Biggest winners, losers, and trade grades from Cardinals-White Sox-Dodgers trade

The St. Louis Cardinals just finalized a three-team trade with the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers, acquiring RHP Erick Fedde and OF Tommy Pham from Chicago while sending CF Tommy Edman and minor league pitcher Oliver Gonzalez to Los Angeles.

Rumors began to swirl about this potential three-team trade last night, and the clubs were able to agree to terms as today unfolded. Reactions are popping up everywhere regarding this deal and I wanted to jump in and give my biggest winners, losers, and overall trade grades from this deal.

Winner: John Mozeliak

This was a masterclass move from John Mozeliak. After being backed into a corner by ownership at this deadline due to their unwillingness to add salary to this roster, Mozeliak had to get creative if he was going to be able to add anything of significance to this roster. and boy did he.

Flipping Edman, who has still yet to appear in a game this year, and the one and a half years remaining of control he has for a year and a half of Fedde and rental bat in Pham is all you could possibly ask for. Edman has been an extremely valuable player for the Cardinals and has not always been appreciated enough for what he provides for the team, but the presence of Masyn Winn and Michael Siani made his role less clear for the club, and they parlayed that to fill two major needs

Fedde has been really good this year, posting a 3.11 ERA across 121.2 innings for the dumpster fire Chicago White Sox. Fedde now gets to pitch for a contender and in front of a really good defense, and while fans have concerns about his past MLB performances, Fedde remade himself last season while pitching in the KBO.

The Cardinals get a reunion with Pham, who will provide the most value to them as a right-handed bat against left-handed pitching. The Cardinals have been horrible against lefties this year, while Pham has posted a 141 wRC+. He'll likely start in left field or center field against lefties while Nootbaar or Siani starts at the other position, and he may even get some run against right-handers as well.

What a move by John Mozeliak!

Loser: Hindsight

While I am going to give Mozeliak all of the credit he deserves here, it is fair to at least point out that he could have signed Erick Fedde and Tommy Pham this offseason for very inexpensive contracts, and still have Tommy Edman in the organization.

I am not allowing that to hurt the trade grade though, as you can make that argument for every club when it comes to those two players, and you can make that argument about so many other guys who will be traded at this deadline as well.

Still, it would have been nice to just have had these two the whole time.

Winner: Tommy Edman

Tommy Edman has been so important to the Cardinals' success since coming up in 2019. He has been the glue that helps the roster come together, filling in at a number of positions whenever the Cardinals needed him. In 2022, Edman should have been an All-Star, as he posted a 5.4 fWAR as an above-league-average hitter while playing great defense wherever they needed him.

Last year, Edman showed the ability to play a great center field as well, thus making himself the Opening Day center fielder going into Spring Training...but he's yet to play a game for St. Louis.

Offseason wrist surgery has sidelined Edman up until this point, and while he is expected to return in the next week or two, his prolonged absence and the emergence of Masyn Winn and Michael Siani gave the Cardinals an opening to move Edman for pitching.

If there was a perfect landing spot for Edman though, the Los Angeles Dodgers are that team. He's from California, his mother grew up a Dodgers fan, and he'll likely play a bigger role for the Dodgers day to day than he would have in St. Louis. The club has a lot of injuries right now, so Edman will likely play every day at a number of positions.

And hey, he gets to live in Los Angeles and play on an incredible team. That's quite the win if you're asking me.

Loser: The DeWitts

As much as I love this deal for the Cardinals, I hate the process (financially) that got them there.

The DeWitts informed Mozeliak and his team that they did not want salary added onto their books this deadline, especially over the next few seasons. That meant that in order to acquire someone like Fedde, who is owed $7.5 million next year, they would have to move some salary.

Frankly, that is just a ridiculous request from the same ownership group that tried to tell fans this offseason that the TV revenue question marks would not impact spending, and that they had money left over to go and upgrade at the deadline. I understand that revenue changes, but that is a really difficult thing to walk back when your fanbase already questions the spending that occurs.

Trade grades

Cardinals - A

Seriously, what an excellent move from the Cardinals front office. They turned Edman, who has not contributed yet this season and would have a diminished role when he returned, into a number two or three starter and an important bat is a masterclass by Mozeliak. And apparently, most fans agree!

Dodgers - B

The Dodgers have long been an admirer of Tommy Edman, so bringing him onto their roster with all of the ways he can help them is good business. They also were able to add another bullpen arm to their club here in Michael Kopech, why they may be able to unlock into a powerhouse reliever with his elite stuff.

Still, it feels like they gave up a lot to make this happen. Miguel Vargas is a former top prospect who has struggled at the MLB level but has been incredible in Triple-A. Still just 24 years old and with five years of club control remaining, Vargas could be a very valuable piece for the White Sox moving forward. The Dodgers also gave up two other interesting prospects that we'll talk about in a moment.

The high price to pay mixed with the uncertainty of what Edman will provide when he finally returns feels a bit risky to me, but the Dodgers tend to know what they are doing. With all of that in mind, I'll give this deal a B.

White Sox - B

The White Sox also get a B for me, as they turned Fedde, Pham, and Kopech into three really interesting pieces long-term.

As I said earlier, Vargas is a former top prospect who will now get consistent opportunites with Chicago. If he is able to get things back on track, he's a player who can make moving Fedde worth it all on his own.

Alexander Albertus and Jeral Perez are both a long way from potentially contributing, but both infielders are 19 years old and fell inside the Dodgers' top 20 prospects according to Baseball America. Albertus is an extremely disciplined hitter with a plus-hit tool, while Perez is also a great on-base guy but lacks a defining tool.

This seems like a good return for the White Sox though, and being able to turn this into a three-team deal meant they were able to get prospects they liked from Los Angeles while moving Fedde to a team who really wanted him.