St. Louis Cardinals: 3 roster holes that need to be addressed by the trade deadline

The St. Louis Cardinals are in a really tough spot so far in 2023. Despite having two of the best offensive players on Planet Earth in Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado and some really interesting young players on the roster, they find themselves way below .500 and lurking at the bottom of one of the worst divisions in baseball (although, in fairness, the AL Central is probably the actual worst). 

In fact, things have gone so badly that it is hard to see how the Cardinals could logically approach the trade deadline as buyers beyond this short winning streak of late. Sure, there are absolutely going to be players available that would help the Cardinals' big league roster and yes, they have the prospects to get a significant deal done even if multiple biggish trades might be getting too ambitious. However, at some point they can only make up so much ground and trade deadline roster retooling can only do so much, right?

As it turns out, the Cardinals do, in fact, still seem to think that they can turn things around for the moment. While team executives are almost never going to publicly throw in the towel this early, it sure seems like St. Louis, at least for now, is looking to try to be buyers at the deadline this year.

Given the state of the NL Central, one cannot really blame them for not being very intimidated by the teams ahead of them, but they have a lot of work to do. While they have been able to string together some wins lately, this is a roster that needs some love and soon.

With all of that in mind, here is a look at the holes on the Cardinals’ roster they really need to address at the deadline if they are going to have any hope of turning the season around.

The Cardinals’ bullpen could use a boost

One reason that St. Louis may be leaving starters in longer than they should is due to some depth issues in their bullpen. Ryan Helsey and Chris Stratton have been legitimately good in 2023 and Geovany Gallegos has been consistent, but the rest of the bullpen is full of guys with 4-5 ERAs that either don’t miss bats or miss some bats, but walk too many guys.

St. Louis is going to be far from alone at the deadline as basically every team that has any aspirations of contending is going to be looking for bullpen arms. Scott Barlow, Aroldis Chapman, Keynan Middleton, and Reynaldo Lopez are among the more interesting candidates among teams that seem like they are going to be sellers so far with that list likely to grow considerably as we get closer to the deadline.

Maybe an outfield bat?

This one is a bit more speculative as it depends a lot on what goes on with Tyler O’Neil who could get moved at the deadline regardless of whether the Cards are in contention or not. Jordan Walker’s performance in the lead-up to the deadline will matter a lot as well. Walker’s ceiling is astronomically high, but if he is struggling in his first look in the big leagues come mid-July, St. Louis’ production from their outfield corps may need a short term boost.

The outfield bat trade market unfortunately isn’t nearly as robust as other positions. Joc Pederson is one potential option if the Giants decide to sell (which is looking unlikely at the moment) with Michael Conforto being another possible option if St. Louis is willing to pony up for the extra year of team control that he would bring. Randall Grichuk is hitting at a decent clip with little power, so maybe a reunion makes sense in some situation?

If you are in the mood for dreaming big, the Padres have been a disappointment this season and if Juan Soto becomes available…well, he will probably be too expensive to trade for, but it is fun to think about as a pie-in-the-sky option. 

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