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

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.