3 young St. Louis Cardinals that should get Braves-like extensions

The Atlanta Braves are showing the baseball world how to get team-friendly extensions done, which players should the Cardinals look to extend?

The St. Louis Cardinals have drawn national attention due to record setting seasons from legends like Albert Pujols, Adam Wainwright, and Yadier Molina, and MVP caliber years from Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. Yet, its the youth movement within the organization that is setting St. Louis up for sustained success.

Rookies like Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman, and Andre Pallante have been valuable contributors to this teams postseason push. Younger core players like Tommy Edman, Lars Nootbaar, and Dylan Carlson are carving out important roles on the club. Top prospects like Jordan Walker, Maysn Winn, and Alec Burleson give the Cardinals even more to look forward to.

Teams around the league are seeing great value in locking up young core players to long-term, team friendly deals. Players like Julio Rodriguez and Wander Franco have received massive deals over the last year, but its the Atlanta Braves that have really set the precedent for this.

Recently, the club locked up OF Michael Harris II and 3B Austin Riley, who follow in a long line of the Braves young core that have received long term extensions, including guys like Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, and Matt Olsen.

St. Louis has payroll flexibility entering this offseason, and though the club should look to focus a lot of those resources on bringing in even more talent, they would be wise to consider long-term extensions with their young core. There is risk in extending guys in their early 20s to huge contracts, but if the Braves have shown anything, you can also receive huge discounts by paying players a few years early, rather than waiting things out.

Here are players that St. Louis should consider signing to long-term extensions before they hit arbitration.