St. Louis Cardinals: A blockbuster, one-stop-shop in Seattle

The St. Louis Cardinals can grab three great wins from the Mariners.

From a St. Louis perspective, the Mariners have exactly what you need. Starting pitching help? Say hello, James Paxton. A big bat? Kyle Seager is waiting. A power arm in the bullpen? Edwin Diaz and his flamethrower are here to see you.

Now, I understand that those are probably the Mariners’ three best players and it seems pretty stupid to trade your three best players and then still expect to win.

However, I would argue that Seattle can downsize significantly by trading those three players while shedding Kyle Seager’s $100-million contract and giving themselves some of the payroll flexibility that Robinson Cano’s monster deal took away from them.

For the St. Louis Cardinals, you get every player piece that you need in one theoretical trade. Paxton comes entering his age-30 season with three more years of control, Seager (also 30) still has four more guaranteed years and a team option on his 2015 extension and Diaz, after moonwalking his way onto the scene in 2016, is entering just his age-24 season with four more years of team control.

The St. Louis Cardinals would be getting a remarkable amount of value from these three players, so you can sure bet they would need to give up quite a haul in return.