Why the St. Louis Cardinals Won the Harrison Bader Trade

The Cardinals have a surplus of outfielders

Our very own Ben Remis covered this last week, but the Cardinals have an incredible amount of outfield depth at the moment. On the roster alone, St. Louis has Dylan Carlson, Tyler O’Neill, Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, Corey Dickerson, Juan Yepez, and Tommy Edman who can all play in the outfield for the club.

In the pipeline, names like Alec Burleson, Jordan Walker, Moises Gomez, Connor Capel, and so many others could be making an impact in the outfield for St. Louis this season or in next few years. For a club that had holes at other positions, it was necessary to cash in some of that outfield depth while they could.

Walker has already been moved to the outfield in the aftermath of the Bader trade, and it is clear that the Cardinals now see him as the future right fielder for the club long term. With his arrival to St. Louis being no later than next season, the amount of rosters spots for outfielders is pretty thin, and it made sense why the club would move on.

Carlson has shown little to no drop off from Bader’s defense while filling in during his injury, and projected to be a stud centerfielder for the club for years to come.

St. Louis needed what Jordan Montgomery can provide more than Bader

This narrative is known by everyone in baseball: the St. Louis Cardinals desperately needed starting pitching.

The club’s defense and baserunning is elite, and while Bader played a major role in that, they have plenty of that from other players as well. Bader was no slouch at the plate, but he was not a true difference maker, which would have easily kept him in St. Louis past this deadline if he was.

Bader is likely out until September with his foot injury, meaning St. Louis could at best hope for a few weeks of production at best the rest of this season.

Montgomery, in the ultra competitive AL East, had an ERA of 3.69 in 114.2 innings of work for the Yankees this season, and provides an immediate upgrade over the club’s patchwork rotation. Montgomery is also under team control for 2023, meaning St. Louis now has another affordable option next season.

Montgomery and fellow newcomer Quintana now give the Cardinals a five man rotation, even without Jack Flaherty and Steven Matz, that can compete each and every game. Guys being used in the rotation and move back to the bullpen, strengthening that in the process.

St. Louis has struggled to live up to expectations the last two seasons due to their lack of pitching depth. If one or two guys goes down, the club goes into a tailspin. Now the Cardinals have at least seven experienced major league starters to choose from, and multiple different young arms to trout out as needed.

The Cardinals were not going to re-sign Harrison Bader

Not only do the Cardinals have a wealth of options organizationally for the outfield, the club was always unlikely to be able to keep the core of O’Neill, Bader, and Carlson around long term.

With big contracts already given other players on the roster, it would have hurt the club’s chances to address club needs if they began to hand out big deals to each of their outfielders as well. The odd man out always looked to be Bader.

With Bader being a free agent after the 2023 season, moving him now to a team who is trying to win a World Series while giving them another year of team control allowed St. Louis to get a good player in return, someone that will fill a bigger need for them this and next year.

Although the club could have waited for such a move, it seemed like the perfect move for both 2022 and 2023, bringing in a good, controllable starter and dealing away from a position of abundance.