The Cardinals have been one of a few National League teams to enter the season with postseason hopes, only to be likely sellers at the deadline.
After stumbling out of the gate and failing to get back on track, the Cardinals are well out of the postseason picture. While the National League Central as a whole is weak, the Cardinals dug such a deep hole for themselves (they're 11 games out of first as of Monday) that even a turnaround at this point probably won’t get them back into the race.
As such, they’re shaping up to sell. There are some players on expiring contracts who are obvious candidates to get moved, like Jordan Montgomery, Jordan Hicks and Jack Flaherty. But with the way this season has gone, it’s probably fair to think that just about anything could be on the table. And if the Cardinals wanted to make a really big splash, they could move Nolan Arenado.
The star third baseman would net an enormous return on the trade market, but a trade like that usually is one of the first dominoes to fall ahead of a rebuild. The Cardinals seem content on retooling and competing next season, and Audacy MLB insider Jon Heyman doubted on The Mully & Haugh Show that St. Louis would go as far as trading Arenado.
“I’d be very surprised, I think everybody would be,” Heyman said. “The Cardinals have been one of those two or three teams that have been just an incredible disappointment this year, really underperformed. Something is going on there that’s not right, but I think they clearly said they’re now playing for 2024, so they’re a seller, but you don’t want to trade Arenado if you’re playing for next year. I think that one is extremely unlikely.
“So, they’ll probably trade Montgomery, Flaherty, Hicks, maybe some other spare pieces, but their spare pieces are talented. They have a lot of good hitters, they really do, and they have extra ones, and they can trade them. But the free agent guys – Montgomery, Flaherty, Hicks – should go.”
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