St. Louis Cardinals: Likely trade partner teams to consider

Reports state that the Detroit Tigers will be active sellers before and at the deadline. The St. Louis Cardinals would be wise to make calls.

Let’s get this out of the way immediately, the St. Louis Cardinals would need to be buyers and would need to be ready to free a great deal of prospects to work a trade with the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers, admitted sellers, will be seeking to boost their prospect counts and will be looking to shed high-dollar contracts.

We at Redbird Rants have often pushed for the Cardinals to take a serious look at J.D. Martinez as a solution in the field and certainly at the plate.

One week ago, I wrote that the Cardinals should look at Martinez who- at that time- was carrying a .717 slugging percentage. He has cooled a little since then but his slug sits at a nice .622 as of Tuesday, June 27. This would be a great addition to the batting order.

In the same week-old piece, I wrote that the Cardinals would need to offer some kind of extension to Martinez to make his trade worth while. Otherwise, Martinez would come to the St. Louis Cardinals for the balance of 2017 and then hit free agency. He is making $11.75M in 2017, which the Tigers might cover some, but should indicate to the Cards that Martinez will likely seek much more in free agency.

Another name with the Tigers who could really help the Cardinals would be relief-pitcher Justin Wilson. This left-handed hurler is under team control until 2019 and will face arbitration in 2018. The Cardinals could be a nice home for him for two seasons (or more).

Currently, Wilson holds a 2.86 ERA across 28.1 innings. He has struck out forty-one batters in these 28.1 innings resulting in a very impressive 1.085 WHIP. The Cardinals could well use this left-handed pitcher but does it make sense for the Tigers to ship him away?

To that point, Wilson is making $2.7M this season, and while the contract isn’t large nor does it fit in the category of contracts the Tigers are likely seeking to offload, the Tigers could well like the idea of avoiding arbitration as they rebuild.

With both of these names, it should be noted, the St. Louis Cardinals will need to ready themselves (I know I’ve said it already but it bears repeating) to send prospects (yes, multiple names) to Detroit. This fact might make the Cardinals shy away from this trade partner but they should make a call anyway in my opinion.