Cardinals $44 Million Trade Chip Has 'Intrigued' Teams

The St. Louis Cardinals have started to turn things around recently.

St. Louis is 18-19 on the season so far and has won four straight games, including two against the New York Mets and two against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Things are starting to click right now and the team even took down Paul Skenes once again on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals are starting to look better, but how could that impact the trade market? The Cardinals have been talked about a lot with most of the chatter centered around guys who could be on the way out of town in the case of a sell-off. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Derrick Goold talked about the potential for deals and said that teams have been "intrigued" by the way the Cardinals have used Steven Matz.

"I've talked to a few scouts who are intrigued by how the Cardinals are using Steven Matz," Goold said. "They expected the Cardinals to use him as a starter to give him that stage to invite interest and increase what they could ask for him -- as a starter, not as a swingman. Some teams already saw him as a reliever for their bullpen, and so they're seeing some of that too. Matz's overall performance is drawing attention, and we'll see if that draws interest and offers. Would be interesting if the Cardinals by using Matz as protection for the rotation and a sixth starter might have actually increased the view of him from contending teams."

Matz is in the final year of a four-year, $44 million deal and it's been the best of his stint with St. Louis so far. He had a 1.44 ERA in 10 games, including two starts and a save. He has a 21-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 25 innings pitched and was talked about a lot during the offseason but obviously wasn't moved. If the Cardinals end up having a firesale this summer, he seems like a pretty safe bet to be on his way out of town. Hopefully, that doesn't happen, though.