The St. Louis Cardinals have lost six of their last eight games and are at 15-21 on the season. They are currently in a terrible slump. It’s not even the worst news of all, in some strange way. Star catcher Willson Contreras of the Cardinals suffered a fractured forearm on Tuesday night after J.D. Martinez, the Mets’ designated hitter, whacked him in the arm.
Do the Cardinals have an unwavering plan to become sellers in 2024?
That’s how it feels at the moment, but I want to be clear that clubs don’t necessarily need to decide if they are eliminated from contention on May 8. To be fair, though, Cardinals supporters, it is Things could seem somewhat better if the Cardinals were to win their next four games. Despite all of the skill on the team, the offense is still inactive. Although it looked hopeless at best for the Cardinals to preach patience in the face of their pitching troubles in 2023, their refusal to give up on this offense makes a lot of sense. I understand the need to freshen things up by changing the hitting coach, but in the end, the lineup shouldn’t be as awful as it is.
Nevertheless, here we are. And if this season turns out to be a wash, I believe it’s reasonable to have some discussions about the kinds of moves the Cardinals might be considering in the near future.I’ve already discussed the general concept of a 2025 retool on the site, but today I’m going to dig deep into each of the Cardinals’ trade options in case things go south and they have to start a real retool or rebuild. I’ll briefly lay out their case as trade assets, discuss what kind of value I believe the Cardinals could obtain in exchange, and suggest a few possible destinations.
Here are eight guys the Cardinals should think about moving if the season is really over, even though there is still time for them to turn things around.
Paul Goldschmidt
Since Paul Goldschmidt is the most obvious player to transfer and the most difficult person on our list to evaluate in terms of trade value, I’ll just touch briefly on the idea of Goldschmidt as a trade chip.In 2024, Goldschmidt has been awful, to put it simply. Right now, he is hitting just 11 RBI this year with an OPS of.550 and a slash line of.195/.287/.263. Even as we start May, Goldschmidt’s numbers continue to be dismal.
It’s a continuation of Goldschmidt’s really unsatisfactory second half from 2023, and to be honest, there aren’t any indications that things are improving at the moment. Following his April 30th 4-5 showing against the Tigers, Goldschmidt has dropped his previous six games, going 0-23. Goldschmidt does not appear to be a player that any contender would want to add to their roster at this time.
That being said, I have no idea what will happen to him if this is the player he will be for the entire season. Perhaps a team will offer him pennies on the dollar to see if he can make a comeback, or perhaps the Cardinals will wait it out and let his contract run out. Should he be able to improve, he might be among the better bats on the trade market and assist the Cardinals in obtaining a respectable prospect in exchange.
