Here is how the Cardinals roster would look if did not make their huge trade mistakes

Perhaps the most frustrating thing that can happen in sports is self-inflicted mistakes. Whether it's on the field or behind the scenes, those mistakes seem to come back to bite in more detrimental ways than anything else that could happen. The St. Louis Cardinals may be the king of these mistakes in recent years.

It's been well documented the mistakes that the Cardinals have made in both the free agent market and dealing away young talent. For every Paul Goldschmidt or Nolan Arenado deal, there is the Randy Arozarena, Adolis Garcia, and Zac Gallen/Sandy Alcantara trades.

While every front office makes mistakes (The Dodgers trading Yordan Alvarez for a relief pitcher, the White Sox trading Fernando Tatis Jr. for James Shields, the Cubs trading Dylan Cease and Eloy Jimenez for Jose Quintana), the frequency with which the Cardinals have made these massive errors recently is baffling.

It's not completely fair to say the Cardinals should have the roster that we will look at here in this story, but it was very, very possible for the club to have their current core along with a few other All-Star bats and pitchers to add to the mix. And honestly, they may have even more talent, which we'll look at later if they had held onto the right guys and made others expendable.

Here is what the Cardinals roster would look like if they had not made their massive trade mistakes in recent years