Cardinals receiving mixed reviews from industry on Ryan Helsley trade return

The St. Louis Cardinals pulled off a blockbuster trade deadline deal with the New York Mets, sending two-time All-Star closer Ryan Helsley to the World Series hopefuls in exchange for prospects Jesus Baez, Nate Dohm, and Frank Elissalt.

Trading away a player as talented as Helsley is going to be a shock to the system of any fanbase, and immediately, fans want to know whether or not the Cardinals got a valuable return for Helsley in such a deal.

Well, early reactions from industry experts seem to be split on the return for the Cardinals.

The Cardinals are receiving mixed reviews from industry experts on their return for Ryan Helsley

While the Cardinals did not get flashy top 100 prospects for Helsley like the Minnesota Twins got for Jhoan Duran (who has two more years of control, so was going to cost a lot more to acquire), instant reactions from the industry have been loving the deal for the Cardinals specifically.

David Schoenfield and Bradford Doolittle of ESPN graded the Cardinals' return for Helsley as an A-, while giving the Mets just a B in the deal. They thought getting an upside bat like Baez was a nice return for Helsley, on top of also acquiring two interesting arms as well.

Keith Law of The Athletic, who primarily covers prospects, had the complete opposite reaction, calling the deal a "[expletive] heist" for the Mets. Andy McCullough gave both sides B grades while Tyler Kepner graded the Cardinals' haul as a B-, and both of these writers are also from The Athletic.

We covered the deal in the moment over on the Dealin' the Cards podcast if you want to listen to a deeper breakdown of the Helsley trade and the return the Cardinals got for him. Thomas Gauvain also just posted a prospect profile for Jesus Baez on the site.

Any time a club acquires prospects in a trade, you can never truly make full grades or analysis of the deal until years from now, when the careers of all players involved have truly begun to unfold. Helsley could very well help the Mets win a World Series this year, and the Cardinals may have acquired future impact players for the club under Chaim Bloom. Only time will tell!