The St. Louis Cardinals fire sale should start now

After an abysmal weekend series against the Chicago Cubs that saw the St. Louis Cardinals give up 28 runs in three days, the front office is left with only one decision. Just last weekend, there was a positive outlook on the team’s recent performance after an impressive sweep of the Cleveland Guardians. In the six games that followed, not only did the Redbirds lose five, but each defeat came at the hands of a division rival. In these last six matchups, Cardinals pitching surrendered 6+ runs in four out of six matchups, while the Cardinals offense also scored zero runs in four out of six games. If this isn’t a sign to waive the white flag on “contending” or “overachieving,” I’m not sure what is.

In game one of the series on Friday versus the Cubs, Miles Mikolas outdid himself once more, turning in the worst pitching performance of the season and one of the worst in franchise history. Mikolas gave up eight runs in six innings and, through the first three innings, had given up a franchise-record six home runs. After this early explosion from the Cubs' offense, instead of trying to salvage a competitive game, Oli Marmol felt content to let Mikolas ride out the next few innings in order to save the bullpen in what ended up being an 11-3 blowout. A spirited comeback followed on Saturday, orchestrated by late-inning heroics from backup catcher Yohel Pozo as his three-run home run led the Redbirds to an 8-6 win. Sunday, however, dampened the light on a possible series victory as Cardinals starter Erick Fedde lasted just 1.1 innings before being pulled en route to an 11-0 defeat.

As a result of losing five out of six to the last-place Pirates and first-place Cubs, the Cardinals are faced with what now seems to be an easy decision as the July trade deadline approaches. The team is 6.5 games back of first place in the division, 2.5 games back of second place, and just 1.5 games ahead of fourth place. Although the Cardinals remain one game back of the third wild card position, this is a heavily contested position, and the San Francisco Giants remain ahead of them despite also trailing San Diego for the final spot.

Furthermore, it is nearly certain that many, if not all, of these teams will be aggressive buyers at the trade deadline. This will see the competition improve, while the Cardinals' front office should decide to sell. Instead of trading for players on expiring contracts with questions surrounding their impending free agency, St. Louis would be smart to offload their expiring contracts in exchange for prospects.

Additionally, the Cardinals' front office should inquire on whether their players with no-trade clauses would be open to waiving them in order to be moved. If this were to happen, the Cardinals could maximize their assets, offload players not within their timeline, and create financial flexibility for the future. With the current state of the team, their performance, and their competition, this is the only option. If John Mozeliak decides against this line of thought, he’ll only be handcuffing his successor Chaim Bloom for years to come.