The two players the Cardinals would be foolish to trade for

The St. Louis Cardinals have a strong history of making great trades. These potential trade candidates can hinder that track record.

Wild Card Series - Texas Rangers v Tampa Bay Rays - Game One
Wild Card Series - Texas Rangers v Tampa Bay Rays - Game One / Megan Briggs/GettyImages

MLB Free Agency is arriving in a couple of weeks which takes over the offseason headlines. It is exciting to see big contracts and all the rumor speculation has everyone glued to their phones. One thing that is forgotten is big trades that go down. In recent memory, we have seen Giancarlo Stanton traded to the Yankees, Mookie Betts traded to the Dodgers, and Nolan Arenado to the Cardinals. Many trades will take place to shape up new rosters. John Mozeliak will be busy and has lots of time to make moves. While many trade targets are intriguing, here are the two players the Cardinals would be foolish to trade for. 

Shane Bieber

This trade fit seemed near perfect over the last two seasons. Now it looks like Shane Bieber is on a rapid decline. While his ERA was an acceptable 3.80 last season, every other stat was disappointing. He has a history of throwing 200 innings, but he only hit 128 IP last season. His SO/9 was a career low at 7.5 and had a career-high in FIP at 3.87. If a few stats do not justify his declining performance, look at his savant page. It indicates low velocity, low swing and misses, and allowing many hard-hit balls. The Guardians will treat his trade value as the former Cy Young winner. But the reality is, he is not that pitcher anymore. 

Tyler Glasnow

With all the Cardinals Nation hype behind trading for Glasnow….am I the only one who does not see it? His highest IP in a season was last year...at 120 IP!!!  I get that he is an FA in 2024 which makes sense for the Rays to trade him versus extending him. They have deep pitching depth and are looking to add more quality depth to their minor-league development. But the last time we made a deal with Tampa Bay ended in Matthew Liberatore failing to stay in the MLB over four seasons while Randy Arozerena kept haunting all of our dreams.

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Knowing the last outcome, do we really think we will win this trade? Yes, he has an electric fastball, an elite strikeout material that we desperately need. But it will be useless if he cannot stay healthy enough to pitch throughout a whole season.