Cardinals May Have Ruined Trade Deadline Plans With Big Mistake

The St. Louis Cardinals are in a weird position entering the 2025 Major League Baseball trade deadline.

The Cardinals have experienced surprising success this season, and yet the makeup of their roster (a mix of proven veterans and rising stars) plus the fact that they're not World Series contenders could convince the team to sell.

There is one problem about selling for St. Louis, however. Their ability to execute trades is significantly hampered by multiple players wielding full no-trade clauses.

New York Post’s Jon Heyman captured the complexity of the Cardinals’ predicament on Friday, writing, "The Cardinals are interesting if they sell, but they gave out full no-trade clauses 'like it’s Halloween,' a rival says. Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray and Miles Mikolas have them. Also complicating things, Arenado has $40 million to go through 2026, and Gray a whopping $50M."

Based on Heyman's assessment, it sounds like St. Louis' President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak will have his hands full.

Mozeliak will surely have plenty of suitors calling him, with Nolan Arenado and Ryan Helsley being the two biggest trade chips.

Arenado has already blocked a trade to the Houston Astros, but would he be willing to consider teams like the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, or Philadelphia Phillies?

Trading players like Helsley or Erick Fedde, who lack no-trade clauses, may be easier, for Mozeliak but Fedde's value isn't sure to demand a worthwhile package.

For now, St. Louis remains a team to monitor before the deadline, but their path to meaningful deals is anything but straightforward.