Biggest what if in recent Cardinals history would have solved team's biggest need

Hailed as an excellent trade by the St. Louis Cardinals at the time (by the industry, myself, and many othres), John Mozeliak flipped an injured Tommy Edman in a three-team deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox that saw Edman head to Los Angeles, Erick Fedde and Tommy Pham to St. Louis, and a certain young, struggling third baseman to Chicago in Miguel Vargas.

Could you imagine if the Cardinals had Vargas right now?

It took some time, but the former top 100 prospect in all of baseball has been one of the best hitters in the sport in 2026, slashing .251/.363/.484 with 29 home runs, 60 XBH, and 76 RBI, good for a 137 wRC+, which is 13th-best in all of baseball and a few points above Jordan Walker. Vargas has also posted 4.5 fWAR this year, which is eighth among all position players in the sport.

When the Cardinals made this deal at the 2024 trade deadline, they were trying to bolster a team that was in the playoff race, but do so in a way that didn't cost prospect capital. That resulted in them flipping Edman, who likely wasn't going to be a part of their core moving forward, and upgrading both their rotation and bullpen in the process.

Unfortunately, they quickly fell out of the race, and it turned out to be another Band-Aid move that kicked the can down the road on a necessary rebuild. I'm not going to be a hypocrite and act like I knew that in the moment - the deal for Fedde and Pham seemed to make sense at the time, and the biggerr issue was not flipping Fedde that offseason before his terrible 2025 season - but it is a bit ironic that, if Chaim Bloom were in charge, the Cardinals may have been targeting a guy like Vargas instead of Fedde, and the club would be in an even stronger position today because of that.

Miguel Vargas would have been an excellent third baseman of the future for Cardinals

It took some time for Vargas to get things going after that trade. He was awful in the 42 games he played with the White Sox in 2024, posting a dreadful 17 wRC+, but he got back to being a league-average hitter in 2025.

Vargas saw major gains in his bat speed, quality of contact, and plate discipline this season, and along with some improvement to his defense as well, has turned him from a promising young player into one of the most valuable players in baseball this year.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, have the -0.9 fWAR from their third base options this year, the only team to have a negative fWAR value from that position this year, with those players collectively providing below-average defense and a 70 wRC+ on the season. Swapping Vargas in for that position alone may have the Cardinals in a playoff spot right now, and every position on the field outside of center field has a long-term answer playing there right now.

Just a few months after this trade, the Cardinals would announce that Bloom would be taking over for Mozeliak after the 2025 season, and the club would enter that offseason with full intention of moving veterans like Nolan Arenado. So I will say, it's pretty frustrating for the direction to change in just a few months time, and if they knew they were going to be rebuilding, it was even more unwise not to go after young talent at that deadline.

The Cardinals have a potential young third baseman coming soon in Jesus Baez, whom they acquired in the Ryan Helsley trade at the 2025 deadline, and there's been speculation that top prospect Rainiel Rodriguez could get some looks there as well eventually. But overall, I think we can all agree it would be much better to have Vargas in hand as well, both for the present and the future of the organization.

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