The 4 best trade deadline moves in Cardinals' franchise history

With the trade deadline less than a week away, speculation surrounding who will trade whom and which player will be on which team is rampant. However, the trade deadline also presents an opportunity for reflection.

The St. Louis Cardinals have been on the winning side of quite a few trades in their long and storied history. Some of those deals have leaned heavily in favor of the Redbirds while others have been marginal victories.

These four trades were stellar by the Cardinals' organization when they happened, and they stand the test of time today. They are in chronological order. Mind you, these are all deadline trades; I'm not including all trades in franchise history.

St. Louis Cardinals rob the Cubs by snagging Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio in 1964.

This is the most common of trades mentioned when discussing deadline deals in baseball history, particularly ones involving the Cardinals. The Cubs traded away a young Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio. There are a number of stats that can be analyzed to see that this was a fleece of all fleeces, but the fact that Broglio was out of baseball by 1966 while Brock was just getting started is the most obvious of them all.

Brock would go on to attend six All-Star Games, receive MVP votes in nine seasons (and finish second in 1974), and become a Hall of Famer. What made this deal even more painful for the team on the other side of the exchange was that they would have to watch their former player beat up on them for years to come.

Brock would be a part of two World Series teams in 1964 and 1967. Brock was a great all-around player, but his speed was enviable. He led all of baseball in stolen bases in 1966 (74), 1968 (62), 1973 (70), and 1974 (118).

This was a case of two teams trading young players who weren't quite proven at the highest level of baseball; Broglio won 21 games in 1960 and 18 in 1963, but a splattering of injuries was the demise of the once-promising pitcher.

This trade changed the Cardinals' fortunes throughout the '60s and '70s, and without Brock, there could be two banners missing from the outfield at Busch Stadium. Additionally, the Curse of the Billy Goat could have ended after just two decades rather than eight. Brock tragically passed away in 2020, but his legacy lives on.