Cardinals Rumors: St. Louis the favorite to acquire Juan Soto

The St. Louis Cardinals are reportedly the favorite to acquire Washington Nationals superstar outfielder Juan Soto.

Well, the Cardinals lineup might soon get better. A lot better.

The St. Louis Cardinals are the favorites to acquire Washington Nationals superstar outfielder Juan Soto, according to Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post. There are a multitude of teams in on Soto, including the New York Mets, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners and others.

So the Cardinals are not alone. But Heyman writes that “A few suitors have been told the Nats are focusing on one or two teams at the moment, and some believe the Cardinals are in the group getting early attention.”

Do I expect the Cardinals to be involved in Soto? Yes. I wasn’t convinced that they would be serious players, however, but my thinking has changed in the last 48 hours. They have the farm system to pull off such a deal – Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, Matthew Liberatore, Masyn Winn, among others – and a front office that hasn’t been afraid to make big moves in the past, evidenced by the Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt deals.

But St. Louis president of baseball operations John Mozeliak has been hesitant to part with his top prospects in the past. However, when a generational player like Soto becomes available, that requires an organization to think about altering its past thinking. And based on this report, that’s exactly what Mozeliak and the front office is doing.

Just imagine a lineup with Soto, Arenado, Goldschmidt and Tyler O’Neill. Hoo boy. That would vault the Cardinals into World Series contention not just this year, but for the next three seasons. We will see what happens, but it appears that there is more merit to the Soto to St. Louis talk than once thought.