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 Pham

Pham was trying to play for a contender all offseason but was unable to find any interested suitors until Spring Training got underway. Still, nothing seemed to materialize, so Pham decided to take a deal with the White Sox so he could get some of the value he thought he deserved financially and play a lot.

We already talked about how good Pham has been against left-handed pitching, and overall, he's been a valuable player this year. His overall numbers include a .266/.330/.380 slash line with a 102 wRC+ in 297 plate appearances. The Cardinals have lacked offensive production this year, so the addition of Pham will go a long way for their club.

Pham will start against left-handed pitching while coming off the bench as a pinch hitter when a righty starts. He also makes for a really nice fourth outfielder whenever one of Alec Burleson, Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, or Michael Siani needs a break from the everyday lineup.

It was a tough first half for Pham to play for the White Sox, but he now gets the opportunity to play for a familiar organization and contending team in the second half.

Loser: Dylan Carlson

The person who Pham will replace on the roster is outfielder Dylan Carlson, who will surely be moved in a trade over the next 24 hours.

It's a tough pill to swallow for Carlson, but one he and everyone else have seen coming for a long time now. Once one of the top prospects in all of baseball and finishing top 3 in Rookie of the Year voting in 2021, Carlson has regressed each season since then and now looks like a shell of his former self.

Carlson is slashing .198/.275/.240 with a 52 wRC+ in 59 games for St. Louis and has basically lost any role with the club. Carlson occasionally starts when they really need an off day for someone or comes in as a defensive replacement late in games, but he has overall been a major negative for the team, evidenced by his -0.8 fWAR thus far.

It will be a win for Carlson once he is finally sent to a new team, but overall, he comes out as a loser due to the fall from grace he has been on.

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.