Cardinals rumors: St. Louis among “main suitors” for Francisco Lindor

The St. Louis Cardinals are in the market for offensive upgrades, and they are among the primary suitors to acquire one of the best players in baseball.

Francisco Lindor is reportedly likely to be traded this winter. In a normal offseason, he would draw interest from many teams. But this winter, most teams are strapped for cash due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is widely expected to limit the playing field for a player as talented as the Cleveland Indians star shortstop.

The St. Louis Cardinals are among the “main suitors” for Lindor, according to MLB Network’s Jon Morosi, who adds that the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, and Toronto Blue Jays are also involved.

Lindor, who turns 27 on Saturday, is not close to being dealt. It is expected that his market will take awhile to develop with teams still finalizing their payroll for the 2021 season along with the uncertainty of what a potential season would look like. But it makes sense that teams would check with the Indians now to explore what a potential trade would look like.

What that price would look like for the Cardinals is unclear, though it’s going to take a haul for the Indians to part with Lindor. It is possible that the team could look to part from its outfield surplus to trade for Lindor, but the expectation from rival teams is that any deal would have to include top prospects.

For the Cardinals, Lindor would provide a much-needed spark to a lineup in desperate need of help. Acquiring Lindor would mean shifting Paul DeJong to third base or perhaps trading him. But adding Lindor would give the lineup an ideal complement to Paul Goldschmidt, as our Matt Graves recently wrote, but a deal appears unlikely – at least, for right now. The Cardinals are first working to clear salary and try to finalize deals with in-house free agents Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright.

That said, it is far more likely that Lindor ends up in, say, New York than St. Louis. Lindor is scheduled to be a free agent at the end of the 2021 season, and any extension would likely have to exceed $200 million. It’s smart for president of baseball operations John Mozeliak to check in on Lindor, but adding him appears to be more of a pipedream than reality.