St. Louis Cardinals: Welcome to St. Louis, Marcell Ozuna

The Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a trade to send Marcell Ozuna to St. Louis this afternoon.

After two days of speculation and rumors, the St. Louis Cardinals finally made good on their word in bringing talent to the major league team. After failing to lure Giancarlo Stanton to St. Louis, the Cardinals traded for Marcell Ozuna from Miami this afternoon. The move was met with thunderous applause from many Cardinal fans across social media.

According to Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the deal will officially be announced Thursday, pending a physical being scheduled.

While the excitement in acquiring Ozuna will not wear off any time soon, many of us are still wondering what the Marlins will receive in return for the outfielder. As far as we know, the Cardinals will send pitcher Sandy Alcantara in a four-player package to the Marlins. Goold also reports an outfielder will be involved in the trade as well. The outfielder’s name is unknown at this time.

My guess is we will learn later tonight all the names involved in the trade, but there are a couple of huge takeaways in this deal.

The obvious takeaway is the improvement the lineup will see with Ozuna. in 2017, Ozuna slashed .312/.376/.548 with thirty-seven home runs and 124 RBI. While there is some hesitancy among some fans on his one great year, the two-time All-Star is certainly an upgrade over both Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty.

Additionally, you could be looking at the best outfield in the National League in 2018. With Dexter Fowler in LF, Tommy Pham in CF, and Marcell Ozuna in RF, the St. Louis Cardinals’ outfield stacks up with the best outfield out there. They have speed, contact and power in the bats. They also have gold glove caliber defenders as well.

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The second takeaway is still to be seen.

If the St. Louis Cardinals only involved one major pitching prospect in this deal, consider that a win for the organization.

The Cardinals still have the likes of Jack Flaherty, Luke Weaver, Dakota Hudson, and Alex Reyes in their back pocket. I don’t expect Reyes to be traded, but the other pitchers could surely be used to bring in another bat should the Cardinals go that route.

The names Josh Donaldson, Evan Longoria, and even Manny Machado continue to make their way around the St. Louis Cardinals.

Any one of those players would surely command pitching prospects. With the depth the Cardinals have in pitching, it is likely some more will be dealt to bring another bat off the trade market.

As far as who that is, I’m not sure. My likely guess is Longoria simply because of the connection the Cardinals already have with Tampa Bay and Alex Colome. The Cardinals could also bring in a third team to supplement a trade with the Rays as well. The Oakland A’s are hot on Piscotty’s tail, and the Cardinals could use whatever prospects to sweeten the deal to the Rays.

Next: Three winter targets

As we learn more names, we will have another article breaking down the full trade later on. Until then, let me know what you think of the trade.