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

Trading for Giancarlo Stanton has become more and more of a dwindling reality for the St. Louis Cardinals. So, it’s time to turn elsewhere. Let’s start by doing some big business with the Seattle Mariners.

As Dr. Miles mentioned on Tuesday, the Giancarlo Stanton sweepstakes appear to be over for the St. Louis Cardinals for the time being. While watching our dreams of Stanton dingers at Busch Stadium dwindle before our eyes is undoubtedly disappointing, it’s time to move on and realize that there are actually a lot of other fish out in the sea of ‘impact bats.’

In October, I brought up 5 potential under the radar ‘impact bat’ targets that the St. Louis Cardinals could acquire. For the time being, you can soothe your Stanton sores by reading that and renewing your hope. However, let’s throw together a trade that includes none of those players but all of the excitement.

Speaking of fish, we’re going to take our Stanton-induced tears and pay a visit to Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle to discover those other fish in the sea.

With a farm system ranked 22nd out of 30 teams at the end of the minor league season and a Major League team that could only manage 78 wins in 2017, the Mariners clearly appear in need of a youth resurgence.

Today, GM Jerry Dipoto began that youth resurgence in Seattle by making his first trade of the offseason, acquiring Ryon Healy from the Oakland Athletics. This trade signals, to me, the kind of offseason that Seattle is hoping to have.

Healy is a 25-year-old slugger with four years of control that Seattle is hoping and praying can be the solution to their 1st base woes. In acquiring Healy, the Mariners are essentially indicating a desire to downsize, but not rebuild. 

Seattle wants to use what little farm system they have, and maybe some Major League talent as well, in order to take advantage of whatever is left of Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz and King Felix Hernandez.

But where do the St. Louis Cardinals come into this equation?

Well, dear reader, the Cardinals have quite a few pieces that would interest the Mariners. However, St. Louis really has no need for some low level minor leaguers. So, we’re gonna get creative here and use some of Seattle’s Major League talent in exchange for some of the Cardinals’ young, controllable assets.

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.

The St. Louis Cardinals would need to give a good package to receive the asking price.

The first piece heading back to Seattle has to be Stephen Piscotty. The Cardinals’ incumbent right fielder was signed to a team-friendly extension this past offseason, keeping him under team control through 2022 for an average annual value of just $5.58 million.

Although coming off of a down year, Piscotty has known offensive upside (121 WRC+ over 905 PA in 2015 & 2016) combined with being a +8 DRS in 2,127.2 right field innings. He’s a young, valuable, controllable player with established upside and talent; just the kind of player who Seattle has signaled they are looking for.

Next up in the return package going back to Seattle, along with Piscotty, are Luke Weaver and Dakota Hudson.

I like Weaver and have championed Hudson as a potential power-arm out of the bullpen in 2018, but there needs to be some significant pitching talent gong back to the Mariners in this trade.

Both players have a full six years of team control entering 2018 and both have a lot of upside.

Weaver put together an outstanding 2017 season that featured a 2.93 xFIP and 1.4 fWAR in a mere 60.1 IP, leaving many believing that he can not lonely be serviceable at the MLB level, but thrive and potentially be a top line starter.

Dakota Hudson flew his way threw the minor leagues in 2017, finishing in Triple-A just one year after being drafted in the 1st round out of Mississippi State. The 23-year-old was somewhat aggressively pushed to Double-A right out of the gate this past season, but he thrived with the challenging assignment posting a 2.53 ERA and 9.6 K/9 in 114 electric innings before being promoted to Triple-A Memphis.

The Hudson train slowed a bit in Memphis, as his K/9 dropped to 6.1 and his ERA ballooned to 4.42 in 38.2 IP, but he’ll be ready to roll at that level to begin 2018 and could possibly be ready for a call-up as early as July.

The Mississippi State right-hander possesses a lively arm and a repertoire that features a power sinker, hard slider and developing change-up that make him either a 3rd-4th starter candidate or a late inning power reliever candidate in the future.

Both Weaver and Hudson are young and have years of control, combined with upside, cost flexibility, and both are either MLB-ready or feasibly within a year of being MLB-ready. And, to round out the return package to Seattle will be Harrison Bader and Jedd Gyorko.

Bader comes, like Weaver and Hudson, with 6 years of control going forward and plenty of potential to boot. The University of Florida product slugged 20 HR’s and .469 in 465 Triple-A at bats this past season, and combined that with the ability to play all three outfield positions defensively and 15 stolen bases as well.

The power-speed-defense combination gives Bader 5-tool upside and he showed it in brief flashes over 32 games at the Major League level in 2017. He could be reasonably counted on to make a Major League opening day roster in 2018 and could prove to be a valuable piece for Seattle.

Gyorko comes with defensive versatility and three more years of team control at a highly reasonable $5.91 million per year. He can slot right into the hole left by Kyle Seager’s departure in this trade for Seattle.