Cardinals: 4 things to keep an eye on as the club preps for the trade deadline

4. Playing time opening up for Cardinal prospects

Assuming Montgomery, Flaherty, and Hicks are dealt at the deadline, there will be several openings on the pitching staff for young arms to get some opportunities in St. Louis. The same could happen with the starting lineup as well.

On the pitching side, unless the Cardinals also swing a deal for a controllable starter, the likes of Michael McGreevy, Dakota Hudson, Gordon Graceffo, Matthew Liberatore, and other arms could feature more and more for St. Louis as they look to see what they have internally before they upgrade the staff further in the offseason.

If the Cardinals do trade away one or more of their young bats or even shop the likes of Tyler O'Neill or Paul DeJong, names like Masyn Winn, Luken Baker, Juan Yepez, Moises Gomez, Ivan Herrera, and others may get extended looks with the big league club as well.

Everyone would rather be watching this team playing for October down the stretch, there will be excitement seeing impact players get their first shots in the big leagues, and it will help inform the front office greatly of what they must do to shore up this roster. If they find one arm internally for their rotation, that helps them to be even more aggressive to fill the other 2-3 slots. If Masyn Winn lives up to the hype, the Cardinals have a new starting shortstop and maybe some more capital to deal from. The same is true with the other names I mentioned.

While it may feel like there is little reason to keep paying attention to this club, this next month of baseball will not only inform how the rest of this season will play out but it will also set the tone for a critical next 8 months of decisions for this front office.

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