15 free agent and trade near-misses that would've changed Cardinals history

15 near-misses in free agency and trade market that could've changed Cardinals' history

Almost every single season, we all wonder what the St. Louis Cardinals will do to improve their roster. Rumors often swirl around the league about what they could be up to, most of the time having very little substance to them.

But sometimes, those rumors were founded, and there are moves that came so close to being true but just weren't in the "cards". See what I did there?

Some of these "near-misses" end up being bullets dodged for the club. Whether it was deciding to hold onto a prospect who would later be a major contributor, or refusing to give out a large contract to a player who would end up being a bust, those missed deals or trades feel very good looking back on them.

Other times, the club had an opportunity to change their trajectory for the better and instead chose to pass on that free agent signing who would have been the perfect fit or decide not to trade for a player who would have proven to be an excellent trade. Sometimes you can feel the "miss" at the moment, but there are also misses that you don't realize how big of a deal it would've been until years later.

The Cardinals, because of their rich history, have a number of these situations that you can look back on. Because of how good industry insiders have gotten at leaking information in recent years, even a team as tight-lipped as the Cardinals has begun to have their thinking leaked to the general public.

Let's look at 15 near misses, in no particular order, that could have changed Cardinals history.