Brewers historic NLCS bullpen performance proves trade with Cardinals was a win-win

The goal is to win every trade you make, but there's nothing wrong with a good "win-win" move as well, even if it stings a bit for the St. Louis Cardinals, seeing their division rival, the Milwaukee Brewers, benefit from their former players' performance.

Last night, the Brewers took a commanding 2-0 series lead over the Dodgers, and did so on the backs of their offense, who put up seven runs, and their lights -out bullpen, who set an MLB postseason record of five perfect relief innings. If you take a moment to wander over to the box score, you'll notice that former Cardinals Dustin May and JoJo Romero accounted for two of those five innings of work.

After the Dodgers tied Game 2 of the NLCS at three apiece in the top of the fifth inning, May entered the game for starter Logan Henderson, recording outs on all three batters he faced but allowing a sacrifice fly to score the Dodgers' fourth run to give Los Angeles the lead.

Romero came in for the sixth inning and struck out both Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith before getting Max Muncy to ground out to second base on just 13 pitches.

The Brewers look like the team of destiny right now, and both May and Romero are playing significant roles in that, making their massive trade with the Cardinals at the deadline look like a true "win-win" at the moment.

The Cardinals got top prospects while the Brewers may secure their first World Series

Obviously, you want to be the team that is potentially going to win a World Series in win-win deals. No one is going to say otherwise. But the Cardinals were not doing that this year, and the only way they are going to get to where the Brewers are now is by acquiring talent for the future, and they did just that in their deal with Milwaukee.

In return for two months of May and Romero plus a postseason run, the Cardinals acquired outfielders Josiah Ragsdale and Alexander Frias. Frias is a top 100 prospect in baseball according to Baseball America, and Ragsdale is seen by other outlets as a top 100 talent himself. That's quite the haul for two rental players who weren't the top options available at their positions.

Ragsdale is a speedy center fielder who broke out offensively this year and has real upside to be a difference maker at the Major League level. He struggled at the end of the year with Springfield, but there is plenty of time for the 22-year-old to grow. Frias is just 18 years old and a powerful corner outfield bat with real 30+ home run potential.

Adding those two names to their farm system, as well as the return they got for Lars Nootbaar, is helping the Cardinals' farm system continue to ascend as a top-three group in the sport. That began to bear fruit in 2026 with debuts from JJ Wetherholt, Leo Bernal, Joshua Baez, Quinn Mathews, Cooper Hjerpe, Luis Gastelum, Blaze Jordan, and more, but there is even more talent coming in the next seasons with Ragsdale, Frias, Rainiel Rodriguez, Liam Doyle, Tanner Franklin, and the list goes on and on.

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