Could the Cardinals still look to sell certain pieces at the deadline?

The Cardinals got off to a dreadful start, which left the fanbase worried about potentially having to sell again at the trade deadline. I, for one, was fully prepared for the team to go that route and punt on 2024, but things changed on Mother's Day.

Since then, the Cardinals have the best record in the National League and have surged back into contention. Now, it's obvious that they're going to be buyers this year at the deadline. And before anybody gets the wrong idea, I'd like to stress that by selling, I don't mean punting on this season and trading for prospects like last year. Nobody wants that, especially not now.

But could the Cardinals still do a little bit of selling this year at the deadline and make some moves in both directions? Joey Schneider of FOX 2 wrote an interesting piece about what the Cardinals could do and how they could potentially make moves in both directions. And there are ways to go about it that make sense.

Could the Cardinals still look to sell pieces at the deadline?

Before we dig into what Schneider had to say about selling, let's get a few things out of the way. No, the Cardinals aren't going to trade Paul Goldschmidt, and they're unlikely to trade Ryan Helsley as well. Why would they at this point?

Schneider made a very interesting point and recalled a trade made by the Cardinals in 2022. That year, they acquired Jordan Montgomery from the Yankees for Harrison Bader. They added a key veteran starter to the mix but also subtracted an outfielder. In a sense, it was a buy-and-sell trade.

If the Cardinals do any selling, this is how they're going to do it. There's no way that they're going to do what they did last year and trade away key pieces for future assets. That effectively eliminates the possibility of trading Goldschmidt and Helsley.

But what I found kind of interesting is that Schneider pointed out the positional logjams the Cardinals are dealing with. At this point, Dylan Carlson has become dead weight, and the Cardinals could look to sell low on him. Jordan Walker is languishing in the minors and Tommy Edman might be blocked out by Michael Siani, who continues to impress on the defensive side.

Also worth noting is that Ivan Herrera has been somewhat blocked by Pedro Pages. These are players that the Cardinals could sell off in an attempt to add other pieces, like a middle to upper-rotation arm or a high-leverage reliever.

It would also be kind of similar to what the Red Sox did at the deadline in 2022. One of their deals was a buyer-to-buyer deal with the White Sox. They sent left-hander Jake Diekman to Chicago for catcher Reese McGuire. The Cardinals could potentially do this with the Rangers, who looked to be trending towards selling but have come to within three games of first place in the AL West.

Perhaps players like Edman and Herrera could be used to acquire somebody like Nathan Eovaldi. Texas has a few starters almost ready to come off the injured list, while the Cardinals have positional logjams and need a starter.

This is all speculation as of now, but it will be interesting to see what the Cardinals do with some of their position players.