What should we expect from the Cardinals at the trade deadline?
Any baseball fan can see this team is not constructed to win a World Series. At this point, we will probably not even make the playoffs.
Is there any reason to think the Cardinals will make severe changes in the next few weeks? If history is our guide, we should be able to see precisely what will happen.
John Mozeliak was the man in charge of making trades after the 2007 season. Looking at the trades he has made at the deadline might give some insight into what will happen this year. I am not looking at the off-season trades such as the ones for Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. While those were great trades they do not have anything to do with deadline trades.
Here is a list of trades made between July and August since 2008.
YEAR | CARDS GET | CARDS GIVE |
---|---|---|
2008 | NO MOVES AT THE DEADLINE | |
2009 | Matt Holliday | Brett Wallace (3B) Clay Mortensen (RP) Shane Peterson (RF) |
Mark Derosa (3B) | Chris Perez (RP) Jess Todd (RP) | |
2010 | Nick Greenwood (RP) Jake Westbrook (SP) | Ryan Ludwick (LF) |
2011 | Edwin Jackson (SP) Marc Rzepczynski (RP) Octavio Dotel (RP) Corey Patterson (RF) | Colby Rasmus (LF) Trever Miller (RP) Brian Tallet (RP) P.J. Walters (SP) |
2012 | Edward Mujica (RP) | Zack Cox (3B) |
cash considerations | Tyler Greene (2B) | |
2013 | Juan Herrera () | Marc Rzepczynski (RP) |
2014 | John Lackey (SP) Corey Littrell () $1.75 million | Joe Kelly (RP) Allen Craig (RF) |
2015 | Jonathan Broxton (RP) cash considersations | Malik Collymore () |
Brandon Moss (DH) | Rob Kaminsky (P) | |
Steve Cishek (RP) | Kyle Barraclough (RP | |
2016 | Zach Duke (RP) ($1,748,633) | Charlie Tilson (CF) |
2017 | Lane Thomas (RF) | International Bonus Money |
cash consideration | Todd Cunningham (LF) | |
Tyler O'Neill () | Marco Gonzales (SP) | |
Rayder Ascanio () | Mike Leake (SP) ($2,704,911) $750,000 in international bonus money cash considerations ($17M) | |
2018 | Elniery Garcia (SP) | cash considerations |
Seth Elledge (RP) | Sam Tuivailala (RP) ($196,812) | |
Chasen Shreve (RP) ($283,840) Giovanny Gallegos (RP) | Luke Voit (1B) ($187,520) $1M of international bonus pool | |
Justin Williams (OF) Genesis Cabrera (RP) Roel Ramirez (P) | Tommy Pham (LF) ($190,030) $500,000 of international bonus pool | |
Conner Capel (RF) Jhon Torres (OF) | Oscar Mercado (OF) | |
Matt Adams (1B) ($881,705) | cash considerations | |
2019 | Zac Rosscup (RP) ($241,704) | cash considerations |
Tony Cingrani (RP) Jeffry Abreu () | Jedd Gyorko (3B) ($2,623,655) cash considerations & international cap space | |
2020 | Domingo Robles (P) | international bonus pool |
2021 | cash considerations | John Nogowski (1B) |
T.J. Zeuch (SP) | cash considerations | |
Jon Lester (SP) ($698,945) | Lane Thomas (RF) | |
J.A. Happ (SP) ($2,795,715 | Evan Sisk (P) John Gant (SP) ($733,850) | |
2022 | JoJo Romero (RP) | Edmundo Sosa (3B) |
Jose Quintana (SP) Chris Stratton (RP) ($949,440) | Johan Oviedo (SP) Malcom Nunez (3B) | |
Austin Allen (C) ($705,000) | Carlos Guarate (P) | |
cash | Austin Romine (C) ($700,000) |
I am seeing all kinds of trade proposals thrown out there. Some of them even make sense. I am pretty sure none of them will happen.
If you look at the above list of trades that Mo has made over the years you will not find any blockbuster trades at the deadline. Any trade of significance was made before 2011. Why is that date important? That's right, that was the last year we had Tony La Russa here. I will let you draw your own conclusions.
Looking at this list I see very little indication that this is a team that will be making any major trades at the deadline.
What I don't think anyone will admit is there is no reason for Mo to make any trades this year. A couple of mid-range pitchers won't get us to the playoffs this year. Also, after watching Arozarena and Garcia square off in Home Run Derby, I am sure that the front office is having nightmares about letting the wrong players leave.
There is one more reason I don't think any major trade will be made. The attendance last year averaged 38,894 per game. This year it is 41,439 per game. That is almost 2,500 more customers buying tickets for every game.
As long as they are making more money there is no incentive to do anything different.
You can hope for a big infusion of talent over the next couple of weeks, but I will be looking for just more of the same.