3 former Cardinals players we'll be glad are gone, and 2 we'll wish stayed

Sometimes seeing a player leave is welcome, while other times, it has come back to hurt the Cardinals

Over the course of the St. Louis Cardinals' storied franchise history, there have been many trades made, most favoring the Cards. However, no team is perfect and no team is able to fully avoid some terrible trades as well.

For every Adam Wainwright trade, there's the Rollie Fingers trade to the Brewers.

For every Nolan Arenado trade, there's the complete flop of a deal that sent Adolis Garcia to the Rangers in exchange for cash considerations.

In recent memory, there are multiple names that come to mind that the Cardinals (and their fans) should be glad are gone. On the flip side, of course, there are also a few that still sting to this day as the players have gone on to find huge successes in other organizations.

Let's break down 3 players we're glad are gone and 2 we wish stayed.

We're glad Carson Kelly is gone.

Kelly, drafted by the Cardinals in the second round of the 2012 MLB Draft, was never guaranteed to get much playing time in St. Louis thanks to the presence of Yadier Molina behind the plate.

He wound up making appearances in parts of three seasons for the Cards and put himself firmly into the conversation for "worst hitters in the major leagues". In 63 games, Kelly managed to go just 18-for-117, good for a batting average of .154. He failed to hit a single home run and his OPS+ was 13.

Yes, you read that right, he was 83 percent below league-average at the plate for the Cardinals.

Kelly, now 28, was flipped to the Diamondbacks as part of the massive Paul Goldschmidt trade back in December of 2018. He has turned into a decent contributor in Arizona over the past four years or so, but his production comes nowhere close to what the Cardinals have gotten out of Goldy.

It's worth noting that the Diamondbacks acquired top-catching prospect Gabriel Moreno from the Toronto Blue Jays earlier in the offseason, so the chances of Kelly being once again surpassed on the depth chart seem high.