St. Louis Cardinals Rumors: Insiders Speculate Mike Trout Trade

The St. Louis Cardinals are in all sorts of rumors at the moment. Whether it’s the potential of a Juan Soto trade, or looking at acquiring starting pitching at the deadline, trade ideas and proposals are thrown all over the place.

Over the last few weeks, insiders and personalities from the Athletic as well as 101 ESPN have speculated the potential of the Cardinals trading for Mike Trout in the future.

On July 1st, in an episode of “The Athletic Baseball Show: A show about MLB”, Keith Law speculated whether or not St. Louis could be the team to acquire Trout if the club ends up selling over the next few seasons.

“I mean with Jordan Walker and Maysn Winn…that draft looks unbelievable for them right now. They rolled the dice big time there. The Cardinals they’re doing so much right. I’m not going to do the whole Cardinals system here. They’re doing a lot right. Which puts them in a position where they could package a few of these guys together. Maybe not those two specific, but they could put a few guys together and probably acquire anyone in baseball who’s available in a trade.” – Keith Law via “The Athletic Baseball Show”.

Now, this is still in a place of speculation, and the deal would not be before the offseason at the very earliest, but the point Law was making is that if Trout becomes available via trade in 2023, 2024, or 2025, St. Louis would be a prime destination.

101 ESPN discussed which superstars the Cardinals would be most likely to acquire, and in referencing Law’s early point, discussed how Mike Trout seems to be more of a St. Louis Cardinals trade than a Juan Soto trade appears to be.

Here are some reasons the Cardinals may actually be players for Mike Trout in coming seasons.

The Angels best move may be to deal Mike Trout

Again, Mike Trout will not be dealt before the trade deadline and likely won’t be dealt before the 2023 season either. But as Shohei Ohtani’s free agency approaches in 2023 and the team still cannot make the playoffs, the club will seriously need to consider jumpstarting a rebuild or retool with a trade of Trout.

Even if the Angels resign Ohtani, the club’s farm system ranks 28th in baseball according to Fangraphs, and they will not be able to field a consistent contender until they can have enough young talent to offset the large contracts handed out to a few members of the team. Their payroll ranks 8th in baseball already, so more splashy moves won’t do much to improve the roster. Resigning Ohtani alone will likely boost their payroll $30-$40 million a year due to his low salary hit at the moment.

If the Angels anticipate losing Ohtani, they likely will be incentivized to cash in on their asset at the 2023 trade deadline, and that will inevitably raise questions about Trout’s future with the club. It may be crazy to consider a Trout trade at this moment, but if Ohtani is dealt, the club will be left with an aging, expensive roster, and very little farm talent, much like the Washington Nationals.

This is where the Trout trade comes in to play. Dealing both Ohtani and Trout would bring back a boatload of prospects, allowing the Angels to begin their much needed rebuild. As the club begins to develop a strong pipeline and field a major league club with controllable talent, then they can go out and acquire big names via free agency or trade to jump back into contention. But as currently constructed, it is hard to imagine a scenario where Trout is a part of a winning Angels club.

Trading Trout to St. Louis likely nets the Angels a package that includes a centerpiece of Nolan Gorman, Dylan Carlson, or Maysn Winn, if not two of the mentioned names, and some other prospects in the system that can build some much needed depth into their farm system. Again, the Angels do not want to trade Trout, but if you dig yourself as deep of a hole as they have, it becomes clear that they will need to eventually.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees would be strong competitors in any Trout trade, but its easy to see why the Angels would want to send Trout to St. Louis. Giving Trout to your cross town rivals is a non-starter, and the Yankees would probably be avoided if possible as well.

For St. Louis, they’d acquire one of the game’s all time greats on a long term deal, with no worry of an extension in the near future. With revenue expected to jump again here soon and the price of contracts rising every year (see Juan Soto’s asking price for example), Trout’s contract may even be a bit of a bargain.