The 4 best trade deadline moves in Cardinals' franchise history

The Cardinals trade for one of the best home run hitters in baseball history in 1997.

Mark McGwire was well into his 16-year career by the time he came to St. Loius, but the extreme heights he would eventually reach were still to come when the Cardinals acquired him via trade during the 1997 trade deadline.

The Oakland Athletics had little hope of re-signing the then 33-year-old, and they were hoping to milk the trade value he had left despite him being on the wrong side of the aging curve in baseball. At the time of the trade, the Cardinals sat at 51-55, well behind the division-leading Houston Astros (yes, for a time there were six teams in the National League Central and only four in the American League Central. Go figure).

This wasn't a trade where the Cardinals were trying to improve an already strong lineup; rather, they were hoping McGwire would provide the boost that the lineup needed. Mark would be a free agent at the end of the season, so the Cardinals were playing with fire when they sent three young players in T.J. Mathews, Eric Ludwick, and Blake Stein to Oakland. Mathews had a 2.62 ERA as a reliever in his first two seasons, Eric Ludwick was ranked 13th among pitching prospects in baseball, and Stein was a serviceable depth starter at the time.

What St. Louis got in exchange was more than they could imagine. Not only did McGwire bring winning back to the city soon after his arrival following some disastrous decades, but he also helped grow the sport with the great home run race of 1998. None of the players whom the Cardinals sent to Oakland ended up performing well for the organization, and the lopsided results of this deadline deal make it one of the best in the organization's history.