Two Ways to Look at the St. Louis Cardinals’ Pursuit of Juan Soto

The Cardinals played the sweepstakes too safe

There is great wisdom in being disciplined and calculated with every move you make. Having eyes on the future and not deviating from your long term plan for short term gain is what typically determines if an organization will survive or thrive in Major League Baseball.

The Cardinals are one of the best in baseball about getting great value in every trade they make. Every team makes a bad trade here or there, but St. Louis is often times on the winning end of a deal, meaning they maintain and collect talent without having to lose much. When it comes to acquiring a player like Soto though, that will not get a deal done.

We can all assume the Nationals wanted Walker badly, but reporting seems to indicate that the central pieces of the package toward the end were Carlson and Nolan Gorman. While both players are critical pieces to the club and its future, neither will come close to the level of player Soto already is, and at such a young age, may become even more special of a player.

St. Louis appeared willing to part with Gorman, but was reluctant to include Carlson in any package. We do not know all of the details of the deal yet, but Washington being open to Gorman and Carlson as the center pieces of the package leaves many questioning why Mozeliak was not willing to make that deal.

Parting with those two and other prospects would hurt a lot, but having a lineup with Soto, Paul Goldschmidt, and Nolan Arenado while holding onto Walker and their remaining big league talent/prospects would not only put St. Louis in World Series mode the next few seasons, but would keep their long term window open as their young guys come up and take the reigns in St. Louis.

The Padres, on the other hand, dealt away a package that could have been beaten by St. Louis with Gorman, Carlson, and co., and did so while also acquiring Bell in the deal. Padres’ GM AJ Preller did whatever it took to get Soto, and the Cardinals did not.

It is rare to see a player of Soto’s caliber dealt, especially at such a young age, and now Cardinal fans will be plagued with the question of “what if?” for seasons to come. There is immense pressure on management and their young players to be right about their future, or people will always point back to being able to get Soto at this deadline.

St. Louis maintained their bright future by not cashing in their chips

The other way that this can be looked at, and one that all fans have to hope is true, even if they wanted Soto, is that St. Louis avoided the “shiny object” to maintain one of the brightest futures in all of baseball.

While clubs around the league are mortgaging their future to win in 2022, the Cardinals have a competitive team right now that looks primed to improve year in, and year out for the next 3-5 years.

The current roster sports top end talent in their prime like Goldschmidt and Arenado. Both players should be close to their current production for at least a few more seasons, giving St. Louis two cornerstone veterans on their roster.

Carlson, Gorman, Ryan Helsley, Tommy Edman, and Tyler O’Neill represent a promising young core that has All-Star potential in the midst of all of them. That does not even include guys like Harrison Bader, Juan Yepez, Brendan Donovan, and Jack Flaherty in that mix, who all have the ability to make major impacts for the club moving forward.

In the pipeline, Walker is looking more and more like a future superstar. Although it is doubtful he would ever be to the level of Soto, he is showing the flashes of a guy who could be a top 10 player in the game.

No one can blame the Cardinals for holding onto a guy like Walker. He could provide a very similar punch to the lineup that the Cardinals wanted from Soto, and be complimented by guys who would have had to leave in that package. Including top 100 prospects like Maysn Winn (No. 19), Matthew Liberatore (No. 52), and Gordon Graceffo (No. 55), who are all top 60 prospects in baseball.

Throw in other top 100 prospects and a deep farm system that will likely see more names pop up on national radars, the Cardinals are ready to explode with talent in coming years. It was still a stretch to consider St. Louis a World Series contender with Soto in their lineup, but looking at St. Louis as a future powerhouse with all the young talent they still have is a very real threat for the rest of baseball.

Teams can go for it when windows or opportunities like this arise, and be successful, but then absolutely fall apart due to the amount of resources they had to part with (see the Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals). The truly elite franchises look to fortify their future in such a way that one day they can make blockbuster moves, and still maintain an extremely bright future. St. Louis is arguably there already, but in a year or two, will firmly sit in the seat of a team that can win the World Series right now, and be a favorite for the tile 4-5 years from then.

No matter which camp you fall in, it will take at least a few years for fans to truly judge whether or not the Cardinals should regret not grabbing Juan Soto. For now, all eyes turn to players like Walker, Carlson, and company, as their continued development will be pivotal for St. Louis becoming the powerhouse that the front office believes it will be.