{"id":558221,"date":"2026-02-06T18:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/558221\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T18:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:17:15","slug":"cardinals-trade-addition-on-verge-of-breakout-season-in-st-louis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/558221\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Trade Addition on Verge of Breakout Season in St. Louis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">The St. Louis Cardinals are looking to rebuild their roster over the coming years, but this starts with big trades that send veteran stars to contenders.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6h\">The Cardinals have swung multiple big trades this offseason to send players like Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, and Nolan Arenado to new teams. With that in mind, it&#8217;s going to be crucial for the Cardinals that their top prospects takeover the big leagues in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">If you like our content,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google.<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">Just Baseball&#8217;s Adam Akbani recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justbaseball.com\/prospects\/top-cardinals-prospects-who-could-contribute-in-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">shared a lot of high praise for Cardinals infield prospect<\/a> Blaze Jordan, going as far as to suggest he could make an impact in St. Louis as early as this season. Jordan was acquired in the Steven Matz trade with the Boston Red Sox last year.<\/p>\n<p>Blaze Jordan could be in position to make an impact in St. Louis<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/01kgsncea3rwenqpjnd7.jpg\" alt=\"St. Louis Cardinals infielder Blaze Jorda\" title=\"St. Louis Cardinals infielder Blaze Jorda\" width=\"1570\" height=\"883\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"70\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Worcester\u2019s Blaze Jordan bats against Lehigh Valley at Polar Park July 29. | Rick Cinclair\/Telegram &amp; Gazette \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"74\">&#8220;Acquired in the Steven Matz trade, Blaze Jordan has been in the spotlight since he was 15 years old.He hasn\u2019t quite lived up to the hype as a professional, failing to consistently translate his thunderous raw power in-game,&#8221; Akbani wrote. &#8220;In 2025, Jordan posted a cool 114 wRC+ with Triple-A Worcester, but was terrible at Memphis with a 56 wRC+.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">&#8220;His swing decisions aren\u2019t stellar, but he flashed an impressive 88.9 Z-Contact%, giving him a projectible bat-to-ball\/ raw juice combination. Before the Willson Contreras deal, there was a logjam of 1B\/LF\/DH profiles on the 40-man, but his departure should create some plate appearances for Blaze. He looks like a future platoon hitter with some helium.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7a\">Jordan has incredible raw power, which has been his calling card for nearly a decade. He struggles to bring the power over to games consistently, but it&#8217;s still an incredible trait.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">He has a lot of potential, which makes him an intriguing bat to follow. With Contreras being traded to the Red Sox, there&#8217;s a clear path to starting in St. Louis.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7g\">Jordan is going to need to put together a solid spring, but if he can do that, there&#8217;s a chance he breaks into the big leagues around the All-Star break.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7j\">More MLB: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/cardinals\/onsi\/st-louis-cardinals-news\/cardinals-24-year-old-catcher-has-bright-future-in-st-louis-zach3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cardinals 24-Year-Old Catcher Has Bright Future in St. Louis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. Louis Cardinals are looking to rebuild their roster over the coming years, but this starts with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-558221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-st-louis","12":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","13":"tag-stlouis","14":"tag-stlouiscardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116025062330749525","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}