Cardinals Rumors: Here are five names the club may be targeting right now

Here are five potential targets the Cardinals could be after between now and Spring Training

The St. Louis Cardinals have been rather quiet the last few weeks, but the off-season rumor mill continues to turn and there has been a recent buzz regarding another move from the Cardinals.

In a recent story on The Athletic (paid subscription required), Jim Bowden had the following to say about what he is hearing the Cardinals are up to.

The Cardinals filled their biggest off-season need when they signed catcher Willson Contreras. Now they are open-minded in looking for ways to improve their team. They are actively pursuing trades and keeping tabs on the free-agent market. It is believed the Cardinals are working to acquire a certain player but want to make sure more specifics don’t become public because it would hurt their chances of completing a trade. They’re not done making moves.

Let me start by saying, this quote doesn't really tell us anything. What Bowden said about the Cardinals could probably be said about every team in baseball. No team is sitting around today not looking to upgrade their team. That's their job, and they want to field the best product possible. Yes, the Cardinals are looking to upgrade their team, likely through the trade market, but this needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

We have heard this off-season that sources around baseball believed the Cardinals would be active in the trade market, especially with the position player depth on their roster. Although no deals materialized with the Athletics or Blue Jays regarding a catcher, St. Louis is still looking to improve the club if the right opportunity presents itself this winter.

Who could some of these players be that the Cardinals may be interested in acquiring this off-season? Let's take a look at five potential names that could be in the Cardinals' cross-hairs between now and Spring Training, as well as debunk a few names that have been thrown out there.

First, the five potential targets for St. Louis, in no particular order.

Target #1 - Bryan Reynolds

Even before his trade request earlier this off-season, Bryan Reynolds was a name thrown around baseball as a trade candidate this off-season.

Reynolds was an All-Star in 2021 after posting a .912 OPS season that found him 11th in MVP voting in the National League. After a bit of a dip in production in 2022, and failed extension talks with the Pirates this off-season, buzz has grown that Reynolds could be on the move.

The price is reportedly very high though, and although Reynolds would likely be an upgrade over the current outfield options for St. Louis, I think a deal for the Pirates outfielder is unlikely at best. This is not one of the ones I want to completely shoot down though, as I think the Cardinals have at least discussed it internally and I am sure they have done their due dilligence with the Pirates.

Should other clubs back off Reynolds trade talks and the Pirates want to move him, the Cardinals have the pieces to get the job though. The real question is whether or not he is the best investment for St. Louis right now. Going into 2023, the Cardinals have a plethora of outfield options who could be major contributors, and it would be wise to wait and see if they really need to add another outfielder or not, especially when there are other needs on the roster.

Target #2 - Pablo Lopez

Pablo Lopez feels like the new Frankie Montas for St. Louis. His name is constantly floated out there as a potential trade candidate, and the pieces make a lot of sense for a deal to get done with the Marlins.

In a career-high 180 innings in 2022, Lopez went 10-10 with a 3.75 ERA and 8.7 K/9, pitching like an All-Star in the first half but then falling off during the second half of the season. Lopez likely wouldn't be the "ace" that fans really want for this rotation, but he would represent a cost-controlled starter who could serve as a number two starter on a really good team.

The Marlins are looking for offensive upgrades, specifically in the outfield. This has led names like Tyler O'Neill or Dylan Carlson to be linked to Miami, and I would not be surprised if either ended up being in a package for Lopez.

Kind of like the Reynolds trade though, I'm not sure trading O'Neill or Carlson in a package for Lopez is a great idea right now. If they trade O'Neill and he returns to his MVP-like production, or even just 70% of that, it will have been a big mistake. If Carlson rebounds from his injuries and continues his development into a really good center fielder, that will also turn out poorly for the Cardinals.

The worst thing the Cardinals could do in their quest for pitching is panic. If they do not have a great deal available to them right now, they can afford to wait till the deadline for pitching. Although they do not have that ace, they do have a quality group of five starters and some depth pieces that can get them by for a few months while St. Louis figured out which of their young positions they want to keep and which could go.

Target #3 - Chris Sale

I recently made the argument for why the Cardinals could consider a Chris Sale trade this off-season, and after thinking about this more since then, I believe he makes a ton of sense for the Cardinals if they deal for a starter this off-season.

Unlike someone like Pablo Lopez, Sale is not going to cost a ton of prospect capital to acquire. Yes, he has a large contract, but it's likely the Red Sox would eat a good chunk of that in any trade of Sale.

Sale's injury history continues to be brought up as a reason for the club not to pursue him, and sure it is concerning, but most of those injuries were very fluky. You can argue that he is injury prone now, but before this string of unlucky injuries, Sale pitched over 147 innings each season from 2012-2019, eclipsing 190 innings in five different seasons.

In his very limited sample size after returning from injuries in 2022, Sale's fastball velocity and spin were both around the 60th percentile in baseball. Sale looked like himself, and it did not appear that he had lost any of his ability over the last two years. If he remains healthy, there's not a lot of reason to believe he would not be very productive for the Cardinals.

The Cardinals would be buying low on a starter who could be one of the best in baseball for the next few years. If the Sale experiment failed, he likely would still be good enough to be a mid-rotation, and St. Louis would still have the assets necessary to make a big move for an ace.

Target #4 - Liam Hendricks

Liam Hendriks has had his name in the rumor mill this off-season as the White Sox have explored ways to shake up their roster for 2023. With a gaping hole at second base, the White Sox could see Nolan Gorman or Brendan Donovan as ideal targets in a Hendricks trade.

By no means am I advocating for something like that to happen, and with the Cardinals' willingness to part with Ryan Helsley for Danny Jansen earlier this off-season, I really don't know if they'd want to pay up for a closer on the trade market. Gorman and Donovan hold a ton of value too, so it likely would not be as simple as a straight swap.

Why would the Cardinals want Hendriks? Since 2019, Hendricks has a 2.26 ERA and 114 saves in 239 innings of work. He struck out 13.5 batters per nine innings during that stretch as well, which would give the Cardinals an elite trio at the back of their bullpen this coming season.

For all of the talk about the Cardinals' lack of top-end starting pitching, the club could gain a major edge on other team's in baseball by stacking the back end of their bullpen. If St. Louis is serious about a deep postseason run, an elite bullpen is arguably just as important as having those front-line starters. Game 1 of the Wild Card series proved that, after Helsley struggled in the 9th, they continued to ride him as they had already burned Gallegos. If the price is right for the White Sox closer, I am sure the Cardinals would have a lot of interest.

Target #5 - Tyler Glasnow

Tyler Glasnow has become a bit of a fan favorite at Redbird Rants, and I'd like to remind everyone that one of my very first stories for the site back in December 2021 was proposing a Juan Yepez-Tyler Glasnow swap, something most people shot down. Well, well, well. How the turntables. (Thank you, Michael Scott).

While Glasnow's name has not been in rumors outside of speculation, many have pointed out that it is a very "Rays-like move" to deal Glasnow with two years remaining before free agency to maximize his value. With probably the deepest pool of starting pitching in all of baseball, the Rays could afford to deal ton-end pitching for offense and not miss a beat.

After coming back from Tommy John surgery that he had in the summer of 2021, Glasnow's fastball velocity and spin ranked above the 90th percentile in baseball. He looked just as electric as he did before his injury, even earning a start in the playoffs for Tampa Bay after throwing just six regular-season injuries.

Even if the Rays are healthier in 2023, their current lineup has a lot of question marks and could use upgrades in a big way. Some combination of O'Neill, Carlson, Yepez, Gorman, Donovan, Alec Burleson, and Moises Gomez could be appealing to the Rays, and make them give real thought to parting with Glasnow.

The Cardinals would then have a legit ace at the top of their rotation for both 2023 and 2024 and hopefully could extend him for a lot longer. For as much as I love the idea of this though, it feels more likely to be a possablity at the trade deadline or next off-season.

Those are five names I think the Cardinals could have as targets right now, but I wanted to shoot down two names real quick that have come up in fan theories or unfounded rumors.