5 exciting pitching prospects the Cardinals should target in their offseason trades

Over the coming days and weeks, the St. Louis Cardinals are expected to execute a number of trades, and they've made it clear that their goal is to accumulate as many exciting pitching prospects as possible.

Chaim Bloom got started on that task early this winter, managing to bring in a high upside arm in lefty Brandon Clarke and a controllable big league arm in righty Richard Fitts from the Boston Red Sox in the Sonny Gray trade. Bloom showed just how serious he is about collecting upside arms by eating $20 million on Gray's deal to get that kind of return.

Brendan Donovan is the Cardinals' top trade asset, a player capable of bringing a really dynamic arm or two to St. Louis in an inevitable deal. But as we saw in the Gray deal, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see St. Louis eat money on Willson Contreras' deal in order to bring back another high upside pitching prospect as well.

While I wouldn't be on an Alec Burleson trade, I also wouldn't be shocked to see the Cardinals try and take advantage of a hot trade market by sending him away in a trade as well. If Bloom really sees this as a long-term rebuild, cashing in on any asset on their big league roster aside from Ivan Herrera and Masyn Winn makes sense.

Heck, even Lars Nootbaar, who is coming off a down year and had offseason surgery on both of his heels, is capable of bringing an interesting arm back to the Cardinals' organization if the right team comes calling. I would not bet on Nolan Arenado or Nolan Gorman having that kind of trade value, though.

Why does Bloom want to accumulate so many pitching prospects? Well, there are multiple reasons. First, as we all know, you can never have enough pitching. Second, even though the Cardinals have a lot of fun arms in their system right now, they could use more. And third, if the Cardinals hit on enough of those arms, they could also flip one of their young arms later to add a bat to their lineup.

I think it's safe to say that the Cardinals need to hit on their trades this offseason, so I have identified different pitching prospects that the Cardinals should target this offseason if they really want to add fun arms to their farm system.

Here are 5 exciting pitching prospects the Cardinals should target in their offseason trades