The Cardinals Won’t Make a Big Splash – A Deadline Retrospective
It’s hard to tell right now if the Cardinals will be buyers or sellers over the next couple of days; the team sits at .500 while they are currently playing, but they are 7-3 in their last 10. They have some big holes on this roster, and adding a rental or 2 might not make them a World Series contender.
Judging by the history of the team, it doesn’t appear they would make a splash anyway. Here are all of the deadline deals that John Mozeliak has made:
- 2008: Traded Anthony Reyes to Indians for Luis Perdomo
- 2009: Traded Chris Perez, Jess Todd to Indians for Mark DeRosa
- 2009: Traded Chris Duncan to Red Sox for Julio Lugo
- 2009: Traded Brett Wallace, Shane Peterson, Clayton Mortensen to Athletics for Matt Holliday
- 2010: Traded Ryan Ludwick to Padres for Jake Westbrook (Indians), Nick Greenwood (Padres)
- 2011: Traded Colby Rasmus, Trever Miller, Brian Tallet, P.J. Walters to Blue Jays for Octavio Dotel, Edwin Jackson, Marc Rzepczynski, Corey Patterson
- 2011: Traded Alex Castellanos to Dodgers for Rafael Furcal
- 2012: Traded Zack Cox to Marlins for Edward Mujica
- 2013: Traded Rzepczynski to Indians for Juan Herrera
- 2014: Traded James Ramsey to Indians for Justin Masterson
- 2014: Traded Allen Craig, Joe Kelly to Red Sox for John Lackey, Corey Littrell, Cash
- 2015: Traded Kyle Barraclough to Marlins for Steve Cishek
- 2015: Traded Rob Kaminsky to Indians for Brandon Moss
- 2015: Traded Malik Collymore to Brewers for Jonathan Broxton, Cash
- 2016: Traded Charlie Tilson to White Sox for Zach Duke
- 2017: Traded Marco Gonzales to Mariners for Tyler O’Neill
- 2018: Traded Sam Tuivailala to Mariners for Seth Elledge
- 2018: Traded Luke Voit, Intl Slot $ to Yankees for Giovanny Gallegos, Chasen Shreve
- 2018: Traded Oscar Mercado to Indians for Conner Capel, Jhon Torres
- 2018: Traded Tommy Pham, Intl Slot $ to Rays for Genesis Cabrera, Roel Ramirez, Justin Williams
- 2019: Traded Jedd Gyorko, Intl Slot $, Cash to Dodgers for Tony Cingrani, Jeffry Abreu
The biggest deal they made was for Holliday. The most recent “big deal” would probably be the Craig/Kelly for Lackey deal. The “win now” deal would be Dotel/Jackson from 2011 that led to a World Series Championship.
More recently, the team has been “shifting assets”. They got rid of Pham because he was a “cancer”, Voit because they had just extended Carpenter (and would end up with Paul Goldschmidt), and Mercado because they had a glut of outfielders and needed to clear a 40-man spot (which would also happen to Adolis Garcia and Randy Arozarena down the line). At least these deal did bring back decent players that are impacting the roster now – Gallegos, Cabrera, J Williams.
The most recent deal was sending out Gyorko’s contract while taking on an injured player and a low level minor leaguer.
I think we’ll see more of these types of moves in the next few days. The Cardinals won’t want to give up Nolan Gorman, Matthew Liberatore, or Ivan Herrera for a rental. They also don’t have the depth to get a guy under club control. We’ll see them pick up some more low hanging fruit, like an inning eater for the rotation (a la Masterson) and a bullpen arm or 2 (a la Duke and Broxton). These are needs and will allow the team to say they did something.
They won’t get a Trevor Story, a Max Scherzer, or a Craig Kimbrel. I can’t say that I blame them either; the team would need all 3 to be a true contender. Unfortunately the weakening farm system would be wiped bare and the guys that are close to making an impact are worth too much in the next 2 years to waste on guys that could walk after the season.
The best course of action is to wait until the off-season; they’ll have a lot of money coming off the books and players like Story and Scherzer will be available as free agents.
