The 2022 trade deadline has come and gone with the Cardinals making 4 notable moves to improve the team going into the 2nd half to prepare for a hopeful playoff run. Let’s look over the moves and see what our Redbirds did.
Move 1:
Moving Edmundo Sosa to the city of brotherly love.
The 1st announced trade the St. Louis Cardinals made was on Saturday, trading Sosa to Philadelphia for Jojo Romero. This was a minor move as the Cardinals did this not for the return (even though Romero is a solid lefty that got lit up in the 2 innings in the bigs this year.) This move was made to open up a roster spot for Paul Dejong to make his long awaited return to the big league club, which I was happy about because his power seemed to reappear along with less strikeouts. Overall not a bad move for a small one.
Move 2:
Acquiring a much needed starter and bullpen arm.
The 1st of 2 big splashes the Cardinals made went down Monday night with Pittsburgh, trading for Starting pitcher Jose Quintana and relief pitcher Chris Stratton. So far this season Quintana is pitching to a 3-5 record with a 3.50 ERA along with 89 strikeouts in 107 innings. Stratton on the other hand has been getting roughed up. In 41.2 innings he was pitching to a 4.97 ERA with 38 strikeouts.
Quintana is a good rental piece and was a much needed starter who can replace Matz spot in the rotation along with Stratton who is a lot better than the numbers show. The Cardinals defense will help him out plenty, as it does with all our pitchers. As for what we gave up, pitcher Johan Oviedo and infielder Malcolm Nunez, who was the cardinals #11 ranked prospect, made their way to the Pirates in the deal. Oviedo, who was in his age 24 season, has a 2-1 record with a 3.20 ERA in 25 innings. He’s always had filthy stuff, but has had trouble putting it all together in the majors so I like sending him with Nunez who was raking the ball in Memphis. Because the position was blocked by Arenado and Goldschmidt, I think it was an overall a good trade for both sides
Move 3:
Adding and subtracting the Catcher depth.
I’m gonna glance over this one quick as I didn’t even know these moves were made til I did my research. The Cardinals DFA’d Austin Rommie and sent him over to the Reds for cash considerations. Rommie wasn’t good with us and was only on our roster as a “veteran presence” with Yadi on the IL, so no hard feelings that he’s gone. St.Louis also made a deal for A’s catcher Austin Allen who is originally from the STL area. In return the A’s got a minor league pitcher by the name of Carlos Guarte who was in our low A system. The trade for Allen is purely a depth move to get Ivan Herrera more reps in Triple A and allows him to not go up to the bigs in case of an injury to our catchers.
Move 4:
A very confusing trade with the Yankees
The last big splash the Cardinals made was right at the buzzer with the AL leading New York Yankees, out of all teams. The trade sent injured gold glove center fielder Harrison Bader over to the Yankees in exchange for LHP Jordan Montgomery. When looking at this trade from both sides it makes way too much sense, which is why both sides were so mad at it. Yes, Bader is currently injured but the one thing the Yankees really lack is a good defensive center fielder which Bader gives them. They have enough heavy hitters in the lineup that tucking Bader in the bottom won’t hurt them (before we was injured he was hitting .256 with 5 home runs and 21 RBI’s along with 15 stolen bases).
And, the Cardinals needed one more solid starter in order to move Andre Pallante back to a long relief role. Montgomery this season in 21 games is 3-3 with a 3.69 (nice) ERA with 97 strikeouts in 117 innings pitched. He is another pitcher who will excel in our rotation with his decent strikeout numbers and high ground ball percentage that will get bolstered with the gold glove defensive behind him. This, along with team control through 2024, proves to turn into a good trade for both sides even if it means losing a fan favorite in Bader.
The Cardinals may have missed out on the big fish in Soto,however with the moves they made I fully believe we are geared up for a playoff push. A lot of the little moves needed to happen, even if Cardinals fans were wishing for a 23-year old superstar to stroll into town.