St. Louis Cardinals: Argument for and Against Acquiring Juan Soto

Why the Cardinals Should Acquire Juan Soto

Plain and simple: Juan Soto is a generational player.

With respects to Goldschmidt and Arenado, Soto could go down as one of the greatest hitters this game has ever seen. He has been called this generations Ted Williams, and for good reason.

Soto is only 23 years old, and is already a World Champion, finished 9th, 5th, and 2nd in MVP voting, won two silver sluggers, and been selected to two All-Star teams (not to mention the 2022 Home Run Derby Champion). Soto currently ranks 19th all time in career OPS, with good reason to believe the best years of his career are still ahead of him.

If the Cardinals have the opportunity to add Soto to Goldschmidt, Arenado, and company, they really have to exhaust every option to make that happen.

Cardinals fans gripe consistently that the club needs to win titles. Acquiring Soto puts St. Louis squarely in win now mode, and the club has at least 3 legitimately runs at the World Series with Soto in their lineup. If the club is able to resign him, then they have 15 years of generational bat in their lineup.

Here are a few different packages that could get the deal done for St. Louis

Trade 1:

St. Louis Acquires: Juan Soto

Washington Acquires: Jordan Walker, Dylan Carlson, Matthew Liberatore, Alec Burleson, Gordon Graceffo

Trade 2:

St. Louis Acquires: Juan Soto and Patrick Corbin

Washington Acquires: Nolan Gorman, Maysn Winn, Tyler O’Neill, Michael McGreevey, Alec Burleson

These are the types of packages that it would take to acquire Soto, which is a heavy price to pay. Parting with top end prospects and young MLB talent, having to potentially take on one of the worst contracts in baseball in Corbin, and potentially giving out the largest deal in MLB history to Soto is almost unthinkable.

Yet, for a guy like Soto, you have to consider it.

If the Cardinals acquire Soto, they instantly have the best middle of the order in baseball. Soto-Goldschmidt-Arenado surrounded by the team they have right now will score runs like no other.

With this type of move, the Cardinals would likely seriously consider acquiring more pitching as well, to support the kind of postseason run they’d be looking to go on.

The club has more financial flexibility than they let on at times, so if the front office goes all in, they can pay Soto and continue to field the incredible team they’d be putting together through shrewd trades, free agent signings, and one of the best pipelines in baseball.

The argument against acquiring Juan Soto

Although the Cardinals have acquired superstars in recent years via trade, they have done so at a bargain rate. Any trade for Juan Soto would require trading away a historic level of assets.

The Cardinals front office does not have the kind of track record that would suggest a trade of this magnitude, and honestly, it may be a good thing they would not bite on this.

Giving away any combination of Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, Maysn Winn, and Matthew Liberatore along with Dylan Carlson or Tyler O’Neill, as well as other prospects, would be one of the largest gambles in baseball history. The likelihood of any of these players being Juan Soto is slim, but the odds that the 5-7 players it would take to acquire Soto being worth more than him is pretty high.

Jordan Walker looks like the next young star in baseball, Gorman and Winn could be All-Star level players for years to come, Carlson and O’Neill are proven big leaguers with immense promise, and other pieces would deplete the prospect depth this club has so brilliantly begun to build.

Placing Soto’s bat in the lineup would for sure make the Cardinals World Series contenders, but there is a good shot that the club will be a contender for years to come with the current and upcoming core of players. Would making a run for three years be worth giving up a decade of success? Soto could easily walk away after 2024 and sign a mega deal with a different team.

St. Louis does not have the financial resources to have a payroll like the Dodgers, Yankees, and Mets, and the club becomes dangerously close to capping out their finances with an extension for Soto. As awesome of a player he is, fans would probably be much happier in 2024 and 2025 with the level of talent this club can field, rather than cashing all of the chips in now.