Familiar Cardinals face once again generating loud trade interest ahead of Winter Meetings

The St. Louis Cardinals began their rebuild in earnest prior to Thanksgiving, shipping de facto staff ace Sonny Gray to the Boston Red Sox for a package headlined by top pitching prospect Brandon Clarke.

Clarke is an exciting young pitcher for Chaim Bloom's front office to build around, though it is peculiar that he didn't target any of his own former top draft picks from the Red Sox's organization. Nevertheless, the question now moves on to which veteran the team plans to deal next as it prepares for a lean few seasons.

The obvious answers would seem to be Nolan Arenado or Willson Contreras, but neither possesses the trade value that Gray did; at best, they'd bring back prospect talent if the Cardinals eat a majority of their remaining salary, and at worst, trades involving them will amount to mere salary dumps.

Thus, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the Cardinals are turning their attention to one of the few veterans on the roster with a ton of trade value and few strings attached: reliever JoJo Romero.

JoJo Romero could be next Cardinals piece to go in offseason rebuild

Despite the Cardinals' bullpen purge at the trade deadline, Romero was somewhat surprisingly held onto by John Mozeliak. Now, all of the relievers traded in July were rentals, and it's possible the former president of baseball operations didn't want to move anyone with team control remaining.

However, the 29-year-old southpaw has just one more season of arbitration remaining before he hits free agency. It's not unrealistic to say the Cardinals may have missed their opportunity to cash in on his success at the trade deadline.

Then again, Romero was brilliant for the Cardinals down the stretch, so losing that half-year of control may not hurt his trade value. His second-half performance (1.71 ERA, 3.14) FIP trumped even his brilliant first half (2.45 ERA, 3.44 FIP).

Considering that he also held left-handed hitters to a .211/.287/.244 batting line in 2025, Romero should be considered one of the best high-leverage relievers on the market. That's especially true if contending teams are willing to buy into the fact that he locked down eight saves in St. Louis after Ryan Helsley was traded to the Mets.

How much a reliever with limited closing experience and limited team control is worth remains an open question, but Romero's projected arbitration salary is just $4.4 million. Odds are good that another team in need of a lockdown southpaw will pay a hefty finder's fee to the Cardinals for Romero, potentially before or during the Winter Meetings.