5 trade destination for St. Louis Cardinals' Juan Yepez

It's clear Juan Yepez will not get the opportunity he needs in St. Louis, so what teams could target the young slugger?

The St. Louis Cardinals, for the first time in years, have too many bats to get enough playing time for. While this is a huge advantage for the organization, it does put some players in difficult situations. Juan Yepez is one of them.

Yepez was just optioned back down to Triple-A Memphis after Lars Nootbaar returned from the injured list. During his brief stint in St. Louis, Yepez only got 12 at-bats and was passed over for the likes of Taylor Motter for consistent playing time.

For the Cardinals, while you could question why Taylor Motter gets more playing time than Yepez if he's on the roster, the overall lack of opportunities for Yepez is not surprising.

Yepez has a really good bat. He's going to be a very productive hitter in this league for a long time. But where on earth does he find playing time on this team? Nolan Gorman is playing like an All-Star at DH, and Yepez just is not worth playing in the outfield more than maybe once a week.

Other teams around the league are going to value Yepez's bat. The universal DH has opened up his value to all 29 teams in baseball, and if you look around the league, there are teams who could clearly use the 25 year old's bat in their starting lineup immediately.

Here are five teams the Cardinals make a Juan Yepez deal with to improve their own roster.