6 keys to the St. Louis Cardinals pulling off a dream trade deadline

6. Use positional logjams to acquire cost-controlled pitching and/or high-level prospects

Lastly, the Cardinals do not need to do this at this trade deadline, but if the opportunity presents itself to turn current big leaguers into cost-controlled pitching or high-level prospects, the Cardinals should be ready to make that move.

Ivan Herrera, Brendan Donovan, Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar, Alec Burleson, and Nolan Gorman all impact the number of at-bats the other can get on this current roster, and with the Cardinals reportedly open to offers on any of those guys, that means the club isn't committed to them fully as core members, and why not turn one or more of them into something you need then?

On top of that, the Cardinals are facing really tough decisions this offseason with a variety of prospects needing to be added to their 40-man roster. The likes of Jimmy Crooks, Leonardo Bernal, Cooper Hjerpe, Nathan Church, Joshua Baez, Max Rajcic, and Brycen Mautz are all eligible for the Rule 5 draft this offseason if they are not placed on the 40-man roster. Tink Hence, Tekoah Roby, and Sem Robberse already take up three of those spots as well, and none of JJ Wetherholt, Quinn Mathews, or Liam Doyle are on that yet and likely need spots cleared up for them within the next 12 months.

That's potentially 13 spots on the 40-man roster (33%) for players who have not made a big league debut, and some of those names won't even be ready to play in St. Louis by early 2026. Mozeliak has talked about creating flexibility for Bloom as he takes over, and having that much of his 40-man roster accounted for, along with young major leaguers, would make it difficult for Bloom to add to the roster freely this offseason.

Sure, some of those names can just be left unprotected going into the Rule 5 draft this offseason, but if the club knows they are going to do that and thinks there's a chance they are selected, moving that prospect in a trade now would make a lot of sense. And yes, players presently on the 40-man roster could be dealt this offseason instead, but the point is, if they know that issue is coming up fast, they might as well explore deals right now and see if one makes sense.

While the trade deadline may or may not see some of this decluttering happen, the offseason surely will. Whether it is in the form of just moving a few names for the sake of getting rid of logjams, or potentially Chaim Bloom and his regime deciding that no one is safe and wiping much of the slate clean, trades of young position players are coming. If the right deal is available now, Bloom shouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger.