Cardinals: If St. Louis becomes sellers, these 6 players could be on the trade block

Paul DeJong

All offseason, fans were unsure how the Cardinals could enter another season with Paul DeJong on their roster. Unsurprisingly, they did so again, and he’s been awesome in the very short sample size he’s had so far.

DeJong has a 1.024 OPS with 2 HR in his first 26 at-bats this season. DeJong was catching fire in Triple-A Memphis as well before rejoining the Cardinals, and many think the adjustments he made at the plate this offseason are finally paying dividends.

DeJong’s contract has two club options following the 2023 season at $12 million and $15 million each, so teams could take on DeJong for the stretch run as a quality shortstop or backup infielder for their roster, and if he plays well enough, they could decide to bring him back on those options. If not, they let him hit free agency and it’s no skin off their back.

The Cardinals could decide to eat some of his contract to help with some of that, but with how he’s playing so far this year, they may not really need to do that. And the Cardinals can actually expect a little bit of value in return for DeJong as well.

Before this ends though, let me address why certain players are not on my sell list.