The St. Louis Cardinals have no excuse not to explore every avenue to improve their ball club this offseason, even in what they are calling a “reset” year ahead of them.
No, they don’t need to make any “all-in” moves or sacrifice their future for some win-now acquisitions, but they should leave no stone unturned when it comes to turning some of the value they have on their roster into pieces that could help them contend moving forward.
Craig Breslow, the Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer, hit the nail on the head when accessing his own roster this offseason, saying their club needs to figure out if their young position players have more value with Boston or in a trade somewhere else. The Cardinals have a lot of pieces right now that could be a part of their future, but could also be used to go out and get other pieces for the ball club.
I wanted to look at five different deals that I could see the Cardinals considering that may actually make the roster better, even while parting with valuable talent. None of the players I’ve placed in these deals need to be traded by St. Louis, but they also should not be opposed to moving them if the right deal presents itself. I’m not necessarily advocating for each of these ideas, but I did want to present how they could make sense for St. Louis and their new timeline of a reset in 2025 and getting back to business in 2026 and beyond.
Here are five deals the St. Louis Cardinals could consider in order to accelerate their retool this offseason
Luzardo
It feels like the last three offseasons, the Cardinals and Marlins have been rumored trade partners with the needs they both had. The Marlins have been searching for middle-of-the-order bats for years now, especially ones with power. They were able to bring in Luiz Arraez for Pablo Lopez two offseasons ago, and while that was a strong addition, they haven’t been able to acquire a thumper for their lineup.
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