LONDON -- Adam Wainwright and Jordan Montgomery were starstruck by F1 driver Lando Norris during the Cardinals' light-hearted batting practice session at London Stadium on Friday, while Nolan Arenado marveled at card tricks pulled off by an on-field magician and a giddy Lars Nootbaar exchanged autographed jerseys with former West Ham striker Carlton Cole.

As for Cardinals president John Mozeliak, the man who will determine whether the club will be buyers or sellers as the MLB Trade Deadline approaches, the mood was much more serious.

The Deadline is still more than a month away, but Mozeliak finds himself particularly under the microscope over how to best reinforce a St. Louis team that was once as many as 16 games under .500 and one that still finds itself in last place in the National League Central prior to facing the rival Cubs for two games in the 2023 MLB London Series.

Can the Cardinals -- a franchise with 15 consecutive winning seasons and one that regularly draws 3 million fans into Busch Stadium -- ever fully rebuild given the expectations of success?

“I would hope that the Cardinals are not allowed to rebuild,” Mozeliak said bluntly, debunking rumors that the club might look to deal pending free agents Jack Flaherty or Montgomery. “We have an amazing fan base, and we know we’re not where we want to be and we have to make some changes, and we’re going to try.

“As for a message to the fan base, we’re not looking to blow up this team, but we are looking for ways to improve this team.”

Because the Cardinals are the home team in London after surrendering two of their home games, they will face their rivals in the UK before battling them in St. Louis. Both the Cardinals and Cubs come to England playing some of their best baseball of the season, with St. Louis winning four of its last six games and Chicago winning eight of 10.

The two rivals were originally scheduled to play in London in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented that. Now, the London Series falls during one of the Cardinals' most difficult stretches of the schedule. St. Louis is trying to play its way back into contention after starting the season 10-24, surging within four games of the NL Central lead, then plunging to 16 games below .500 before authoring its latest upswing.

Mozeliak said the chance to grow the game globally and further enhance the Cardinals' brand is worth any sort of travel inconvenience the club might incur while going to and from London.

“You think about why Major League Baseball picks certain teams, and it’s certainly logical that they go Yankees-Red Sox [in 2019], and now it’s a great compliment to both the Cubs and Cardinals to be picked second for this series,” Mozeliak said. “When you’re thinking about brand-building and getting your name out there, participating in these two games is something that we thought -- from ownership on down -- was very meaningful.”

While taking a guided, double-decker bus tour of London with Wainwright on Friday morning, Willson Contreras marveled at the ancient history of some of the UK’s greatest landmarks. He is at the center of this showdown after leaving Chicago to sign an $87.5 million free-agent contract with St. Louis in December. Contreras wanted little to do with talk about facing the Cubs or the ceremony of playing in London. He said what will make the trip truly special is if the Cards notch two much-needed victories.

“Coming from Venezuela, I never expected to be here, but we’re coming to do business,” Contreras said. “We’ll have fun, but my mindset is to go out and [conduct] business the same as we would in the U.S. I don’t care who we’re facing, and I don’t care about [the Cubs]. I just care about Waino pitching a good game, keeping the ball down and finding ways to get people out. I’m here for business.”

The Cardinals' success or failure against the Cubs -- one of the four teams they are trying to catch in the division -- could dictate which direction Mozeliak takes the team in the coming weeks. The state of the club will almost certainly determine whether it is in tinker or tear down mode.

“As we sit here on the 23rd of June, we still don’t know which path we’ll walk. But from a front-office standpoint, we have started preparing on many [paths],” Mozeliak said. “If we are going to have a little churn on the roster, we’d like it to be something that we think can help us long-term.”