St. Louis Cardinals: The Cardinals push the reset button

The Trade Deadline dilema

The St. Louis Cardinals enter the second half of the 2018 season with a 48-46 record, sitting 7.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central and 4 games back for NL second wild card spot.

The decision the Cardinals front office will have to make in the next two weeks is whether they will be aggressive at the Trade Deadline in order to make a run for the postseason.  The other option would be to use the Trade Deadline to build toward the 2019 season.

The Cardinals have been involved in many trade rumors and we have written about them here at Redbird Rants.  Some of the rumors have included Mike Moustakas, Josh Danielson, Manny Machado, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, and Nolan Arenado.

Cardinals supposedly on the trade bloc have been Dexter Fowler, Kolten Wong, Jose Martinez, Tommy Pham, Luke Weaver, and Tyler O’Neil, to just name a few.  Recently even Carlos Martinez‘s name was mentioned as trade bait if the Cardinals should decide to throw the towel in on the 2018 season.

During the last few games before the All Star break, many of the trade rumors involving the Cardinals had essentially died out.  One hears Moustakas’ name mentioned now with the Yankees and Machado’s name with the Phillies and the Dodgers. Also, Matheny’s and Mabry’s dismissal have sucked up all the media coverage on the Cardinals after Saturday.

The St. Louis Cardinals are likely evaluating their options during the All Star break and seeing how this team responds to Mike Schildt’s leadership.  The Cards head to Chicago for a four game series with the Cubs.  The result of this series may give the Cardinal front office guidance on how to proceed with the Trade Deadline.