Cardinals History: St. Louis and Toronto swap All-Star third basemen

The 2007-2008 offseason was one of transition for the St. Louis Cardinals. General manager John Mozeliak, who replaced Walt Jocketty, remade a World Series roster in just one winter. By trading Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen and allowing David Eckstein to walk via free agency, Mozeliak shook up the roster that won the 2006 World Series in dramatic fashion.

Perhaps the most shocking of these transactions was the trade of third baseman Scott Rolen.

On this day in Cardinals history, John Mozeliak traded third baseman Scott Rolen to the Toronto Blue Jays for Troy Glaus.

Both Scott Rolen and Troy Glaus were frustrated with their respective teams at this time. Rolen's frustrations began in 2005 when he hurt his left shoulder and played only 56 games. Rolen believed that he was misled regarding the severity of his injury, and manager Tony La Russa rejected this claim by Rolen, thus starting the rift between the two Hall of Famers.

This division increased in 2006 when La Russa benched Rolen during the NLDS. After the 2007 season, La Russa gave Rolen a four-page letter in which he expressed his feelings towards the third baseman. This was the final straw for Rolen, who requested a trade when the Cardinals extended La Russa a contract through the 2009 season.

Trying to find a suitable trade partner for Rolen, who had begun showing signs of decline in the 2007 season with an 89 OPS+ and only eight home runs across 112 games, was a difficult task for the rookie general manager. Rolen had three years and $36 million remaining on his contract at the time, and he had undergone three shoulder surgeries since the 2005 season. Rolen's frustration with the organization lessened Mozeliak's power in negotiations as well.

As a result of Rolen being frustrated in St. Louis, he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for another third baseman in Troy Glaus. Glaus, 31 at the time of the trade, was a four-time All Star and a two-time Silver Slugger recipient earlier in his career. He was coming off a 2007 season where he posted a 120 OPS+ with 20 home runs. While his glove was a far cry from Rolen's, his bat was still reliable.

Glaus would spend the next two seasons with the Cardinals. In 2008, he slashed .270/.372/.483 with 27 home runs, 99 runs batted in, and a 127 OPS+. He was also a reliable defender at third base, posting an MLB-best .982 fielding percentage with only seven errors that year. Meanwhile, Rolen hit just .262 with 11 home runs and 50 RBIs for Toronto in 2008. He was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in July of 2009.

In 2009, Glaus played only 14 games as a result of a strained right shoulder he suffered in September of the previous year. This injury ended up being worse than initially thought, and he missed most of the 2009 season.

As John Mozeliak indicated at the time, this swap of All-Star third baseman was not necessarily about performance but rather about player happiness. "When you look at them player by player, at the end of the day, what breaks the tie is a happy player versus an unhappy player."

Scott Rolen's contributions to the Cardinals throughout the 2000s was matched only by Jim Edmonds, Chris Carpenter, and Albert Pujols. To see his Cardinals career end the way it did was disappointing, but netting Troy Glaus, even though he played only one full season in St. Louis, was a fine consolation prize for the Cardinals.