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

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?