arbitration — commonly referred to as a player’s platform year — is often considered the most important, as it sets a salary floor of sorts. Players negotiate arbitration contracts for three seasons after accruing three years of major-league service time. (The exception to this is when a player qualifies for Super 2 status, a designation that allows certain players to reach arbitration after two seasons. Pallante qualifies as a Super 2 player.) A lower salary in a player’s first year often means lower raises in the years to follow, though performance will dictate that amount to an extent.
To recap: The Cardinals settled with three of their six arb-eligible players.
Figures:
Ryan Helsley – $8.2 million
JoJo Romero – $2.26 million
John King – $1,605,000Did not settle with Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, Andre Pallante #STLCards
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) January 9, 2025
The Cardinals are trying to balance a payroll reduction with roster uncertainty. They remain active in their attempts to trade Nolan Arenado and the $74 million remaining on his contract, but talks have been mostly quiet since mid-December. As the likelihood of Arenado remaining in St. Louis grows, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak must find other ways to trim payroll.
That made the arbitration process even more difficult this season. The Cardinals wanted to avoid a hearing with Helsley — who led baseball with 49 saves last season — but also knew his standout performance would mean a major raise in his final year before free agency. St. Louis settled with Helsley, who is represented by Wasserman, just ahead of Thursday’s noon CT deadline at $8.2 million. That’s a $4.4 million raise from 2024. Romero also saw a sizable jump, going from $860,000 last season to $2.26 million in his second year of arbitration. King’s salary increased from just over $1 million in 2024 to $1.6 million in 2025.
The Cardinals could pursue extensions or multiyear deals for the players they have not yet come to terms with, but per multiple league sources, that option is unlikely at this time. The team has not had serious conversations with any player regarding any year other than 2025, and talks of buying out any player’s remaining arbitration years have been minimal to nonexistent. The impending front-office turnover likely also impacts any extension plans. With Mozeliak set to step down after the 2025 season and Chaim Bloom slated to take over the organization, the likelihood of extending any player before 2026 is slim.
St. Louis has historically operated under a file-trial method, meaning if the club is unable to settle ahead of a deadline, they will proceed to arbitration hearings where a third party will decide salary. However, if the Cardinals stray from their usual operating standard, they could continue to trade figures with player representatives in hopes of avoiding a hearing — which can often be a detrimental process for players. Helsley and former Cardinal Tyler O’Neill were candid about how their experiences in their respective arbitration hearings negatively impacted them ahead of the 2023 season. Nootbaar and Pallante are also represented by Wasserman, while Donovan switched from Paragon Sports International to The Bledsoe Agency over the offseason.
The team also announced Thursday it claimed left-handed reliever Bailey Horn off of waivers from the Detroit Tigers. Horn, 26, made his MLB debut last season and appeared in 18 games for the Red Sox, posting a 6.50 ERA with 13 strikeouts over 13 innings. The Cardinals’ 40-man roster stands at 39.
(Photo of Ryan Helsley: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)
