Cardinals Rumors: Nolan Arenado is safe in St. Louis
By most accounts, including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt are unlikely to be moved at the MLB Trade Deadline. Arenado in particular opted into his contract last offseason, meaning he's likely to be playing under the arch for some time.
During the All-Star Break, Arenado was asked whether he felt pressure to perform, or if he would be open to playing elsewhere.
"Yeah, I mean, it is a business, right?" Arenado said, per Goold. "I've been traded once and I think that shocked a lot of people at the time. So, I guess, no, it doesn't surprise me anymore what happens in this game. But it would still be surprising seeing certain things happen, but I understand that there's certain things that probably should."
Since, John Mozeliak and the Cards front office has let it be known through certain avenues that Arenado is off the table. As Josh Jacobs of Redbird Rants wrote, "the Cardinals have already shut down inquiries from other teams about Lars Noobaar and Jordan Walker. They also have no intention of trading Nolan Arenado or Paul Goldschmidt, continuing to make stories like Jon Heyman's all the more irrelevant."
Arenado's future is clearly with the Cards, and his contract runs through the 2027 season. Hopefully for St. Louis sake, he will be a member of their next postseason team. Mozeliak and Co. are building for 2024 and beyond.
Cardinals Rumors: Masyn Winn is a prospect to watch
St. Louis Cardinals top prospect Masyn Winn is ranked 43rd in all of baseball by MLB Pipeline. While his expected arrival time to the majors is 2024, his current offensive output suggests he could make an impact in St. Louis a little earlier than expected.
Josh Jacobs of Redbird Rants projected that Winn will make his debut in the second half. This, it should be noted, was one of his bolder predictions:
"After a really slow March and April for Winn in Triple-A, he stabilized himself with a .799 OPS in May and .763 OPS in June, while exploding to slash .306/.375/.556 during the course of July.
The Cardinals have cracked the door open once again on the shortstop position by giving Tommy Edman an extended run in center field. If he is dealt at the deadline, that door really swings open, but if not, I still think there is a good chance Winn can pick up reps in the middle infield. Edman is also dealing with a wrist injury right now, so he may be down for a bit."
St. Louis has some flexibility at the shortstop position, as Jacobs notes. Edman can move off his position if needed.
If St. Louis continues to fall behind in the NL Wild Card race, their mission should be to build for 2024. One way they can do just that is to see what they have in Winn, rather than making his first real action against big-league pitching in spring training.
Should Winn succeed this season, Mozeliak can pencil him in as the team's starting shortstop for 2024.
Cardinals Rumors: St. Louis DFA's Genesis Cabrera
It's been a tough season for Genesis Cabrera, who has an ERA of 5.06 in 32 appearances for the Cardinals this season. That's a far cry from his 2020-21 self, when Cabrera had a 3.41 ERA in 92.1 innings over the course of two seasons.
Per Katie Woo of The Athletic, "The Cardinals are designating left-handed reliever Génesis Cabrera for assignment. Cabrera has been with the team since 2019. A surprising move given his presumed trade interest, though he can still be traded within 7 days of being DFA'd."
In short, the Cards will have a week to trade Cabrera should they wish. However, they parted with much of their leverage when they opted to designate him for assignment, as Cabrera will be available to every team after a week's time. Frankly, St. Louis would be lucky to receive any prospect capital in return for the right-hander, which likely means his market wasn't too active to begin with.
As MLB Trade Rumors points out, there's still reason to believe a turnaround is possible for Cabrera in a new location.
"Even with the downturn in velocity and pedestrian strikeout rate over the past two seasons, there's still some reason to believe Cabrera is capable of more. Averaging roughly 96 mph from the left side is of note, even if that's down from peak levels, and Cabrera sports a very strong 13.6% swinging-strike rate this season. He's also induced chases off the plate at an above-average 32.6% clip. There's little doubt that Cabrera has intriguing raw stuff, and another team may have a different plan to maximize his arsenal."
Cabrera is relatively affordable and a good buy-low candidate for any team in need of relief help.
