Cardinals meeting with Giancarlo Stanton’s agents today

After reports surfaced last night that the San Francisco Giants were going to head down to Los Angeles to meet with representatives of Giancarlo Stanton, the rumor mill has been stirring about just how close the Giants were to making a trade for the Marlins slugger and reigning MVP. We still don’t know how close the Marlins might be to a trade with the Giants, but we now know the Cardinals aren’t yet out of the running.

According to Jon Morosi of MLB.com, the Cardinals are going to have a meeting with the agents of Giancarlo Stanton down in Los Angeles as well.

If this were a college football coaching search, we’d be checking flight trackers from St. Louis and Cincinnati just to see when the Cardinals officials arrived and speculate just how high up the chain the Cardinals were going regarding their emissaries. Thankfully this is not college football, and three coaches just turned down the Tennessee job as I typed that last sentence.

We don’t yet know how close any team is to trading for Stanton, and there could be mystery teams, but Peter Gammons has indicated where the Marlins current focus seems to be.

So we have two teams the Marlins have focused on in terms of prospects and now two teams the Marlins have allowed pitches to be made to Stanton’s representatives. Things could change, but right now it looks to be a two-horse race. Morosi has cautioned that the Cardinals meeting does not indicate that a deal with the Cardinals has been reached.

This should not be news, but Giancarlo Stanton has a no-trade clause and as neither the San Francsico Giants nor the St. Louis Cardinals are the Los Angeles Dodgers, it appears that Stanton might need some convincing. For the Giants, that likely comes in the form of trying to stay competitive with an aging, big-payroll team that lost nearly 100 games last year. For the Cardinals, it probably means living a portion of the year in the Midwest, where he probably does not have a ton of familiarity. Matt Holliday seems willing to help in that regard despite not currently playing for the team.

We might still be a ways away from Stanton getting traded, but it appears things are—absent a better term—progressing nicely. These meeting should provide some clarity for all parties with decision-making ability: the Marlins, Stanton, the Cardinals, and the Giants. Winter Meetings are still a week away, but it certainly seems more likely that we might have a resolution prior to their beginning.