Cardinals Top Trade Chip Identified With Rumors Heating Up

We are just about five weeks away from the 2025 Major League Baseball trade deadline.

At this time of the year, every team gets talked about in some way ahead of the deadline. Whether that means potential additions, subtractions, or some combination of the two, the trade deadline brings with it noise. The St. Louis Cardinals have been no stranger to that. St. Louis has been the subject of plenty of trade buzz throughout the season.

It all goes back to the offseason and the team not making any big trades despite publicly talking about their interest in doing so. St. Louis then entered the season as underdogs and expected to be a seller before even the first pitch was thrown for the 2025 season.

Things have changed. The Cardinals entered play on Sunday just 4 1/2 games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs. What makes that even more interesting is the fact that the two rivals will begin a four-game series on Monday.

There was a time in which it seemed like the Cardinals were guaranteed to sell. That isn't the case any longer. If the Cardinals don't have a dramatic fall-off over the next few weeks, then it woudn't make sense to have any sort of firesale. They are too good.

That doesn't mean the Cardinals couldn't trade anyone. St. Louis could open up spots on the roster by tradining upcoming free agents and still not blow it up.

MLB.com's Thomas Harrigan weighed in on the team and called veteran Steven Matz the team's most intriguing trade candidate.

"Cardinals: Steven Matz, RP," Harrigan said. "After an offseason marked by inactivity -- months of Nolan Arenado trade talks yielded nothing, and Phil Maton was their lone free-agent addition -- this was expected to be a transition year for the Cardinals. While St. Louis has managed to outperform its modest preseason forecast, it has done so in wildly uneven fashion, creating more questions than answers about where the team is headed.

"The Cards seem more likely to sell than buy at this point, though they aren’t exactly brimming with obvious trade candidates. Sonny Gray has a full no-trade clause that he reportedly wasn’t keen on waiving in the offseason. Arenado has two years left on his contract and is sporting a .707 OPS this season. (He also has a full veto power on trades.) Closer Ryan Helsley, a pending free agent, has taken a step back after winning the NL Reliever of the Year Award in 2024. And fellow rental hurlers Miles Mikolas and Erick Fedde are closer to back-end rotation options than true difference-makers on the trade market."

Matz has been great this season so he likely could bring back a pretty penny. He'll be a free agent this winter as well. He's the type of guy who would be a solid trade chip.