St. Louis Cardinals: Rumor of a 3-team trade makes sense

The St. Louis Cardinals might, in fact, become very busy over the next three days until the trade deadline passes. History has shown that the Cardinals are good at making multi-team deals and this makes sense this year as well.

The St. Louis Cardinals have pieces to move and needs to fill. These two items can work nicely together should the front office decide that now is the time to act. That said, they will need to decide rather quickly as the deadline is Monday– just three days away.

The rumors of Cardinals trades have rolled for quite some time now and we have covered them here at Redbird Rants. If you missed any of them, jump here. As the deadline is a big deal in MLB, we will be hosting a special 30-minute LIVE podcast on Sunday. Join us then for a detailed look at any moves that happen before then and any moves that might happen in the remaining deadline time.

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Back to the issue at hand: very reliable Derrick Goold tweeted this morning that scouts from the Blue Jays are camped in Memphis to view players participating today in two games. He also notes that the Cardinals have sent scouts to view the Yankees game today. Here is his tweet:

This tweet hearkens back to my post from yesterday wherein I suggested sending Jedd Gyorko and Mike Mayers to the Blue Jays in exchange for Josh Donaldson. While I can see this happening, Goold’s tweet makes me wonder if the Cardinals are working up a three-team deal; something they have done in the past.

Related Story: Jedd Gyorko resting for trade

Here’s what I’m thinking: the St. Louis Cardinals would send Lance Lynn to the Yankees in exchange for shortstop prospect Jorge Mateo and outfield prospect Estevan Florial. This is part one of the three-team trade.

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In this part, the Yanks will acquire a rental starter for their push toward the postseason. The St. Louis Cardinals will gain the Yanks’ number five and number eight organizational prospects. Why ask for Florial with the Cardinals having a full outfield plate already? He will absolutely play into the third team portion. Mateo, however, would shore-up the middle infield for 2018 so look for the Cards to hold onto him.

As stated above, the Cardinals would be wise to flip Florial to the third team in this three-team deal. This team? The Blue Jays. In the second part of this trade, the Cardinals would send Florial and Kolten Wong or Jedd Gyorko plus one other prospect from Memphis (hence the scouts attending today’s two games) in exchange for Donaldson (and maybe a prospect from the Jays).

Mayers could be the added prospect from Memphis as I suggested in my post yesterday or they could be there to see some other reliever who could add depth to the Jays relief core.

Let me speak to the Gyorko/Wong piece of the potential deal to the Jays… I firmly believe that either of these names could go to Toronto and whoever remains can 100 percent slide into the spot at second. Wong comes with one more year of team control so that might be of greater interest to the Jays.

And how about a prospect from the Jays to sweeten the Donaldson deal? It would be a reasonable request for the Cards to ask for left-handed pitching prospect Ryan Borucki. Borucki is the number-13 prospect in the Jays organization with an MLB ETA of 2018. He is currently in AA and has closed and saved 1 game thus far. He would fit nicely into the Cardinals’ need for left-handed pitching.

Will this three-team deal happen? I honestly don’t know but I can definitely see it happening. The Cardinals can use Donaldson, the Yankees need a pitcher like Lance Lynn, and the Jays are selling. It seems to me that this fire is putting out considerable smoke.

Next: Trade deadline updates

For more on the trade deadline, don’t forget to catch our live, 30-minute deadline special podcast on Sunday, July 30. Stay tuned for more information on this podcast and for any other breaking rumors related to trades.