The St. Louis Cardinals avoided a major catastrophe by not making this trade

Recent Frankie Montas news would have made a trade with the Cardinals' even worse

Stop me if you've heard this before - the St. Louis Cardinals found themselves linked to a front-line starter for months on end, and eventually missed out on that pitcher after an American League contender made a move for them.

No, I'm not talking about Pablo Lopez, who had been connected to the Cardinals for some time before landing with the Minnesota Twins. I am talking about New York Yankees' Frankie Montas, who I and many MLB insiders saw the Cardinals' making a play for while he was a member of the Oakland Athletics. Only six months removed from that trade, it looks like St. Louis avoided a major mistake.

At the MLB Trade Deadline, the Athletics sent Montas and reliever Lou Trivino to the Yankees for JP Sears, Ken Waldichuk, Luis Medina, and Cooper Bowman. The equivalent to that package for the Cardinals (based on organization prospect rankings) would have been something like Gordon Graceffo, Michael McGreevy, Jake Walsh, and Jonathan Mejia. Had St. Louis given up this kind of package for Montas and Trivino, we would be ripping them for it every day based on his second-half performance alone.

After coming over to the Yankees, Montas made 8 starts, throwing just 39.2 innings with a 6.35 ERA. He was excellent during the first-half with Oakland, going 4-9 with a 3.18 ERA in 104.2 innings but had a shoulder injury that worried may teams. The Yankees still pulled the trigger though, and it proved costly for them down the stretch.

The recent news about Montas though makes this trade look even worse.