3 fast-rising Cardinals prospects who could be trade bait

Yes, the Cardinals do not look so good right now, but no it is not totally over yet. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak has not said anything referring to being " sellers " at the deadline, so we could see the Cardinals make some moves in the coming months.

Now one question some fans might ask is if the Cardinals deserve to make an upgrade at the trade deadline. If they keep losing at the rate they are they will not be in contention to win a championship, or the division even if the division stays mediocre. And if the Cardinals still have the third-worst record in the MLB in late July, then it's not worth trading away parts of the future to try to contend.

Even though the starting pitching has a decent run of success during this current rut, the problem is if it the rotation can be trusted in the postseason. There are lots of starters that could be available at the deadline but they will come at a fairly high price. The Cardinals have always had high-quality prospects over the years that teams are interested in. In a trade last season with the Pirates, the Cardinals traded away Johan Oviedo and Malcom Nunez, who were on the Cardinals' top 30 prospect list in 2021.

So who could be traded for someone that can help the Cardinals right now? You could look at prospects that have high ceilings but may be blocked once they're ready to get to the big leagues, or blocked by other prospects. You have multiple levels of minor league baseball which leaves you with a lot of players, sometimes you need to move some of them.

Here are three fast-rising Cardinals prospects who could be trade bait