Looking Back At Trade Deadline, Cardinals 'Threaded The Needle' Perfectly

Despite remaining in the playoff picture, the St. Louis Cardinals wisely decided to sell at the trade deadline.

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With the trade deadline a little over a week in the rearview, looking back, the St. Louis Cardinals were extremely wise in how they handled it.

St. Louis knew heading into this season that the team was not truly ready to compete for a title as a contender after selling off multiple star players during the offseason, instead choosing to focus on developing young players across all levels of the organization. Nobody could have guessed just how successful the Cardinals would be this year, as players like Jordan Walker and JJ Wetherholt took massive leaps in their development. Still, despite their success, the team remained cautious at the deadline.

Though the Cardinals were in the thick of the playoff race for most of the season, they wisely stuck to their rebuild timeline and acted as sellers at the trade deadline. St. Louis pulled off multiple trades to bolster its farm system, sending away Dustin May, JoJo Romero and Lars Nootbaar in a flurry of deals, but still looked to improve its roster as well by acquiring veteran reliever Caleb Ferguson.

St. Louis balanced selling and buying at the trade deadline

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The Cardinals were one of the few teams in the league who were able to "thread the needle" at the trade deadline, finding a balance of buying and selling to remain relevant this season while securing key pieces for the future.

“The clubs who committed to selling did quite well for themselves,” an NL executive said, per MLB.com's Mark Feinsand. “A few of those clubs did so without completely taking themselves out of postseason contention.”

Though the Cardinals traded away a few key players, they still are within five games of a playoff spot with a little over 40 games left in the season. Bringing in Ferguson helped patch a hole in the Cardinals' bullpen, and they also acquired plenty of promising prospects at the deadline.

“In between clubs like Miami, Washington and St. Louis that are perhaps ahead of schedule on their rebuild did a combination of buying and selling to patch holes and overall improve weak spots,” an NL executive said, per Feinsand. “But they still moved players like Luis García Jr., Lars Nootbaar and Liam Hicks at potentially peak value.”

Overall, Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom was successful with his first trade deadline with the organization. St. Louis appears well-equipped to continue on an upward trajectory and has many talented young players working their way up through its farm system.