5 wild trades the St. Louis Cardinals should consider to accelerate their reset

The St. Louis Cardinals have no excuse not to explore every avenue to improve their ball club this offseason, even in what they are calling a "reset" year ahead of them.

No, they don't need to make any "all-in" moves or sacrifice their future for some win-now acquisitions, but they should leave no stone unturned when it comes to turning some of the value they have on their roster into pieces that could help them contend moving forward.

Craig Breslow, the Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer, hit the nail on the head when accessing his own roster this offseason, saying their club needs to figure out if their young position players have more value with Boston or in a trade somewhere else. The Cardinals have a lot of pieces right now that could be a part of their future, but could also be used to go out and get other pieces for the ball club.

I wanted to look at five different deals that I could see the Cardinals considering that may actually make the roster better, even while parting with valuable talent. None of the players I've placed in these deals need to be traded by St. Louis, but they also should not be opposed to moving them if the right deal presents itself. I'm not necessarily advocating for each of these ideas, but I did want to present how they could make sense for St. Louis and their new timeline of a reset in 2025 and getting back to business in 2026 and beyond.

Here are five deals the St. Louis Cardinals could consider in order to accelerate their retool this offseason

It feels like the last three offseasons, the Cardinals and Marlins have been rumored trade partners with the needs they both had. The Marlins have been searching for middle-of-the-order bats for years now, especially ones with power. They were able to bring in Luiz Arraez for Pablo Lopez two offseasons ago, and while that was a strong addition, they haven't been able to acquire a thumper for their lineup.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, have been lacking top-of-the-rotation starters for some time as well. They finally spent some money on Sonny Gray to fill one of those voids, but they have failed to pair him with a second dynamic arm to headline their rotation.

In this scenario, both the Marlins and the Cardinals take risks by giving up two players with high ceilings, but both are coming off really dissapointing seasons and could see their value tank if they cannot rebound in 2025.

Jesus Luzardo was one of the breakout starting pitchers of the 2023 season, posting a 3.58 ERA in 32 starts for Miami. Luzardo struck out 28.1% of the batters he faced, which was among the best in baseball. His chase% and whiff% were exceptional as well, and he did a really good job of limiting walks as well. His mid to upper 90s fastball and really nasty slider and changeup allowed the lefty to keep hitters off balance consistently. 2024 did not go as planned for Luzardo as he made just 12 starts and really struggled on the mound as he battled injuries.

Nolan Gorman slugged 27 home runs for the Cardinals in 119 games in 2023, posting a 118 wRC+ in the process. In 2024, he struck out at a 37.6% clip, which was a historically bad rate and he saw his average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage all tank because of it.

The Marlins have plenty of other arms they can lean on, and the Cardinals have a logjam of infielders. While Gorman has two more years of control, pitching seems to be hard to trade for, so a one-for-one swap here seems to make sense for both sides. It would be a tough pill to swallow for both, but may be a gamble worth taking.