Cardinals could be aggressive sellers at MLB trade deadline

The St. Louis Cardinals are in relatively uncharted territory. 

Not only are they not going to the playoffs this season, even in a watered down National League Central, they are now in a position where they are looking to be sellers ahead of the Major League Baseball trade deadline.

John Mozeliak, the team's president of baseball operations, went on record this week during the All-Star break and pretty much confirmed the team is going to be trading players over the next few weeks, and it simply comes down to how aggressive they want to get with their deals. 

The most obvious candidates for trade are the team's pending free agents, including pitchers Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty and Jordan Hicks.

All of them should have some value to a contender, with Montgomery having by far the best season of the three. Coming out of the All-Star break he has a 3.23 ERA and is currently having his third consecutive season with an ERA+ of 112 or better. He is an above average starter and would be a welcome addition to any contending team.

Hicks is one of baseball's hardest throwers, but sometimes struggles with control and is prone to surrendering big innings. He is a wild card, but an intriguing one.

Flaherty is also a bit of a wild card because injuries have limited him so much over the past four years in addition to having a brutal start to the 2023 season. He has started to turn it around in his recent starts, but he is far from the pitcher that he was earlier in his career. 

The big question the Cardinals will have to answer is whether or not they want to deal bigger name players like first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado.

That answer will be determined by whether or not the Cardinals believe this season is a fluke, or a sign of things to come in the future. 

If they believe they can quickly rebound next season and return to contender status in a pretty weak NL Central, it wouldn't make any sense to deal their two most prominent hitters. But if the Cardinals see this as the start of a decline, it might be the time to strike on a big deal involving one of them. 

Goldschmidt has one more year remaining on his contract, so this would be the team to deal him if the goal is to get maximum value in a trade. Anybody that makes a move for him would be getting two pennant chases out of him. That is worth a lot. If the Cardinals wait until the offseason, or even worse, next trade deadline, that trade value plummets. 

It will be a fascinating few weeks to watch as the Cardinals try to navigate this uncharted (for them) path.