Final Predictions for the St. Louis Cardinals Trade Deadline Moves

The Trade Deadline is just days away, and here are the final predictions for who the St. Louis Cardinals do and don’t make a move for.

With the MLB trade deadline just days away, the St. Louis Cardinals appear to be in on so many different players, and there are a variety of ways their deadline moves could play out.

The biggest name right now appears to be the Washington Nationals’ Juan Soto, who could provide a generational bat for the Cardinals lineup at a historic cost. The Cardinals are now one of the finalists for Soto, which could transform not only this deadline for the club, but the rest of the decade.

On the starting pitching front, Frankie Montas seems to be the prime target for St. Louis at the moment, and they are reportedly in talks with Oakland at the moment. Other names like Noah Syndergaard, Pablo Lopez, Tarik Skubal, and other top level arms.

One potential wild card that has been thrown into the mix in recent days in Angels’ Shohei Ohtani, who could be the best of both worlds for St. Louis, a generational arm and bat all wrapped into one. If Ohtani talks begin to heat up more, St. Louis has one of the best packages that anyone can offer.

On top of all of these moves, the Cardinals probably need to add some smaller names to fill out the pitching depth on this roster, meaning we could see the club make multiple moves before August 2nd to prepare for their stretch run.

While it is hard to nail down exactly what the club will do, here are my final predictions for what the Cardinals will do to improve at the trade deadline.

The Cardinals bring in Frankie Montas

Where there is smoke, there is usually fire. For as hot as the talks for Soto have been, the Cardinals are as frequently mentioned as a destination for the A’s Frankie Montas, and I predict he will be dawning the Birds on the Bat by August 2nd.

Montas has been a long rumored target for St. Louis, and his mix of team control and elite pitching ability should drive Mozeliak to get the deal done. In 2022, Montas has a 3.18 ERA in 104.2 innings of work, and he finished 6th in the AL Cy Young voting last season. Montas’ shoulder injury complicates things for sure, but St. Louis continues to discuss a deal with Oakland. 

Although pivoting to Syndergaard, Lopez, or Skubal could be in the cards, Montas has been the heaviest linked to St. Louis. Skubal provides more control but isn’t quite the pitcher Montas is, Lopez appears to be too high of an asking price, and Syndergaard has not been himself this year.

Getting Montas from the A’s will likely require a center piece of Nolan Gorman or Maysn Winn, but with those injury concerns, perhaps the club can acquire him with a mix of Alec Burleson, Matthew Liberatore, and others.

No matter who the Cardinals acquire as their “big arm”, which I do expect they grab one of the bigger names, they likely will grab some insurance as well.

The Cardinals fill out their rotation as well

Yes, St. Louis needs top end pitching to matchup with some of the best teams in the National League, but they also desperately need other arms as well who can help save the bullpen form the extreme pressure they’ve been under to this point.

I would be extremely surprised if this is the biggest move St. Louis makes, but it is needed in order to get this club into October baseball. Some potential names that could fit this mold for St. Louis includes Jose Quintana, Madison Bumgarner, Merrill Kelly, and Zach Plesac.

I’ll predict the Cardinals grab Quintana in exchange for 1-2 of the likes of Luken Baker, Jonathan Mejia, Alec Willis, and Moises Gomez.

Quintana, coming over from Pittsburgh, would be a quality innings eater for the club, which will be critical for the club making the playoffs. Even just 5 quality innings from start to start would allow St. Louis to let their bullpen breathe, and could improve the production of the enitre pitching staff.

If the Cardinals do grab Soto, they may look to make two of these kind of pitching moves to find more innings, and even could if they acquire a front line starter like Montas. The Cardinals really only have three reliable starters healthy in Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, and Andre Pallante, so grabbing multiple arms would go a long way.