A (not-so-brief) history of in-division trades for the St. Louis Cardinals

St. Louis Cardinals trades with the Milwaukee Brewers

The St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers have made a surprising amount of trades with each other over the years. Since 1996, the Cardinals and Brewers have made six trades with each other.

On March 27, 1997, the Cardinals and Brewers made a small trade with each other. The Brewers sent Scotty Pace as a PTBNL to the Cardinals, and the Cardinals sent Keith Johns to the Brewers. Johns, a utility infielder, never made it past Triple-A with the Brewers, and he eventually bounced around between the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox before making his MLB debut in 1998. Pace never logged an inning with any Cardinals' affiliate.

In December of 1999, the Brewers sent Fernando Vina to the Cardinals for Eliezer Alfonzo, Matt Parker, and Juan Acevedo. Vina, who would play the next four seasons with the Cardinals, was a superb defender at second base who also posted near-league-average offensive stats. He would nab two Gold Gloves with the Cardinals (2001, 2002), and he would post an OPS of .733 with a .285 batting average across his four years. This trade benefited the Cardinals tremendously at the turn of the century.

In 2002 and 2003, the Cardinals and Brewers made some minor trades that included Jamey Wright going to the Cardinals for Mike Matthews and Chriss Morris. In 2003, the Brewers sent Mike DeJean to the Cardinals for Mike Crudale and John Novinsky. Of this bunch, only Wright and DeJean pitched meaningful MLB innings.

The final two trades since 1996 between the Cardinals and Brewers involve a pair of veteran relievers being sent to the Cardinals. In 2013, the Cardinals acquired reliever John Axford from the Brewers for Michael Blazek on August 30th. Axford pitched only 10.1 regular season innings with the Cardinals, but he posted a 1.74 ERA and made several late-game appearances. He also threw 4.2 postseason innings that year, allowing only one earned run and striking out nine batters.

On July 31, 2015, the Brewers traded reliever Jonathan Broxton and cash to the Cardinals for prospect Malik Collymore. Broxton pitched for the Cardinals for 2.5 years, posting a 4.32 ERA and striking out 99 batters across exactly 100 innings. In 2015 and 2016, Broxton was a reliable reliever for the Cardinals, posting respective ERAs of 2.66 and 4.30.

The Cardinals and Brewers aren't being linked this offseason, but there's an outside chance the Cardinals could snag a starting pitcher from Milwaukee, and the Brew Crew could call on any one of the Cardinals' useful regulars.