The Cardinals and the Trade Deadline

The Cardinals are fading after the All-Star break again, and with the deadline a few days out, everyone wants to argue buy or sell. That’s the wrong question. The better one is what the front office’s actions will tell us about how they see this team.

The position player picture has narrowed. A year ago the whole outfield was a mess. Now it’s really just center field, third base, and catcher. Watch Nootbaar. If they trade him, it means they think Joshua Baez is ready. If they don’t, he isn’t. Wetherholt already answered his question with an eight-year extension. Bloom needs to lock up Walker and I expect that’s getting done right now.

The rotation has been steadier than expected, but apparently the arms in the minors look more like 2028 than 2027. That creates a timing problem, because parts of the position core will be running out of control years right as the pitching arrives. Bloom has to fix this.

Speaking of fixing, the bullpen can’t be fixed with one deadline arm. Neither can the bench, which keeps losing games with bad at-bats and missed plays.

I haven’t watched enough to be knowledgeable enough to know what Bloom will do, but we will all know soon enough.