St. Louis Cardinals: 5 Blockbuster Winter Meetings Trades

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All is quiet on the St. Louis Cardinals front, which can only mean one thing. General manager John Mozeliak and his staff are working on something no one will see coming.

This week on ESPN.com, the always delightful Jonah Keri summed up what the scene at next week’s Baseball Winter Meetings will be like. Basically, he nailed it:

At some point over the course of the four-day event, Scott Boras will emerge Randy Orton-style, attracting hordes of sportswriters to hear him bemoan the state of Major League Baseball (he will be 100 percent right about teams claiming a bigger share of the industry’s revenue than we’ve seen in many years). Jim Leyland will be seated at a bar drinking scotch and telling the most amazing stories you’ve ever heard. If you don’t pull up a chair next to him, you have failed at the winter meetings. Oh, and there will be some actual baseball moves, too.

It’s a bizarre event, really. Plenty will be going on in the common areas of the hotel. Minor League Baseball hosts a job fair and trade show. Publications and outlets host awards banquets. And team executives have to take breathers and leave their suites to grab dinner at one of the hotel restaurants, which creates swarms of poor media members chasing after them for any news.

Often, they’ll come up empty and will leave he Winter Meetings feeling like they’ve just spent hours watching Geraldo Rivera’s ill-fated reveal of the Al Capone safe back in 1986.

But we’re betting on more excitement this year. Something big for the St. Louis Cardinals, maybe because they have no choice. With Zack Greinke suddenly and surprisingly inking a 6-year deal (with no opt-out, BTW) with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and other big spenders will be left throwing dollars at everyone who’s left.

Forget the free agents and the St. Louis Cardinals paying for 5 or 6 years and feeling lucky to get maybe 2 or 3 decent years out of (insert free agent here).

I’d prefer a trade on the level of last winter’s Shelby Miller for Jason Heyward swap. Here are a few teams the St. Louis Cardinals could already be whispering sweet nothings to.

Next: Minnesota Twins

Minnesota Twins

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In their own small-market way, the Minnesota Twins have taken a win-now approach to 2016 in the wake of a surprisingly good 2015 season. Paying for merely the rights to negotiate with Korean superstar Byung Ho Kim (and ultimately signing him), the Twins showed they were willing to spend big (for them anyway) to help the team reach the promised land.

But they’ll need more than Kim. They’ll need an ace, preferably a young, financially controllable one. And if they want the St. Louis Cardinals to part with, say, right-hander Carlos Martinez, John Mozeliak would ask for — oh, I don’t know — Miguel Sano?

Sano came up through the Twins system just as the late Oscar Taveras was marching toward the bigs in the St. Louis Cardinals farm system. Both earned raves among scouts for their power potential, and the 22-year-old Sano is right on the cusp of delivering on it at the big league level, big time.

This is the kind of trade that will set bloggers on both sides of the table into a wild rage. Which means it’s a square deal.

Next: Seattle Mariners

Seattle Mariners

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The Seattle Mariners should be on everyone’s list of trade partners, the St. Louis Cardinals included, given how active new general manager Jerry DiPoto has been in his few weeks on the job. The M’s haven’t really acquired any big names yet, but they’ll need one for the rotation. It currently has no one behind ace Felix Hernandez.

Don’t talk to me about Taijuan Walker, either. He is one of those tantalizing young pitchers (still just 23 years old) who hasn’t put it all together at the big league level yet. He will, which is why DiPoto hasn’t dealt him yet. But the bottom line is that the M’s need some sense of a sure thing behind Hernandez right now. Best-case scenario? They have three top-of-the-rotation pitchers.

So let’s look at professional hitter and serial loafer Robinson Cano. He’s coming off a down year, for him. He’s not DiPoto’s guy, either. Former GM Jack Zduriencik shelled out the big money for Cano. It’s possible hitting in vast Safeco Field has hurt him. There’s been buzz that the second baseman is agitating for a trade back to the New York Yankees. The Yanks don’t have the pitching depth the St. Louis Cardinals do, though.

Next: Atlanta Braves

Atlanta Braves

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Everyone is in on trade rumors for former St. Louis Cardinal Shelby Miller as the Braves continue to inch ever closer to a Houston Astros-level team demolition. Some GM is going to vastly overpay for Miller.

Meanwhile, Freddie Freeman and Julio Teheran are just sitting there, ready for the taking. NO ONE should care that the Braves front office insists Freeman isn’t for sale. He and everyone else is available for the right deal. The problem for the St. Louis Cardinals is whether they can offer it.

Top prospect Alex Reyes screwed the St. Louis Cardinals on several fronts by getting suspended for his weed possession. If Reyes stays with the St. Louis Cardinals, his development is set back by 50 games. If he goes, the St. Louis Cardinals will have to upsell a suddenly devalued asset. Then again, probably not. That 100-mph heater or Reyes’ will make player evaluators forgive and forget.

Which is good, because Reyes would have to be the anchor for a deal of this magnitude.

Next: Colorado Rockies

Miami Marlins

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I’m putting the Marlins on this list because they have long been one of the most unpredictable organizations in baseball. Owner Jeffrey Loria blew up his new team of high-priced players halfway through the 2012 season, its first in Marlins Park. Last year, there was the mid-season installation of a manager, Dan Jennings, who had no prior managing experience. None. And now, this offseason they’ve hired former baseball pariah Barry Bonds as its hitting coach. (Which I think is a great move, BTW.)

Marcell Ozuna is already on the trading block. Who’s to say a team like the Marlins wouldn’t listen to the St. Louis Cardinals’ offer for left fielder Giancarlo Stanton? Yeah, yeah. I know. Highly doubtful. He’s entering year two of a 13-year, $325 million contract, which he can opt out of in five years. The deal is also heavily backloaded to give the Fish financial flexibility to win now.

Next: Will Mozeliak add via the Rule 5 Draft?

But how about shortstop and 2015 National League batting champ Dee Gordon, who apparently is just starting to talk now about a contract extension in Miami? Should talks get tense, I could easily see a scenario in which Loria loses patience and facilitates a trade. Here’s hoping if that does happen, the St. Louis Cardinals are the team offering the best deal.