Ex-Cardinals Infielder Notes Team Is At A Crossroads

The St. Louis Cardinals are on a roll right now, having won six games in a row and stuck their noses back over the .500 mark at 20-19. With mid-May having just arrived, it remains to be seen what St. Louis will be doing at this year's trade deadline.

If they perform well, they could put themselves in position to be buyers, but they also have plenty of players on expiring contracts that fellow contending teams could want.

On MLB Network, analyst Mark DeRosa, who played the 2009 season in St. Louis, pointed out how St. Louis is at a crossroads with the deadline approaching.

"It's like the story of who's going to move at the deadline and the nice young pieces that I like that they currently have. Do they stay in the fight in the NL Central because no one's really going to run away with it?" DeRosa said. "They have pieces that teams are going to want to need."

Indeed, the Cardinals have pieces that contending teams will want, so regardless of what they want to do, they are going to have teams calling for players such as Ryan Helsley, Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, and possibly even Steven Matz and Miles Mikolas.

DeRosa notes that if the Cardinals buy rather than sell, they'll need to bring in some pitching. The bullpen has been the weak point for St. Louis this year.

Perhaps the Cardinals could make moves in both directions, selling off big pieces to restock the farm system, but also adding incrementally.