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

2. March 23, 2000: The St. Louis Cardinals land Jimmy Baseball.

Cardinals Receive: Jim Edmonds

Angels Receive: Adam Kennedy, Kent Bottenfield

This was the start of an era. Jim Edmonds was synonymous with Cardinal baseball for a long time, and fans like me simply love Jim Edmonds. He was the other half of the core with Scott Rolen that really made the 2004 and 2006 teams go. Like Rolen, he was both a great fielder and hitter, but Edmonds took it to a higher degree.

In his eight years as a Cardinal, Edmonds hit .285/.393./555 with 241 homers and 713 RBIs. He was an excellent fielder, winning six Gold Gloves, and he finished top-5 in MVP voting in two seasons as a result of his multi-faceted excellence.

The first season was his first year in St. Louis following this trade. He finished the 2000 season slashing .293/.411/.583 with 42 home runs, 108 RBIs, and 129 runs scored. He finished fourth in MVP voting that season behind Mike Piazza, Barry Bonds, and the winner Jeff Kent.

In 2004, Edmonds finished fifth in MVP voting after slashing .301/.418/.643 with 42 home runs and 111 RBIs. He also picked up eight stolen bases that season.

While Kennedy was a decent player, he really didn’t have the pop or the speed to make the kind of impact Edmonds did. He finished his 14-year career with a .272/.327/.384 line and had 179 steals, but when Edmonds OBP is higher than Kennedy’s SLG, its clear that Edmonds’ value is far beyond what Kennedy could hope.

Oh, and Bottenfield was just bad.