5 ways the St Louis Cardinals could be losers at the trade deadline

We are now officially in the month of July and that means that trade season is officially underway and the St. Louis Cardinals have some really tough decisions to make. The offense has been very good and their run differential seems to indicate that they are a better team than their record is showing, but it is hard to polish the turd that is being in dead last in the National League Central by a considerable margin.

At 14 games below .500, one cannot really make a case for the Cardinals having much of a chance at all at making the playoffs this season. They are 9.5 games back in the worst division in the National League and the news is even worse if you turn your attention to the wild card race.

That places a lot of importance on this particular trade deadline for the Cardinals' short-term and long-term outlook. There has been no shortage of pieces on this very site alone that have discussed at length which prospects need to stay and go, who the Cardinals need to target at the deadline, and what exactly the roster's needs are.

However, the most important thing the Cardinals have to do is not screw this trade deadline up. There are a few ways they could handle things that are defensible, but mishandling the trade deadline could hamstring the franchise for years to come.

Here are ways the St Louis Cardinals could screw up the trade deadline

There are several landmines the Cardinals need to avoid at the deadline. Some of them revolve around decisions regarding specific players while others are more general strategic things that they should avoid doing like the plague.

Lets take a look at what the Cardinals need to do to avoid screwing up the 2023 trade deadline.