3 trade packages to reunite the St. Louis Cardinals' with former ace Jack Flaherty

In case you haven't heard, Jack Flaherty looks like the starter that the St. Louis Cardinals once dreamed would lead their rotation for years to come, and he should be available in a trade between now and the MLB Trade Deadline.

It is no secret that the Cardinals need another front-line starter, and Flaherty would fit the bill perfectly. Flaherty has been one of the best starters in baseball this year with the Detroit Tigers, posting a 3.13 ERA and 32.1% strikeout rate in 16 starts thus far. Every contender in need of starting pitching is looking at Flaherty right now, and for good reason.

I have come around to the idea of the Cardinals going after Flaherty at this trade deadline. For a while, it seemed like a non-starter to me, but the more I've thought about it, the more and more it makes sense for St. Louis to entertain.

I wanted to create some trade packages that I think could get a deal done with the Tigers for Flaherty. To be clear upfront, I did my best to not only give equal value to the Tigers for Flaherty but to also propose deals that could "top" other offers from contenders. Flaherty may be the best rental arm available on the market, and those starters do not come cheap.

While starters with control like Flaherty's teammate Tarik Skubal or White Sox's Garrett Crochet will fetch far more in a deal, Flaherty has been in the same class of starter as those guys this year, and so even though he is a rental, it will cost a pretty penny. Jordan Montgomery was pitching very similarly to Flaherty when he was traded last deadline, and he fetched two fringe top 100 prospects in Thomas Saggese and Tekoah Roby along with John King in a deal that also netted the Rangers Chris Stratton.

It won't come cheap for the Cardinals to acquire Flaherty, but they should strongly consider adding him.

Here are three trade packages I think could bring Flaherty back to St. Louis at this trade deadline

Package #1 for Jack Flahetry

I said it in the intro and I'll say it again, all of these deals are going to hurt. They have to in order to pry Flaherty away not just from the Tigers, but from being added to a different contender in pursuit of him.

Just off the top of my head, any of the Dodgers, Orioles, Guardians, Brewers, Braves, Padres, Red Sox, Yankees, and Astros could be looking to add Flaherty as the deadline gets closer. Pitching is always in need at the deadline, and with how good Flaherty has been, he is going to be the hot name on the market outside of Crochet and Skubal.

Flaherty is in the 94th percentile or higher in Whiff%, K%, BB%, and breaking ball run value this season. He has regained his elite strikeout stuff while also fixing his walk issue and being among the best in baseball at preventing free passes. Not only that, but he's well above average in creating weak contact as well, and has been a good groundball pitcher when he does not get a swing-and-miss.

Everything about Flaherty's game this year has been good, and so teams are going to be willing to pay up for the 28-year-old stud.

Giving away Cooper Hjerpe would be extremely painful. To me, he is one of the most underrated pitching prospects in baseball, and I would not blame the Cardinals for saying no to offering him. Frankly, I have a hard time saying I would either. Hjerpe's deceptive delivery and arm angle allow his low-90s fastball and nasty breaking stuff to play up even more, resulting in a 35.1% strikeout percentage across High-A and Double-A this year. He's already had two starts this year where he allowed no hits before being pulled due to his pitch limit. Hjerpe has so much potential.

But again, the Tigers are going to want something impactful for Flaherty, so if they used someone like Hjerpe as the centerpiece along with a high-upside prospect in Leonardo Bernal and MLB-ready infielder in Cesar Prieto, that could get the job done.

I could another team sending a stronger offer than this, but this would be really stretching for St. Louis. If you don't like this deal, I have two others that would be very difficult to make as well but could be realistic.

Package #3 for Jack Flaherty

I'm making deals here that I think the Tigers would accept, that I think could outbid the market, and that I could potentially see the Cardinals doing. Even though this could come back to bite them, I could see the Cardinals offering Ivan Herrera in a straight swap for Jack Flaherty.

Here's how I got here. I'm sure the Cardinals do not want to move their big league bats like Lars Nootbaar, Nolan Gorman, Brendan Donovan, or Alec Burleson to grab pitching at this deadline, and I highly doubt they'd move Jordan Walker either. Frankly, all of them would be massive overpays to offer for Flaherty in my opinion.

Second, I'm sure St. Louis would love to avoid giving away multiple of their favorite prospects as well. The guys I really think they would have a hard time parting with are Tink Hence, Quinn Mathews, Victor Scott II, and Chase Davis along with the aforementioned Hjerpe, Saggese, and Roby. From that list, I think Hence and Mathews are the two I have full confidence they would not move for Flaherty, but I'm sure they would strongly prefer not to move the others either.

Third, let's think about how the Cardinals have made some of their creative trades in the past. They once turned Colby Rasmus, a top young player in the game who seemed to have lost his role with the club into Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel, Marc Rzepczynski, Corey Patterson, and cash. It seemed like a weird use of the Rasmus asset at the time, but it won them a World Series. The club also recently flipped center fielder Harrison Bader while he was on the injured list for Jordan Montgomery in a deal that seemed to come out of nowhere.

In a similar way, could St. Louis use the valuable asset that is Herrera to hold onto their prized prospects and acquire a rental arm? At the moment, Herrera is down in Triple-A because of how much the Cardinals value what Pedro Pages brings behind the plate. Could they turn his surplus value into a front-end starter?

It feels like an overpay value-wise for Flaherty, but I could see the Cardinals being interested in how it saves them from gutting other areas of their roster and farm system. In 54 games this year, Herrera has been worth 1.0 WAR while posting a .279/.340/.378 slash line, good for a 107 wRC+. He's been a slightly below-average framer while having good blocking behind the plate, and his game-calling has improved as well. Herrera has the potential to be a really good starting catcher for a long time, but his arm strength is the biggest red flag.

With Contreras, Pages, Bernal, Jimmy Crooks III, Sammy Hernandez, and a bunch of catchers just drafted, I could Herrera being the trade chip they dangle. I don't think they'd move him for almost any rental arm outside of Flaherty though.

What do you think of these trades? Are they realistic value for Flaherty? And if so, would you make trade for Flaherty?