3 reasons why the St. Louis Cardinals should target Dylan Cease this season

The Cardinals' have so many assets to package for a guy like Dylan Cease

Should the White Sox choose to trade Cease (more on that later), the Cardinals have so many assets to offer in order to get a deal done.

Just on the Major League roster, names like Dylan Carlson, Nolan Gorman, Brendan Donovan, Juan Yepez, and Alec Burleson all provide great options for a team looking to bring in young, cost controllable assets. While Jordan Walker would be off-limits, perhaps even names like Masyn Winn (due to the Cardinals' middle infield depth), Ivan Herrera, Moises Gomez, Michael McGreevy, or some of their other pitching prospects could be available if needed.

Let's get this out of the way, a trade for Cease would be painful in terms of the kind of prospect capital you would need to give up. Teams just do not trade young aces under team control for one major piece. It would likely take a package of those players to get this done, or at least 2-3 of them headlining the deal with some lower-level prospects involved as well.

But here's the thing. This kind of deal would be worth it for a team like St. Louis. Let's say you take Carlson, Gorman, Burleson, and Gomez out of the club's system, they still have so much young position player talent that they have plenty of players to fill out their lineup and maintain depth options. Even if you had to include a name like Winn in that kind of deal, they still are in a position of strength.

Don't get too up in arms about the specific names I mentioned. The point of this exercise is to show how much talent the Cardinals truly have, how they really can part with a lot of it, and still be set up for success for years to come.

This all hinges on the White Sox deciding that selling is in their best interest, and based on tea leaves, I would not be surprised if Chicago's South Side team has an implosion this season.