5 wild blockbuster moves the Cardinals should consider at the trade deadline

Why it makes sense for St. Louis in the short-term:

The last one on this list is a twist on a popular fan idea that has floated around recently. Bobby Miller has struggled mightily this year, leaving some Cardinals fans to point to a Walker-Miller swap making sense for both sides. Personally, a Nolan Gorman version of this swap makes even more sense for both sides.

Let me reiterate one more time that I still have a lot of faith in Walker. I just do. This guy is so talented, and he's still just 22 years old. And why are we forgetting that he was a productive big leaguer last season, especially after his brief Triple-A stint where he came back up hitting 20% above league average the final four months of the season? Walker is the kind of talent I would much rather go down sinking with, rather than "sell low" on.

I do think the Miller idea is interesting though, but with the Dodgers in win-now mode, Gorman could slot in at either of their two weakest positions offensively right now - second base and third base - and provide Los Angeles with a third power-hitting left-handed bat for their lineup behind Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.

What the Cardinals would be doing here with Miller is banking on the idea that he can figure things out and get back on track to being a true front-line starter. If Miller was performing like we expected him to this year, Gorman would be nowhere near enough value to get a deal done. This deal would only work if Los Angeles is willing to sell a bit low on Miller while banking on the upside of Gorman as well.

In 22 starts for the Dodgers last year, Miller posted a 3.76 ERA while accumulating 2.8 fWAR in the process. He was among the best in baseball when it came to inducing groundballs, not giving up good contact, and of course, fastball velocity. Miller's five-pitch mix was led by a deadly fastball/sinker combination that his change-up and curveball played well off of.

This year, Miller has posted an 8.07 ERA in his seven big league starts, and it is truly dumbfounding how badly things have gone for him. Miller's slider has really let him down this year, and he will either need to find a way to turn that pitch around or ditch it altogether in order to get back to his prior success.

This deal doesn't give the Cardinals much in the short-term, but the potential long-term gain is why they do this deal.

Why it makes sense for St. Louis long-term:

Sonny Gray has been a great addition to the top of the Cardinals' rotation, but he's not getting any younger, and while St. Louis does have exciting arms on the way, we all know how those arms could easily flame out (just look at the Cardinals' top-end pitching prospects in the mid-2010s). Adding Miller to their stable of future arms like Hence, Mathews, and Hjerpe would go a long way toward improving the future outlook of this staff.

As we've seen around the game this year, you can never have enough pitching. Honestly, it even feels like the teams that are the most loaded with pitching talent tend to be the teams that need more arms by the deadline. Injuries are just inevitable with pitching in today's game, so having a bunch of "dudes" rather than placing all of your eggs in one basket is wise.

Losing Gorman wouldn't be easy, but it's not hard for me to wrap my head around how they can replace him internally or go after a veteran bat this offseason. But getting a talent like Miller is something I just don't see many ways for them to actually pull that off, so this is worth considering.