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

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.