The MLB Trade Deadline is less than a month away and it sounds like the St. Louis Cardinals are going to be selling hard.
After a disappointing 38-52 first half of the season that has the Cardinals sitting last in the NL Central, Cardinals president John Mozeliak sent out a message that will surely have teams calling.
“Right now, I can tell you that we’re going to trade people,” Mozeliak told Martin Kilcoyne on his Kilcoyne Conversation. “I just don’t know if it’s going to be household names or just guys that aren’t likely to be here next year… we’re not going to just give away players. We want to get some value in return.”
Mozeliak knows that his team has had to deal with some difficult injury luck to start 2023, but wasn’t going to let that impact his deadline decision making.
“When you look at how things have unfolded, I don’t want to go through every little excuse we see,” said Mozeliak. “We know it hasn’t worked. We know changes have to happen.”
A desire to make some changes doesn’t mean the Cardinals are completely giving up on this season, but Mozeliak did admit the moves they make will be made with next year in mind.
“We’re not necessarily waving the white flag, but all decisions or all moves we do are really going to try to set us up for next year.”
One player that could be on his way to a new team is Canadian outfielder Tyler O’Neill. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reported that O’Neill, along with Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty and Jordan Hicks could be the players the Cardinals choose to move.
O’Neill is slashing .228/.283/.377 with two home runs for the Cardinals this season. He finished eighth in NL MVP voting in 2021.
Expect to see the Cardinals make plenty of headlines when the Trade Deadline rolls around on Aug. 1.