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

Infield/Catchers

Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Tommy Edman, Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman, Ramon Urias, Willson Contreras, Ivan Herrera

We start off with the position groups that the Cardinals have actually "held onto" the right talent for, as the group largely remains intact.

One thing to note though is that if the Cardinals have made the right decisions when it came to their outfielders (more on that on the next slide), they probably could have moved someone like Lars Nootbaar and Nolan Gorman for Sean Murphy, getting the best catcher in the game, saving money by not handing out the Contreras deal, and perhaps still having the best outfield in baseball. Oh well.

You'll see one addition to this group who was not here previously - Ramon Urias.

It's honestly a toss-up between Urias and DeJong, but being on a much cheaper deal and coming off a Gold Glove season in 2022, he'd be a value utility guy off the bench, with the ability to play all four infield positions.

Overall, you've got to like how the Cardinals have handled their infield, outside of the catcher position. For all the head-scratching decisions the Cardinals have made in recent years, grabbing Goldschmidt and Arenado while also having the middle infield depth they have is a big win.

Outfield

Randy Arozarena, Adolis Garcia, Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar, and Dylan Carlson

Yeah. Let's just take this in for a second.

Could you imagine if the Cardinals, on top of having Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, had an outfield that consisted of two outfielders that started in the All-Star Game and one of the best young players in all of baseball?

I kind of what to just skip this page now, but there's another page that will hurt equally as much.

We can all agree the Cardinals' lineup is not their issue. Are there some issues with it? Sure. Can it be frustrating at times? Of course. But overall, it's one of the best in the game.

Now add Randy Arozarena and Adolis Garcia to it.

Not to mention the surplus value you now have on the bench in Lars Nootbaar and Dylan Carlson. Tyler O'Neill and Alec Burleson don't even make the cut for this team. I'm not going to assume the Cardinals make trades in this scenario, but remember how I said Sean Murphy becomes even more of a possibility? I would've been shocked if the Cardinals passed on Murphy with this kind of position player depth.

I'll comment more on their lineup as a whole later, but let's take a peak at the pitching staff.

Rotation

Zac Gallen, Sandy Alcantara, Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas, and Adam Wainwright

This one hurts even more than the outfield dynamic. If the Cardinals had never made that Marcell Ozuna trade, St. Louis likely has a top-of-the-rotation that includes the reigning NL Cy Young winner and the current front-runner for the award.

Jordan Montgomery goes from the club's "ace" to their number three starter. Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas, and Adam Wainwright could duke it out for roles in the back end of the rotation. I think there's a strong arguement for this being the best rotation in baseball.

Not only are the Cardinals no longer lacking an ace in this scenario, but the amount of quality starts and rotation depth they would have is incredible. We all know they need an ace badly, but the effect is not just in those important matchups where your ace is on the bump, but also the effect it has by "slotting" other arms lower in the rotation.

Something to note about most of this list - we aren't talking about guys who are currently on megadeals with other clubs. Gallen, Arozarena, Alcantara, and Garcia all make less than guys like Adam Wainwright, Steven Matz, Miles Mikolas, and Willson Contreas. The Cardinals could easily afford to have these guys on their roster.

Bullpen

Ryan Helsley, Giovanny Gallegos, Jordan Hicks, Johan Oviedo, Zack Thompson, JoJo Romero, and Andre Pallante

The bullpen is both the hardest group to predict and also the weakest group of the bunch. Luckily for St. Louis, they've held onto arms like Helsley, Gallegos, and Hicks, so they don't have much in terms of regrets there.

This would likely be the group the club would look to upgrade at this year's deadline, but honestly, that's basically what every contender needs to do each year. It's hard to predict what bullpen arms will pan out year to year, and the Cardinals would have plenty of assets to make a deal happen.

Ultimately though, when your lineup and rotation are as strong as they look, you can handle some question marks with the bullpen leading up to the deadline.

Let's check out how this team would stack up on paper.