FanPost

Gauging your trade thoughts/preferences/ideas

Even though there is no baseball on right now, its still a fun time to be a baseball fan, especially for the thousands of armchair GMs im sure are on this website. The crop of free agents aren't all that "sexy" this year, but there is surely a handful of impact players at various positions.

Throughout the website and on other Cardinal sources i keep reading everyone's thoughts on players such as Ozuna, darvish, Yelich, Machado, Donaldson, Archer, Comome, etc.

So im just going to throw some "off-season hauls" together to see which people prefer. These are all going to be some sort of my "ideal offseason" type things. Realisitically, most of these wont happen, but the Cardinals seem to be actually trying this offseason to bring in some impactful players. Most of these will attempt to solve some of our problem areas (lack of big bat, top end starter, bullpen, improved 1B/3B). Mostly going to include Free agents and those ive heard in rumors.

All in all, its just for fun! So let me know your thoughts and if you have any other scenarios you'd like to see!

Scenario 1:

- Sign J.D. Martinez

- Trade for Colome

- Trade for Jose Abreu

Nets us 2 big bats and a closer. Assumes starting rotation is set. Pretty expensive in terms of $ and prospects.

Scenario 2:

- Trade for Chris Archer

- Sign Addison Reed

- Sign Carlos Santana

- Trade for Marcell Ozuna

Elite pitcher? Check. Power bat? Check. impact bat? Check. Bullpen/closing arm? Check. Incredibly cost heavy in terms of prospects. Not all that expensive in terms of money, at least not yet.

Scenario 3:

- Sign Wade Davis

- Trade for Christian Yelich

- Sign Steve Cishek

Bullpen gets big boost. Outfield consolidated into very good player, although not a star. $ cost and prospect cost not huge, but not small either.

Scenario 4:

- Trade for Manny Machado

- Sign Greg Holland

- Sign Juan Niasco

Very Risky. Cards hope they can convince their new star 3B to sign an extension. 2 very good bullpen arms.

Scenario 5:

- Trade for Chris Archer

- Trade for Evan Longoria

- Sign Greg Holland

- Sign Lorenzo Cain

2 impact (although perhaps not power) bats. 1 good bullpen arm to go with our new staff ace. Rays get a lot of our good prospects.

Scenario 6:

- Trade for Jackie Bradley Jr.

- Sign Yu Darvish

- Sign Carlos Santana

- Sign Addison Reed

New ace. New Closer. Short term fill for 1B. JBjr completes our new OF trio and provides major defensive boost.

Scenario 7:

- Trade for Marcell Ozuna

- Sign Wade Davis

- Trade for Josh Donaldson

- Sign Juan Niasco

Would cost a lot. Shores up pen and adds big bats. Risky moves and doesn't add top end starter.

Scenario 8 (All in, maybe better used in MLB The Show):

- Trade for Manny Machado

- Trade for Chris Archer

- Sign Carlos Santana

- Sign Wade Davis

- Sign Addison Reed

O.K. Probably the least realistic. Brings in 3 stars and a couple solid pieces. Would make us instant contender, but thats a lot of money on the pen and depletes the top end of our farm. But man would this team be fun. Might overtake Cubs with this offseason.

Ok so none of these will probably happen, but hopefully a move or two from them can come to fruition. Already a fun offseason. Thanks for reading and helping me avoid writing my final essay. Let me know your thoughts via the comments and poll!