The Cardinals’ offseason trade tiers tell you exactly where this franchise is

Yes, St. Louis Cardinals fans, Chaim Bloom really went in on demo day. Call it whatever HGTV-adjacent analogy you want. He loved it and listed it. He flipped and flopped. He Chip and Joanna’ed it. Frankly, if you ask me – he cooked. 

Let’s be clear, this is a sad state to be in. We’re probably not allowed in the miserable fan VIP club area as we’ve had too much success. But, we can at least wave sadly to Rockies, Angels, White Sox, and Nationals fans in a sign of solidarity. I get the sense that the fanbase is down on the franchise right now, and you can see that clearly if you look at the empty seats in Busch Stadium the last couple of years. Here’s where I break with the rest of the fandom though, we needed to do this. 

Think about this. Bloom got this job by presenting to Mozielak (do we just Voldemort him and never mention him again?) and the DeWitts why the franchise had gone awry. This is a very different proposition and one that sets the tone in a specific way for how Bloom was bound to go about his job. With the possible trade of Jojo Romero still in the chamber, Bloom has spent the clip this offseason. How did he do in trading Arenado, Gray, Contreras, and Donovan? I smell a trade tier coming.

Tier One - Thanks for the Prospect, We Would’ve Taken Stale Pringles and Pocket Lint

The trade: Diamondbacks receive 3B Nolan Arenado; Cardinals receive RHP Jack Martinez. Before you object, this isn’t the best return. In fact, of the four trades, this is the worst return, all due respect to Jack Marinez. (By the way, how does poor Jack Martinez feel? He seems destined for a minor bullpen role and probably just hit his peak of notoriety as a professional athlete. That’s a tough pill to swallow.) And yes, we sent a briefcase full of cash to the desert with Nolan as he departed, and while this feels like the spine of a Breaking Bad episode, the Cardinals simply paid to change the franchise. 

Because, in a nutshell, this is what this trade was. Bloom was declaring the competitive, veteran-laden, slow decline all the way from the Pujols years phase to be over. It was a slow, painful death. Trading Nolan Arenado, a fading superstar, signaled to the team, the industry, and the bacteria crawling on Neptune that the Cardinals were changing. This trade wasn’t first in the offseason, but it ranks first on this list because it was the necessary trade. Can you imagine this roster with Arenado still on it? Bloom moved on, and we should, too.

Tier Two - Goodbye, St. Louis. Hello, Boston.

The trade: Red Sox receive 1B Willson Contreras; Cardinals receive RHP Hunter Dobbins, RHP Yhoiker Fajardo, and RHP Blake Aita. Contreras is an above-average hitter and he will be this year. He’ll be knocking doubles off the Monster and screaming into second base. Red Sox fans will be going nuts and I’ll want to puke. This Cardinals lineup is going to be starved for power and Contreras would’ve brought a steady supply of it.

However, the return for Contreras is the most exciting of all the packages. Hunter Dobbins will pitch this season in St. Louis. Players like him will help usher the team away from expensive veteran starters to eat innings. Blake Aita is a lower-level prospect that could easily be heard from in the bullpen mix in the future. But it’s Yhoiker Fajardo that’s the real get. He’s 19 years old and shoots lightning out of his arm a la Zeus. He finished last year at multiple levels with a 2.93 ERA and a 10.8 K/9. Highly talented, young, and big-time strikeout stuff. This is a new Cardinals organization and Fajardo is a huge boost to that reworked system.

The trade: Red Sox receive RHP Sonny Gray; Cardinals receive LHP Brandon Clarke and RHP Richard Fitts. Let’s be real. Sonny Gray was the best Cardinals pitcher and the most fun to watch since peak Adam Wainwright. When he was on, it was awesome. He had starts where he made major league hitters look like they needed a slushie after a tough little league loss. In his mid-30’s, not every start was amazing, but he introduced a franchise to what a high strikeout starter could look like. Thank you, Sonny.

I ranked this return under the return for Contreras essentially because Fajardo is more exciting to me than Brandon Clarke. That could turn out to be wrong, because Brandon Clarke has huge upside as well. Clarke carved up the minors last year to the tune of a 3.36 FIP and a 14.21 K/9. I’m going to give you a chance to take a breath. That’s essentially 1.5 strikeouts per inning. Lordy. At 22 years old, he’s closer to the majors than Fajardo, but has injury concerns clouding his future. Fitts is very much in the mold of Dobbins and will pitch this year in St. Louis. At a minimum, he’s late stage Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson, with the ability to still develop.

Tier Three - I hate it, you hate it, but it was the right move

The trade: Seattle receives 2B (3B/LF) Brendan Donovan; St. Louis receives RHP/LHP Jurrangelo Cijntje, OF Tai Peete, OF Colton Ledbetter, and two competitive-balance Round B picks. Donnie, we love you. This one hurt. But when you hit the eject button on competitiveness to rebuild, Donovan didn’t fit the current timeline at 29 years old. For the 328237th time, it’s unfortunate, but it’s the cold reality of where we are. 

As for the return, who doesn’t want to see Cijntje start as a righty, throw five innings, and then flip gloves to finish the sixth as a lefty? That doesn’t seem to be likely, but we can dream, right? Cijentje is the big name and joins the absolute stable of high strikeout pitchers that Bloom is cultivating. Peete has massive athleticism, huge pop, and, at 20 years old, a massive strikeout problem. Ledbetter appears to be a steady contributor, but at 24 needs to turn it on. Let’s not overlook the two draft picks. This gives the team a bundle of picks in the top 100 of the draft – still more fodder for a remake of the farm.

All told, Bloom acted decisively. That’s been sorely missing in this franchise. I, for one, am relieved that someone with decision making power could see what we all could the past few years. Bloom traded the veteran core of the team and jump started an already strong system. Here’s hoping that the tough decisions of today turn us into the MLB version of the Oklahoma City Thunder down the road.