Phillies surprise swap sets the market for Cardinals' hot trade commodity

While the St. Louis Cardinals search the trade market far and wide for the best possible deals for each of their tradable assets, the Philadelphia Phillies just cashed in on a reliever with very similar trade value to the Cardinals' lefty JoJo Romero.

The Phillies sent left-handed reliever Matt Strahm to the Kansas City Royals on Friday morning in exchange for right-handed reliever Jonathan Bowlan. With another lefty off the board, a Romero trade feels imminent, and this deal should give up a good framework for what kind of value Romero holds in this trade market.

The Matt Strahm trade shows the Cardinals what they can get in a JoJo Romero trade

Strahm, like Romero, has one year of team control remaining and was set to make a hair more than what Romero would be owed in arbitration. In 66 appearances in 2025, the 34-year-old lefty posted a 2.74 ERA and 2.99 FIP to go along with a 27.3 K% for the Phillies before being shipped to Kansas City today.

Romero, 29, appeared in 65 games for the Cardinals in 2025 and posted a 2.07 ERA with a 3.28 FIP while striking out 21.6% of the batters he faced. The two arms are super comparable in terms of production, salary, and remaining team control, which makes this deal an interesting comp for a Romero trade.

Now, I don't necessarily think the Cardinals will be targeting the same type of player that the Phillies did here. Bowlan has five years of team control remaining and has been a pretty impactful reliever thus far, and his under-the-hood metrics seem to indicate he could become an even better reliever in the near future. He is 29 years old, though, which doesn't quite fit the youth movement the Cardinals are after.

Still, the Phillies were able to grab a helpful player with some upside that has a ton of team control remaining in return for Strahm, so I do think the Cardinals can be asking for a solid prospect in return for Romero. Getting a reliever with the type of club control that the Bowlan offers wouldn't be bad either, but my guess is the Cardinals aren't targeting a bullpen piece in this trade.

So many lefties have been signed or traded for over the last two weeks, so the Cardinals should have teams calling them for Romero right now to see if they can snag him for their 2026 bullpens. My guess is that a deal gets done in the near future.