Cardinals Should Sell At Deadline Because Of Returns For Trade Chips

The St. Louis Cardinals may be coming back down to earth after a red-hot month of May. They have now lost three consecutive games and are 4-6 in their last 10.

The team fell to five games back in the National League Central and two back in the Wild Card race with a 10-9 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night.

They may be in a place in the standings where buying at the trade deadline makes sense, but the Cardinals need to consider the future. When listing three reasons why St. Louis should sell, Mack Baltes of Redbird Rants pointed out the possible return they could receive for their trade chips.

"With the number of expiring contracts on the Cardinals' payroll, the prospect return could be significant. Miles Mikolas, Erick Fedde, Phil Maton, Steven Matz, and Ryan Helsley all come to mind," Baltes wrote.

"Although the value of some of these players may have dipped since the season started, there are not a tremendous number of arms available in the trade market this season. For this reason, the Cardinals could gain plenty of prospects in return for their MLB talent."

The Cardinals are low on prospects in their farm system and need to restock a bit. Trading some of these players will allow them to do just that.

Pitching in their system is thin due to injuries, and they need Major League ready pieces to put in Triple-A in the event of an injury on the big-league roster.

We'll see where the Cardinals decide to invest their resources this deadline.