Cardinals: Looking back at the terrible Marcell Ozuna trade

Where would the Cardinals be now had they not made this trade?

It’s really hard to say for certain how things would have played out for St. Louis had they not made this trade, as they could have used Alcantara or Gallen in a different deal later on. For the sake of this argument, let’s assume they hold onto both players.

The Cardinals would have sported a rotation this year of Alcantara, Gallen, Miles Mikolas, Adam Wainwright, and eventually Jack Flaherty. This likely means no Steven Matz signing, allowing them to allocate that budget elsewhere, and no trades for Jose Quintana and Jordan Montgomery, which may have allowed St. Louis to be aggressive at improving their bullpen or lineup.

Two of the best arms in baseball on very controllable salaries (Alcantara makes $11 million annually for five years and Gallen is just hitting arbitration) may have meant the Cardinals would have gone all-in on Juan Soto understanding they had two MVP level hitters already, two front line starters, and a team surrounding them all with a lot of talent.

Even if keeping these two never meant getting another star, the Cardinals likely go deeper in this postseason, and then enter the offseason with $20+ million more in salary available (assuming no Matz or Montgomery) with their biggest needs now just being another big bat or bullpen help. It seems very likely that the front office would use that money to make the Cardinals a legit World Series threat.

Hindsight is always 20/20, so its not fair to assume all goes well for St. Louis without this deal. They would have needed to bring in another bat regardless, and maybe they instead choose to send away guys like Alex Reyes, or maybe they use other pieces that they would now regret losing.

It is fair to critique the level of talent St. Louis lost in one deal. Teams makes swings and misses all the time, you have to take risks to get better, but this will go down as one of the worst trades in the like decade in all of baseball. Luckily this front office is known more for their wins than their losses when it comes to trades, but this is one they would love to have back.