St. Louis Cardinals: Ranking the 10 best trades in the last 20 years

While the St. Louis Cardinals aren’t a team traditionally known for trading for big names, trade rumors for several big names have come out with the Cardinals heading the list.

In honor of the start of trade rumors, here are the 10 biggest trades the St. Louis Cardinals have made in the past 20 years.

Many organizations are known for their blockbuster trades and the St. Louis Cardinals have fallen on both sides of this coin. Most MLB fans would recognize the Babe Ruth trade that shaped the landscape of baseball during its time, but were there any similar that shook the earth of Cardinals Nation?

And if so, how were they received? Did the moves change the future landscape of the Cardinals franchise? Are the birds on the bat experiencing tremors left over from past trades?

In order to culminate a list of 10 great trades, I first had to create criteria against which the numerous trades could be evaluated.

These trades will be rated based off of the overall value of the trade, which is based on a few points. It mainly relies on both the short- and long-term values that the St. Louis Cardinals received, but the things that they had to give up, or a lack thereof, also plays a significant part.

In addition, moves that made significant contributions to World Series wins also have more weight.

That said, this is only covering from the 1997 season to the 2017 season, so the heist of Lou Brock, which is an obvious number one on many all-time Cardinal trade lists, will not be here.