Did the trade deadline expose another problem the Cardinals have?

The Cardinals entered the trade deadline wanting to get something for the players who would become free agents at the end of the year. Check. They did that. The only players with expiring contracts left on the roster are Wainwright who retires and Drew Verhagen and Cory Spangenberg.

The secondary objective was to put us in a better position for 2024. Without more moves, the Cardinals should turn our sights to 2025.

Most of the sites grading the deadline trades thought St. Louis did OK and if you look at each trade as a stand-alone transaction that is true. The Cardinals traded away players that would be free agents at the end of the year and at least got something for them instead of letting them walk and get nothing. Some of the prospects are actually intriguing. None are high-end, game-changing, and can’t miss prospects though.

This trade deadline did something I don’t think the front office would like to admit. It not only highlighted just how bad this season was for the Cardinals to become sellers, but it also highlighted a fact that I’m sure they are not very proud of. Their minor league system must be an even bigger mess.

Before the deadline, the Cardinals had only two of the MLB’s top 100 prospects in our system. After the deadline and making all those trades, they still only have two. How bad is it only having two in the top 100? Just looking at their own division It looks bad. The Brewers, Reds, and Pirates all have five top-100 prospects each. The Cubs have four.

What is very troubling is looking at where the new players slot into our rankings. Tekoah Roby was the Rangers' 11th-ranked prospect. He now ranks as the Cardinals' 4th. Robberse was the 7th and is now their 6th. Saggese was the Rangers’ 14th-ranked prospect and now he is their 8th, Prieto was 16th, now 9th.

So forty percent of the Cardinals' top-ten prospects were picked up over the last couple of days. And still, they haven’t moved any into the top 100.

The top player in all the moves was Roby. He is now the Cardinals' 4th-best prospect. He was shut down in 2022 with elbow issues and Tommy John surgery was discussed but he was able to recover without it. This year he has been on the injury list since early June.

Robberse grades out as a less-than-average pitcher on the MLB prospect grade scale. Players are graded on a 20-80 scale: 20-30 is well below average, 40 is below average, 50 is average, 60 is above average and 70-80 is well above average. His grade is 45. Tink Hense is a 55.

Saggese and Prieto are both infielders and both grade out at 45 and really didn’t fit into the pitching, pitching, pitching mantra that Mozeliak was chanting before the deadline.

This team appears to have a lot of work at all levels of the operation.