Keep or Trade: What Should St. Louis Cardinals Do With Top Trade Targets?

Keep or Trade: What Should St. Louis Cardinals Do With Top Trade Targets?

To keep or to trade, that is the question with several key cardinals this off season. We’ll take a look at some of the top names and weigh in with our thoughts coming up on Bshave Daily. [Music] What’s going on everyone and welcome in to this edition of B Shave Daily. Brendan Schaefer with you. It is Thursday, November 20th, 2025. And today on the show, we’re going to talk more about the trade possibilities that could be happening for the Cardinals this off season, and we’ll use as our guide a recent post by Will Leachch at MLB.com. Will Leech, of course, a Cardinals fan, has done the Seeing Red podcast with Bernie Mikas for so many years and love his insights on all things sports, but in particular this time he’s writing for MLB.com about the Cardinals and asking the question or really posing the question of whether the Cardinals should be trading or keeping five key players. So, we’ll go over the names that will each brought up and I’ll weigh in with my thoughts on them as well, and then we may explore a couple other options that he did not necessarily take a deep dive on because I do think there are a number of names that could be moving for the Cardinals this off season. But, because nothing has happened yet, we’re still kind of in that preliminary phase of waiting for the first domino to drop and we’ll see what that entails as time goes along. But, I’ll read to you some of the names that Will each talked about in his article. We’ll post in the video description for those who would like to take a gander at that and then we’ll get into it here on Bshave Daily. Nolan Aronado obviously the first name mentioned here for this conversation and for an understandable reason. The Cardinals tried like hell to trade Nolan Aronado last off season and it didn’t end up working out. He declined the trade to Houston. There really weren’t any other suitors that were on his list. Well, now the list is going to expand and as Will Leech writes, “The case for trading Aronado is of course the desire to open up a spot on that infield for somebody else.” JJ Weatherhold is the obvious candidate here and I talked about this topic with Joe Roderick earlier today on STL Sports Central, our Card Central 365 show with JJ Weatherhold being named minor league player of the year by the Cardinals organization earlier this week which was a no-brainer. Bryson Mottz on the pitcher side. I believe we alluded to this yesterday. He’s got really not a lot left to prove it feels like at AAA. There might be some things that he could could do, you know, seasoning wise to be able to to just get that much more ready for the big leagues. But sometimes you just aren’t really going to be able to know what it’s like to be a big leager and how to handle those rigors until you get a chance to do it. And it feels to me like JJ’s already at that point where look, I mean, he could go down there and rake in AAA, but sometimes raking in triple A does not equate to the big leagues and you have to kind of get punched in the mouth a little bit. And delaying the inevitable of if that’s going to happen to a guy, allowing that to happen later rather than sooner. Uh, I don’t necessarily see a lot of point in that. It’s one of the reasons I advocated for Weatherhold to be uh given a cup of coffee at the end of September this past season. Obviously, that did not end up happening. It wasn’t close to happening with John Loaus still running the team at that time. I think wanted to leave as much open to choice for Heimble Bloom as he possibly could and putting Weatherhold on the 40-man roster when the Cardinals were going to have a lot of these 40man decisions to make as we saw happen earlier this week with uh the four guys that were added and Jorge Alkala DFA. Having Weatherhol in that mix would have meant another guy would have been DFAD yesterday, right? like if you would have already been on the 40man and you say, “Well, Brendon, eventually they’re going to have to find a spot for him.” You’re right. But as we’re talking about these names that could be traded, remember these guys could fall off the roster potentially being traded for guys who don’t have to go on the 40man. If they’re dealt for, say, prospects, then that would open up some spots inherently. So, Aronado obviously is a name on that list. You would clear up not only the uh the lineup spot for Weatherhold, but a 40man spot potentially for him as well. Now the 40man thing that there are going to be a lot of changes made to the 40man between now and when the weather halt decision is is going to be made. Uh but I do believe one of them is Aronado and you know he writes the will writes that the case for keeping him is that it’s a lot of money to eat and does it reduce the likelihood of Aronado wearing a Cardinals hat on a potential hall of fame plaque. Um yeah maybe. But I I I don’t know that necessarily that was particularly likely anyway. I would say as of right now when you think about Aronado the the impact of his Colorado year still probably takes the cake even though the way that it ended there was you know him asking out and wanting to force away to the St. Louis Cardinals but his time with the Cardinals was was underwhelming and so I don’t know that the the Cardinal hat in the Hall of Fame is necessarily something that would happen anyway. So that’s not really a consideration here. And Williger says no question if the Cardinals can find a taker they’ll they’ll send him and they will. I’ve said repeatedly that the Cardinals will not have Aronado on the team when they get to spring training and I’m going to I’m going to stand by that. I don’t know how soon it’s going to happen, but I would be shocked if it doesn’t. Yes, it’s a lot of money to eat, but you’re to the point where look, if you’re going to not be this, you know, the criticism last year was that the half in half out with the rebuild. If you’re gonna not be accused of being half in, half out and really being able to push all of your momentum toward developing the future, even if that means, hey, more at bats for a Thomas Saji. Do we think Saji is a long-term fixture? I don’t know. Probably not would be my lean right now. He might be a nice utility piece. But what if he surprises me? What if he really puts in the work and improves relative to his numbers from last year? Suddenly you’re like, “Oh, we because we cleared the deck a little bit, we were able to learn this.” And the Cardinals are not trying to contend and win 90 games this year. I mean, they’ll try to do that. The players on the team will, but from a roster building standpoint, that’s not the goal. And so, having anybody like an Aronado around who is is overpaid for what he’s going to produce anyway, uh, just doesn’t make sense. So, at a certain point, you got to eat the money. Yes, the the case for trading Aronado seems evident. The next one, Wilson Contrarus, uh, talks about the money in terms of the case for trading him and yeah, the fact that, you know, he can still hit pretty well means he might have some value and you might not have to eat a bunch of money to unload Wilson Contrarus. And that would be cost savings for ownership. That would be potentially savings that they could apply to a starting pitcher if they would choose to do so, which is important to me. I think it would be important to Cardinals fans to say, “Hey, look, if you’re going to trade away Aronado and and save some money there, if you’re going to trade away a Will Contra, save some money there.” We’ll talk about Sony Gray as well. That’s great. Just to do it to save money though doesn’t actually benefit the Cardinals or their fans. Uh benefits ownership. But if you would say, “Hey, we’re saving X amount.” And then at least be willing to apply a portion of those savings toward u building up the roster for the next couple of years in another area with like a two-year contract for a starting pitcher that they could certainly use as they wait and try to be patient enough with the prospects that are on the way like Quinn Matthews, like a Liam Doyle. I would say that that would be money well spent and that would be uh a way to reorganize the roster that it’s not strictly like rebuildy. It’s just better allocation of the resources that you’re willing to spend and the the payroll will be lower. So, it’s it’s going to all work out in that regard. But, I would I would think that part of this conversation is if you do trade a Wilson Contrarus, which of course the case for keeping him is that he has all the say so in this conversation. He wants to be a Cardinal. He’s he’s beloved by Cardinals fans. like don’t you want to throw the fan base a bit of a bone there and say hey you at least if you’re going to come to the ballpark can continue to root for this this player that you know bleeds red and really wants to be here I think that’s a positive to be able to include into the conversation but he does also have the no trade clause so is it worthwhile to spend a lot of emotional energy and and and actual energy in terms of your offseason um to-do list to try and find a trade for Wilson Contrarus if you could get to the end of that road and find out he doesn’t want to go anyway but I would say that he’s a guy that has trade value because of what he brings at the plate. Uh the Seattle Mariners were kind of thrown around as a possible fit for Contraras. They did sign Josh Naylor to a long-term contract. So that might kind of nip that in the bud. But there might be teams that are willing to look for uh even if it’s not behind the plate, even if it’s, you know, not first base, but he can do either of those two things, I think, realistically. Uh can contribute in those regards and could just be a DH if he needs to be. Maybe there’d be a team that would would throw him into the outfield. I think the bat with the the two consecutive seasons of, you know, 800 OPS or whatever it is that he’s had. You can pull up his stats here. His numbers went down a little bit this past year, just to 791 OPS, but 848 the year before that, 826 the year before that, doing that in St. Louis with, you know, the the Bush Stadium curse half the time. I think he could maybe even increase those power numbers a little bit if he played in a different ballpark. So the value that Wilson Contreras could bring in a trade and then conceivably with the $18 million contract that he carries for the next couple of years, conceivably you could reallocate that to a starting pitcher. Like let’s say you sign a starting pitcher to an identical contract. Would that be more valuable to the Cardinals than Contraras in in terms of just like the the the dollars and cents of it? I know that you can’t really quantify his value to the team in the clubhouse and your enjoyment as a Cardinal fan watching him, but you can make the case that they could plug Alec Burles in pretty capably at first base um and and not lose as not have as much of a drop off, have him fit more efficiently into your lineup than than trying to plug Berles into a corner outfield spot, which he improved on his outfield skills. There’s no doubt about that. But I think when you look at what the Cardinals don’t have, it’s that they don’t have a a you know bonafide number two in that rotation, right? really even a number one. They could use help in the rotation. So, if there’s a way to reallocate and maybe pick up a prospect in so doing and Wilson is happy with the outcome, that would be the case for trading him. I personally would like to see him remain. Um maybe it’s selfishly. He’s a good guy to cover. He’s a good guy to watch. He’s always going to do something interesting and I like Wilson Contrarus, but I could see the angle if the Cardinals are willing to then extend and say if we’re saving this money, we’re going to reallocate it into starting pitching and instead of signing a a two-year deal for a, you know, a $9 million starting pitcher, we sign a $15 million starting pitcher per year because we save the Wilson money and can do it that way. That might be a benefit to it because you’ve got corner outfielders that you’re trying to use, right? You want to see more of Jordan Walker, even if it’s not projecting to go really well. I think it makes sense to want to as he still continues to be very affordable and and there’s that promise of potential upside that you could realize uh you might as well roll him out there is maybe the attitude. Is Lars Newar still going to be here? That’s obviously another name with the corner outfield stuff. Um but you know there there are other guys that you’re looking to potentially get involved in that regard. Maybe you go out and get a right-handed hitting outfielder to complement a lot of your lefties um that could could fit in and and you know replace Contrarus in that regard. Maybe not positionally, but if Berles is playing more first base and you get a a decent right-handed bat for your outfield, again on the cheap, not saying that they’re going to do a whole lot to to negate the rebuild and to um spend a bunch of money, but that could be an idea. So, there’s kind of the pros and cons of the the Wilson stuff. And I personally would like to see them keep him, but I would be intrigued to see what kind of return they could get if if they find a suitor and a place that Wilson is of course willing to go. Brendan Donovan, the next name on this list in the article that we’re referencing here by Will Leech for MLB.com and he’s the name that we have talked adnauseium about uh the case for trading him is that he’s the most valuable asset the Cardinals have and lots of reports that he’s drawn a lot of interest and does seem likely to be traded. That’s according to Mark Feinstein. Yeah, that is I believe accurate. I have said all along. I’ve told you since I believe the day that Katie Woo wrote kind of uh early September or midepptember about the kind of the rebuild word maybe a little bit more of a reality when it comes to the 2026 season under high and bloom. I was like, “Oh yeah, they’re definitely and I I’m disappointed in that. I don’t think it’s the the route that they need to to go full-fledged into. I think you can you can do some of these rebuildy activities like trading away bloated veterans like an Aronado, like a Sunny Gray, check in on the Wilson Catra stuff while then recommitting to your fans that you’re not going to stink on ice for the next 5 years, right? you can say, “Hey, we’re going to sign Brendan Donovan because in 3, four years, he’s still going to be a really good player, and by that time, we’re going to be a really good team, and so he can be a contributor toward that rather than say, well, we’ve only got two years of team control left over him, then we’re going to have to pay him, and by that, you know, the next two years, we’re not going to be very good as a team, and by the time we get around to it, are we really convinced that Donovan’s still going to be playing at this level? His value is maybe better to us in a trade than to keep him and and have to pay him. I think that’s the cheap way out in my opinion because I would I would venture to guess like the Tommy Edund contract ended up being a nice one that the the Dodgers signed him to and a lot of comparisons always to Edmund versus Donovan. Donovan’s the better player. Edmond got a 5year $74 million contract extension which I thought was maybe even a little good for Tommy Edmond but like a little bit a little bit hefty uh for the contributions he brings offensively. I would say that um Edmond’s contributions exceed Donovan’s defensively. Both have, you know, been been given the accolades as utility glovers for sure. Um but I would say Edmond may be a little better of a more versatile fielder. Like he can play center field. That’s valuable compared to Donovan kind of hanging out in the corner outfield spot. Um so definitely give the edge to Edmond there defensively and the Dodgers clearly have seen the value in that and they’ve used him all over the field where they’ve needed to and they paid him thusly, right? That was their plan all along. With Donovan, I would say the the value certainly comes more from his bat and you like what he brings at the plate. It exceeds what Edmond can do. The upside there is is far more significant. But contractwise, would it be all that different from the 5year 74 million that Edmond got? I would say yeah, it’ be a little bit more because as much as you’d like to get paid for defense, offense is really what makes the world go round. But would it be a 5year $80 million contract? Um I think in the case of Edund, he was bought out of only one year of arbitration eligibility, whereas if you did it right now with Donovan, it would be two years. And so that would be a reason that I know that might get into the the weeds a little bit, but basically Donovan’s salary for the next few years is going to be capped by arbitration. It’s going to increase from what it was. You might be 6 million, then 8 or 10 million or 12 million, whatever it would be, but it’s not going to be what he would be able to get as an AAV, an average annual value on the open market. Um, and and with Edmond’s deal of 5 years and 74 million, I’m trying to look into this now. Um, no, I could be No, I I might be wrong about this. The deal tore up the final seat. No, I I am right. If I would read before I would talk, it would help me. This was uh reporting from Jeff Pass on the Edmond deal that was signed a year ago in November. The deal tears up the final season of a two-year contract that Edmond signed uh and that was when he was with the Cardinals. They bought him out of the final two years of ARP and it replaces with it one that runs from 2025 through 2029. So, trying to dial in on the average values of this that first year of the five-year contract, which Edmond just enjoyed, he was going to be making, you know, it was a two-year 16.5 million deal. So, I don’t remember if it was front-loaded, backloaded, whatever, but like 8 million 8 to9 million Edmond would have been making. And that was kind of in line with what they thought he would probably earn in ARB. And so, you’re you’re baking that in. And then for the final four years of the deal, you would then be able to escalate and bump that salary up a little bit uh more highly. And so about the average annual value for those other Edmond years is in that kind of 15 to 16 millionish range. Uh there was a signing bonus. The Dodgers do all sorts of things to obfuscate and obviously make their payroll run more smoothly and and they’ve got the cash up front. So they’ll do the signing bonus and then there’ll there’s probably deferrals. Yeah, onethird of the deal is deferred. They’re just doing the arithmetic and the the legal ease to make it all all sing as they as they so often do because they have so much cash on hand. It allows them to do a lot of that signing bonus stuff which doesn’t count against your your luxury tax in the same way and it it’s a reason they’re allowed to do or able to do a lot of what they do. But generally speaking, as we’re just kind of thinking about the value of Edmonds contract, trying to compare it to what Donovan would make, it it’s in that to me, if Edmonds kind of valued around that 16 to$17 million range per year for the the free agent years, that would mean for Donovan, you would look at it and go like, okay, 6 million, 10 million for the next two years, call it 16. And then let’s say Donovan’s a little more valuable, so he might even I don’t know that he would make 20 million a year. We’re eventually going to get to find out, but I I think it would be more like an 18 to19 million a year valuation for Donovan. Could be wrong. Uh but but even if it is 20, let’s say that you you give him the 20 million per year on a 5-year contract for those three free agency years. So that’s 3 years and 60. Tack on 2026 and 2027 for Donovan, which would be the two years he still ARB eligible. And I’m just pulling numbers out of the sky. 6 million, 10 million just to kind of say, you know, give an estimate. five years 76. If that feels light, let’s And again, the reason it would be lighter than Edmonds is because there’s two years that are arbitrarily or I should say artificially capped because they’re ARB eligible years rather than free agent eligible years. And so that’s why that would be the case. You cannot always just look at the the years and the number of dollars because there are other factors at play. How much team control is being bought out. In Edmond’s case, it was just one year when the Dodgers signed that deal. In Donovan’s case, it would be two years. But I would say let’s let’s offset that by the fact that Donovan’s a better hitter and call it five years and 80 million contract with some buyouts on the on an option on the back half even if it’s five and 85. Is anybody going crazy going that’s outrageous money for Donovan? I don’t think so. Like I don’t think Brendon Donovan on a 5-year contract in this instance is getting $100 billion. if he waits till the end of his arbitration eligibility period to sign that contract. If it comes in free agency, like for him, ideally he gets traded and that new team signs him to that contract right now. If he’s got to wait it out and continues playing at this level, then maybe of a 5-year deal, all five years are going to be free agent eligible years. You could get that 5year $100 million contract. But at that point, you do have to recognize that the contract would end for him 2 years later in terms of his aging curve. If you did it right now, uh what what is Brendan Donovan? He’s 28 years old, but he’ll turn 29 in January. So, if you did it now, it’ be your age 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 seasons. if he were to wait two more years to sign a free agency contract, he is going to run into in my estimate. What a lot of guys in their 30s run into when they get into free agency is like, uh, teams don’t really want to commit to guys for five plus years when the unless they’re like superstar players when the contract is going to be eclipsing and and ending when you’re like in your age 36 or 37 season. So, like it’s a benefit to everybody to say, “All right, I get it. I would be buying out some of these ARB years and and you know maybe not trying to maximize and squeeze every penny that I can get for uh my final two years of arbitration eligibility. But the benefit to me would be that I don’t have to wonder what it’s going to be like to face free agency uh in an era where I’m 31 and there’s been a CBA change. The CBA change could benefit a player like Donovan by the time it comes around or it could go against him. We have no idea. Uh, but just talking through all of that, I the the bottom line, I know I’ve talked a long time about this and I’m actually going to put this Donovan thing in a separate video because I think it’s an interesting topic. He’s the most compelling player that the Cardinals have to potentially trade. And this contract stuff, the minutiae of it is a reason that I believe the Cardinal should just sign him because it’s not going to be this crazy contract that you’re you’re looking back and going, “Oh my goodness, even if my estimates aren’t conservative enough and and Donovan is a guy that’s going to get 20 plus million a year,” which I think it would be very difficult for anybody to tell you today definitively because they don’t know how his next two years are going to go on the field and they also don’t know what 2027 is going to look like when it comes to the CBA and if we’re even going to have a season in that year. And so as that happens, you’re going to be in a situation where you’re you’re aging through that and you might not be playing your age 30 or your age 31 season type of deal. That’s going to change things a lot in a way that I don’t think we can anticipate. Um, and look, it may be to a point where because of that, a guy like Donovan would be more willing to sign an extension right now. It may be the opposite. It may be that he’s like, “Look, I’m this close. We might get a a really beneficial deal. If there’s a salary cap, you know, that’s going to be one thing. But if there’s a floor, that might mean there are teams around the league that have to sign players like me to 20 plus million dollar average annual values just to get to the floor. Like, we have no idea what’s going to come. And I don’t I can’t speak for Donovan in in the way that he’s viewing that. My guess is he’s not really thinking that much about it. He’d let the agent handle it. Um but certainly the opportunity to be traded and to be locked up for what you’re considered as fair value would also, I think, be a boost um for a guy like him. So, we’ll see what ends up happening. But the merits for trading him is is this idea that he’s the most valuable asset that you can trade. Um but if you’re trading him just because you’re you’re back in that conversation about trying to clear a spot, you clear a spot with an Aronado. You clear a spot with Nolan Gorman who yeah, if you don’t get a lot back for him, that’s okay. He’s kind of peaked as what we expect him to be. He’s going to hit for power. He’s going to strike out a lot and his defense is going to be so so and he’s going to be a solid big leager but not somebody that you necessarily build around or start thinking about a second contract for. Uh trade those guys to clear a spot. Don’t trade a Brenda Donovan to say, “Oh, we got a clear spot.” If you’re training Ren Donovan, it’s because he is the most valuable asset on the trade market, not only for the Cardinal, but maybe in all of baseball on the position player side, and you think you can get a hall for him that can help jumpstart your rebuild, even though it pains you because you agree with my assessment that like maybe the Cardinals think, yeah, Donovan’s still going to be a good player at age 31, 32, 33 as well. But we just think we can get more for him in a trade so that we can have, you know, maybe our crack at two or three Brendan Donovans by the time 2028 arrives and, you know, we can get multiple players of his caliber that would be on the cheap and then we can spend our money in 2028 somewhere else. Uh because there’s going to be other needs for those teams. Like that might be the way that they view it. And if they get a haul for him, they’re right. That’s the the case for trading him. The case for keeping him though is as I’ve outlined, I just don’t think the contract would be so demonstrabably overweight that you would be worried about, you know, it going bad for a guy who would is is a gamer, is a hard worker, a team leader, all those things that can be very difficult to quantify and you would be talking about signing him through his age 33 season. It’s not like you would be, you know, beholden to the the back end of it. Yeah, you’d you probably have to pay a $5 million option buyout on a contract that you don’t want to pay him by the time he’s about to turn 34. Uh, but maybe he ages gracefully and it goes the other way. I just I think he’s the exact type of guy that you would look to sign unless you were conceding the next two years, which Heim Bloom said they’re not going to do. They’re not conceding anything. Well, I I don’t know. This is a tough a tough one. If they trade him, it’s always going to be about, in my opinion, what did they get back and was it worth it? And we’ll evaluate that when the time comes, if it happens. The next name on this list, Sunny Gray. Case for trading him. Lot of money that you could potentially clear because teams could be desperate for pitching. They’ll probably not look at Sunny Gray and say he’s worth 35 million. Uh but they might say he’s worth 20 and that would mean the Cardinals save about 20 because he’s owed 35 plus a $5 million buyout for an option on 2027. Uh which you know if if the Cardinals save $20 million and somebody else pays him the other 20 and they get a piece back for him, that’s great. I think that works out because then you you you probably do have to make sure you’ve you’ve got the coverage from the other starting pitchers in your organization like Andre Palante is definitely in. Maybe a Kyle Lehey is somebody that you know is is going to be in anyway depending on what they do. And then you’re ready for the prospects like a Liam Doyle, like a Quinn Matthews, like a Bryson Mottz. some of those guys. Hopefully by the midsummer, one or two of those guys have emerged to the point that you’re comfortable putting them into a big league rotation and you didn’t really even need Sunny Gray for the full season and he can go somewhere where he can contend as he ages and everybody wins. That’s the case for trading. Case for keeping him is if you feel like you don’t have enough starting depth to be able to afford to do it or if there’s obviously nowhere that he is willing to go, you’re out of luck because he’s got a no trade clause. But I would also say that, you know, if the Cardinals are are honest about it, they could probably find a place that he’d be willing to go and just accept that you may have to eat more of the salary than you otherwise would want to. U but he’s one where I could see Heim Bloom being a little stubborn, saying, “Look, Sunny Gray can contribute for our team. He had 180 innings last year, 200 strikeouts. Yes, the RA was elevated. Yes, for the last two years he’s given up more home runs for whatever reason. Has not, you know, translated on the road with the the number of homers that he’s given up. Don’t know what the deal is with that. But he’s still a good pitcher near his prime relative to his age. Like you look at his age and you think he’s probably out of his prime, but he’s still pitching uh pretty well and still showing the upside certainly in some of the games that he pitched last season, the complete game shutout. I mean, he he’s got some really good things that he can still do for you. The consistency isn’t always there and so you kind of have to wear that a little bit, but the Cardinals have already committed to paying him this money. And so if it’s a case where they feel as though they’re not really gaining either in prospect capital or in cash savings what they would need uh to trade him to the places that he is willing to go, you could hold him and revisit at the trade deadline. And the the problem there is also going to be is Sunny Greg going to want to pick up in the middle of a season with his personality being what it is and and move somewhere else for the stretch run. Maybe, but maybe not. Uh you just kind of cross that bridge when you get to it. I just feel like keeping Gray on a team that is unlikely to exceed expectations enough to make the playoffs is probably uh not the best allocation of resources. But I will acknowledge the difficulty of you have to get him to be on board with whatever the result is because he does have the no trade clause. So we’ll see what ends up happening with that. Lars Newar case for trading him would be the Statcast Darling still has enough trade value to potentially uh have the Cardinal extract on that value and and and just get out from under the situation before maybe he reveals that the the Statcast stuff is a mirage and he’s never going to be able to stay healthy. But I think you can still trade on his potential. Um you’d be able to do it even more though the case for keeping him is that he is currently injured and may not be ready for opening day. uh that is not something uh will will leech in in the article mentions his injury issues but doesn’t mention that he is currently maybe not available for opening day which could have an impact on his trade value at this point in time and so if you’re selling low on a guy that if you if you bet on him and he’s healthy and performs closer to what he did in 2024 than 2025 and you still want to trade him I think there are teams that in July would take a year and a half of Lars newar and probably the timing would line up better for them to pay you for it uh because they might be more desperate to add a a a player player like Newar to a championship contender or a hopeful contender. The problem is if you’re betting on Lars Newar’s health, you might lose that bet. And so the Cardinals may, you know, be waiting for a day of his value to reach a level that it never will reach if he’s not able to stay healthy. Um I I I don’t know the the right answer to this because I don’t know realistically what the league is offering for Lars Newar right now given all of the factors at play. He does have still two years remaining just like Brennan Donovan before free agency. Um but he is much less in that boat of a player that you’re willing to extend because of the injury stuff. I guess it would have been fair to bring it up with Donovan though too. He has had a number of injuries as well. Um ended the season having a sports hernia surgery and so um that might be the unspoken part of the Cardinals willingness to trade him is like look if everybody’s talking about Lars Newar as a reason uh with the trade talks and and and the value of what he brings and they look at his injury past as a reason to not value him as highly. But nobody seems to be doing that right now with Brandon Donovan. This might be the time to trade Brendon Donovan. If that is just the popular opinion of everybody that kind of can work in the Cardinal favor when it comes to Donnie, uh less so with New. And so like it’s always about playing the market, which was something that John Mo could not have been worse at. He was abysmal at the the notion of of of buying low and selling high. I’ve never seen anybody do a worse job of it than him. Heim Bloom maybe they look at it in this front office a little bit differently and say look we think X about Brendan Donovan which might be we love him right but the market thinks Y about him and Y happens to exceed X so you cash in you make the trade Lars NAR if the Cardinals think X about him and X exceeds Y in this instance because the rest of the team seem to be punishing um Lars Nupar in terms of what they’re offering via trade relative to um what the Cardinals believe his injury risk to continue playing is then maybe the Cardinal say we keep him and we we we revisit in July. So that would be an interesting conundrum that I can’t know the answer to. It depends on their internal evaluations of these two players versus what they’re seeing and hearing from teams in the market. I guess we can say John Mosak didn’t feel as though Lars Newar was being valued very highly in the offers they got for him in July. Um because he said, you know, none of those left-handed bats that were we were getting calls on, we we were not blown away by the offers for them. Again, you have to consider the source with this and maybe think that John Molec just wasn’t very good at this aspect of the job. And I would say that that would be a fair evaluation based on what we saw from him. All right, those are the five. I didn’t really give you anything definitive on any of them. Um because like I said with Newar and Donovan, it’s a value proposition. With Gray and really the other two, it’s a case of what are they willing to do? But I would say the Cardinals should be motivated to trade Sunny Gray. Extremely motivated to trade Aronado. Like it does not matter what you get back, just do it. Doesn’t matter how much money you have to eat, just do it. Gray, there is that like kind of pendulum swinging where you go do understand that if we we we do trade and we have to replace him with somebody in our rotation to just kind of get us by and if he accidentally has a really great start to the season, maybe we can trade him to the perfect spot and end up with a really nice piece as a result relative to what we’re being offered for him now. Um Wilson is a value proposition slash, you know, maybe keep a little bit of the goodwill by keeping him, especially if you’re going to trade Donovan. like trading Wilson and Donovan in the same offseason could be a little bit of a tough hit for the fans to take. Uh some of the other names that that Will Leech mentions in this piece for MLB.com in passing Jordan Walker I would say no chance I’m trading him because you’re not going to get anything for him unless I’m just wrong about what teams will offer for him then there’s no chance. Uh kind of similar with actually it’s not similar with Gorman. I would trade Gorman. I would trade Gorman for sure if I thought I was getting fair value because at the end of the day I could put SJC into the exact same spot that Gorman would would occupy on my team and I’m not going to get the power but I think I could get similar wins above replacement and if somebody is willing to bet on Gorman’s power again value proposition play the market I would be willing to trade Gorman because I don’t think he’s a guy that beyond his team control I’m itching to give him an additional contract because the volatility of his game is I’m I’m I’m pessimistic about it relative to seeing the hope of like the 40 home run seasons consistently. I’m more on the pessimist side of that, but that could change with more performance for him. Um, for sure. He mentioned some of the catchers. Poses crooks. I would say Po I don’t think has any trade value. If he is to depart, it might just be as a as a DFA. Um, I could be wrong about that, but I’m just not sure he has a lot of value. PZ I I would be surprised if they would trade him. I think the Cardinals value him more than the league would. Uh, Jimmy Krooks, the league might value him more than the Cardinals do. I don’t know how the league values him. So, I can’t really say that for sure. Um, but if if they’re trying to to trim from the catcher pipeline and they think Leonardo Bernol is much more the answer of the young guns than Krooks and there’s people who think that Krooks is worth um, you know, being included in a trade that the Cardinals can get something they need, I would I would definitely see them um to do that. Those are really the only names that I think are worth bringing up. Which ones did I miss? Which ones uh would you like to hear more about when it comes to the Cardinal potentially making some trades? Uh I can talk about that in a future episode of Bshave Daily. But uh that’s going to do it for this edition of the show. Appreciate you guys as always for listening and we will talk to you next time on Bshave Daily. Peace.

Brenden Schaeffer discusses some of the top names in the Cardinals organization as trade chips this off-season.

Inspired by an article by Will Leitch for MLB dot com (linked below), we dive into the merits for keeping or trading these various players as we await what the Cardinals will ultimately do.

Article referenced in the episode: https://www.mlb.com/news/should-cardinals-trade-nolan-arenado-willson-contreras-more

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