Real gem of Cardinals' Willson Contreras trade isn't the headliner

When news broke that the St. Louis Cardinals traded first baseman Willson Contreras to the Boston Red Sox, we all immediately began wondering who would be "headlining" the return. Well, that ended up being right-hander Hunter Dobbins, who made his Major League debut with the Red Sox in 2025 and could be a valuable, cost-controlled arm for St. Louis for years to come.

Now, while Dobbins does have some stuff in his game that could be tweaked to get more out of him, this trade follows a very similar structure to what Chaim Bloom was able to pull off in the Sonny Gray deal. The "headliner" was a lower-ceiling, MLB-ready arm with lots of team control, but the true gem of the deal happened to be a high-upside arm that is further away from big league action.

Yhoiker Fajardo is the gem of the Willson Contreras trade, and don't sleep on Blake Aita either

Yhoiker Fajardo, who recently turned 19, has excelled in the lower levels of the Red Sox's farm system and boasts very intriguing stuff on the mound. While he does not bring the same excitement that Brandon Clarke does, he is an arm worth monitoring, and Red Sox talent evaluators were very high on him.

Chris Clegg, who covers the Red Sox farm system, had a lot of praise for Fajardo after his dynamic year in 2025, believing that his mid-90s fastball had room to grow as he fills out his frame, and if his slider continues to improve as well, he may be an exciting prospect who rises up lists in 2026.

Fajardo was already poised to make a big jump in farm system ranking ahead of the 2025 season. Baseball America recently put him as the Red Sox's ninth-best prospect ahead of the 2026 season, and MLB Pipeline was prepared to slot him into Boston's top 10 as well. He has true upside that the Cardinals can bet on, and that's what fans should be most excited about in deals right now.

Frankly, I'd even say the acquisition of Blake Aita is just as exciting as Dobbins, if not more, and Kyle Reis, who does an incredible job covering Cardinals prospects for Cardinals Nation, is already finding himself intrigued by Aita and believing there is more strikeout stuff in his game than he's shown so far.

Bloom is someone who has a long track record of finding young arms, and so when he makes a deal and targets specific pitchers in return, it should get Cardinals' fans' attention. We'll see Dobbins in 2026, but Fajardo and Aita carry the highest upside.