Cardinals History: The bold trade that swapped a legend for a future World Series MVP

Very few baseball executives win many fans over by trading a franchise icon and borderline Hall of Famer in their first offseason in charge of a club. Even fewer have that deal end up being one of the most impactful moves toward winning a World Series just a few short years later.

That's exactly what happened during John Mozeliak's first offseason in charge of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball operations. Walt Jocketty had been fired by the club just a few months prior, and the young Mozeliak was tasked with getting the Cardinals back to World Series contention after a disappointing World Series defense season in 2007.

On December 14th, 2007, the Cardinals sent center fielder Jim Edmonds and $2 million in cash to the San Diego Padres for a little-known prospect named David Freese. Freese was a 24-year-old in High-A ball at the time, and while he had the hometown kid background to endear him to fans, a prospect most had outside the Padres' top 10 that season wasn't going to help fans greave the loss of a franchise icon like Edmonds...or so they thought.

Sure, Edmonds' play on the field had declined in a big way. Following the 2005 season where he posted his sixth straight season with at least 6 fWAR while manning center field for St. Louis (reread that sentence a few times!), Edmonds was about league-average during their 2006 World Series campaign and posted his first season of negative defensive value and below-league-average production at the plate since 1999 during that 2007 campaign.

Still, that was the same offseason the Cardinals also parted ways with future Hall of Fame third baseman Scott Rolen as well. While the Cardinals were able to get a big league slugger in Troy Glaus in return for Rolen, losing two of the three members of the iconic MV3 was a tough pill to swallow for the club, no matter how much the production had suffered.

While the Rolen move had its pros and cons, the Edmonds trade for Freese will go down as one of the best moves by Mozeliak during his tenure with the Cardinals.

Freese made his MLB debut during the 2009 season and hit immediately, slashing .323/.353/.484 in the 17 games he appeared in that season. In 2010, that sample size grew to 70 games, and he was 13% above-league average for Tony LaRussa's club. But that iconic 2011 season is where things really took off for the hometown kid.

Freese, in 97 games, slashed .297/.350/.441 with 10 home runs and 55 RBI for St. Louis, good for a 123 wRC+ and 2.2 fWAR as he became a mainstay in the Cardinals' lineup entering the playoffs. It's truly impossible to forget Freese's run in the 2011 postseason, as he went on to slash .397/.465/.794 with 5 home runs and 21 RBI in 18 games as the Cardinals went on to win the World Series.

Freese's performance in Game 6 of the World Series may be the single best game played in MLB history. Down 7-5 to the Texas Rangers in the bottom of the ninth, Freese was down to his final strike when he smashed a ball to deep right field and over the outstretched glove of outfielder Nelson Cruz. As the ball bounced around the wall, Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman came around the score, and Freese slid head-first into third base for a game-tying triple.

After Lance Berkman tied the game again in the 10th inning down to his final strike, Freese game to the plate with the bases empty in the bottom of the 11th, and mashed a solo home run to center field to send the Cardinals to Game 7 of the World Series, in which they'd beat the Rangers by a score of 6-2.

During his five seasons with St. Louis, Freese slashed .286/.356/.427 with 44 home runs and 237 RBI, posting a 119 wRC+ and 7.7 fWAR. Freese was a really solid player for the Cardinals and they made three NLCS appearances and two World Series trips with him at third base. Freese's heroics in the 2011 postseason will have him go down as one of the most beloved Cardinals of all time.

As for Edmonds, things went really bad in San Diego, but he irked Cardinals fans in a big way when he was traded to the Chicago Cubs and crushed the ball during the 2008 season. After not getting the kind of free agent offers he wanted that offseason, Edmonds took 2009 off before coming back and playing for both the Brewers and the Reds in 2010, slugging for both clubs and earning himself another contract with the Cardinals during the 2011 offseason. Edmonds had strained his Achilles in 2010 though, and after complications with that arose quickly after signing the deal, Edmonds officially retired from baseball.

The trade could not have gone any better for the Cardinals. Somehow, Mozeliak turned a crummy situation into World Series glory, and as he enters his final year in charge in St. Louis, it's interesting to look back and remember a deal that shaped both his career and Cardinals' history.