2 ways the Lucas Giolito trade will help the Cardinals cash in at the trade deadline

The price for the St Louis Cardinals' rentals just went up

As much as teams want to get top dollar for their players on trade market, the reality of trading the types of guys St. Louis will mostly be making available (specifically pending free agents) makes that incredibly difficult.

Players who are about to hit free agency only come with a couple months of team control which limits their value to other teams and the Cardinals have very little leverage in negotiations beyond market demand. You can't exactly just threaten to keep a player when everyone knows you need to move them during a lost season and risk getting nothing out of them.

However, this trade market was already looking pretty strong for rentals like Jordan Montgomery, Jordan Hicks, Chris Stratton, and even Jack Flaherty. There was already a lack of sellers at the deadline this year and contending teams were looking pretty desperate for ways to add roster depth especially on the pitching side without having to trade half their farm system.

What the Giolito deal did that helped the Cardinals' position even more is increase the prices for rentals even further. While the Angels' farm system isn't anything to write home about, the two prospects they gave up, Edgar Quero and Ky Bush, were two of their top three prospects with Quero being particularly highly regarded. These are usually not the types of guys that are thrown in trades for rentals at the deadline.

For the Cardinals, that puts them in a great position as they have a starting pitcher of comparable quality to Giolito in Jordan Montgomery as well as relievers who are arguably better than Lopez in Hicks and Stratton potentially available. When teams call asking about those guys, the Cardinals are going to point to the White Sox/Angels deal and let them know that they are going to have to pony up.