The St. Louis Cardinals have not been the team they hoped to be after they set out to fix the starting rotation this past winter.
With the trade deadline steadily approaching, the Cardinals have an uphill battle to climb and these next two months could potentially determine the club’s future.
If St. Louis cannot completely turn things around and return to the “Cardinals Way” of winning, the organization might make some drastic changes to the roster.
“Don’t be surprised if Paul Goldschmidt, offseason signings Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson, and the team’s elite closer, Ryan Helsley, are all dealt at the deadline in a dramatic restructuring of the roster for 2025 and beyond,” The Athletic’s Jim Bowden wrote Friday.
Despite recent speculation that the Cardinals will hesitate before blowing up their roster at the trade deadline, there’s still a lot of baseball left to play and there’s no telling what St. Louis will do if they can’t dig themselves out of the hole they’re in.
Goldschmidt will become a free agent after this season ends and already has been mentioned as a trade candidate on numerous occasions. Combine his age with the fact that the Cardinals already have a talented prospect to fill his shoes — there’s a good chance St. Louis will consider parting ways with him.
Lynn and Gibson are both under club control through 2025 and could help the Cardinals reel in quality prospects if they are looking to rebuild. The same goes for Helsley, who’s at the top of the list of hurlers to be traded if the Cardinals decide to sell.
Hopefully, this extreme rebuild scenario doesn’t happen and we’ll be talking about who the Cardinals can acquire rather than who they will sell in the coming weeks as we inch closer to the deadline.
