To replace Freese, whose production dropped sharply last season, the Cardinals will shift second baseman Matt Carpenter — the National League leader in hits — to third. Kolten Wong, a former first-round draft pick, will take over at second.

So, to recap: Adams, Bourjos, Peralta and Wong are in, and Beltran, Freese, Jay and Kozma are out, though Jay and Kozma remain with the team. The Cardinals also have outfielder Oscar Taveras, perhaps baseball’s top prospect, nearly ready to go.

“One of our tenets is to give opportunities to players that have shown they’ve accomplished everything they need to in the minor leagues,” Mozeliak said, outlining a strategy that allows the Cardinals to find high-impact, low-cost talent while helping them afford veterans like Holliday, Molina, Adam Wainwright and Peralta.

Peralta, 31, gives the Cardinals a right-handed hitter in an otherwise left-handed infield. He is a substantial upgrade over Kozma, whose .548 on-base plus slugging was the worst in the National League (minimum 140 games) in more than two decades. Peralta served a 50-game suspension last season for his role in the Biogenesis scandal.

Cashing in after his drug use irritated some players; the veteran relievers David Aardsma and Brad Ziegler suggested on Twitter that doping penalties should be stricter. For the Cardinals, though, that issue was separate from the one that affects them on the field: Is Peralta the player his statistics suggest, or a creation of performance-enhancing drugs?

“From our due diligence, it doesn’t look like this was something that was chronic,” Mozeliak said. “It was a mistake, and he went down that path. But from what we learned, we did not feel like it was a multiuse thing, or a long-term mistake. We don’t know, for sure, all the details, but that’s what our comfort level was.”

In any case, the so-called Cardinal Way has never been a referendum on steroids. The hitting coach for the 2011 championship team was Mark McGwire, an admitted steroid user. A section of seats above left field is still known, in neon letters, as Big Mac Land.