These three St. Louis Cardinals trade deadline deals from last year have turned against them.
The St. Louis Cardinals are looking like buyers this summer. A putrid start dug an early grave for the Cardinals. Questions about the pitching staff, multiple underperformers in the lineup, and a lackluster offseason have all led us to this point.
Not helping much either is what the Cardinals did at last year's trade deadline. Three trades they made are beginning to do more than just turn heel on them. They're setting up to destroy the Cardinals for maybe longer than just the 2023 season.
These three trades, while good when they first happened, are beginning to age poorly for St. Louis.
1) Cardinals trade turning against them: Jordan Montgomery for Harrison Bader
The narrative of this trade has changed immensely. The Cardinals acquired starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery from the New York Yankees last summer straight up for Harrison Bader. Bader was injured at the time and impatient Yankees fans were shocked to see the club trade one of their better arms. The failure of Frankie Montas fueled the anger even further.
Montgomery was excellent for the Cardinals in his 11 starts last year. He went 6-3 with a 3.11 ERA. It was everything they could've asked for. Meanwhile, Bader did pretty much the same thing he did while in St. Louis. A .217/.245/.283 slash line for the Yankees and no home runs in 49 plate appearances seemed like St. Louis robbed New York.
Maybe not.
Bader is now hitting .267/.295/.511 for the Yankees in his first 95 plate appearances of the season. Injuries are a major concern, but when he is on the field, Baer is mashing. There is a ton of room for improvement. As a center fielder in a weak era of players at the position, Bader's performance has been more than acceptable.
Montgomery, on the other hand, is trending downward. A 3-7 record and 3.88 ERA might not seem too terrible. It's certainly not good enough for a guy making almost twice as much as the player he was traded for. The Cardinals believed Montgomery was a solution for any questions they had about their rotation. Instead, he's raising more of them and looking like he could get dumped this summer if they're unable to snap out of it.
2) Cardinals trade turning against them: Jose Quintana from the Pirates
So maybe you're happy enough with what Jordan Montgomery has done for the Cardinals this year. What about what Jose Quintana has given them? Wait, he's not here. He's currently on the IL for the New York Mets. A pure rental for the Cardinals last year acquired alongside reliever Chris Stratton, the Cardinals let him walk in free agency after an even better dozen starts for them in the regular season.
After picking him up from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Quintana went 3-2 with a 2.01 ERA. He tossed 5.1 shutout innings in his playoff start only for the bullpen to blow it.
The Cardinals do still have Stratton in the bullpen and that's good. But they may have handed a division rival two valuable young pieces in the process. Johan Oviedo, 25, is now 5-7 with a 3.88 ERA for Pittsburgh through his first 20 starts for them dating back to last season. The numbers are eerily similar to what Montgomery has done at a fraction of the cost. Wouldn't it be nice to have Oviedo around at this point?
On a surprisingly good Pirates club this year, Oviedo is a little bit worse than he was down the stretch when the club was out of the postseason race. Now 3-5 with a 4.16 ERA, he's heading in the right even though he did just lose to Quintana's current squad.
The trade did also include minor leaguer Malcolm Nunez. The 22-year-old popped 23 home runs and drove in 88 on the farm last year. Through his first 160 plate appearances in Triple-A for the Bucs in 2023, he has 4 more long balls and 25 RBI to go with a .255/.338/.369 slash line.
That's always the risk a team runs when they buy a rental midseason. Unless you win a championship, you probably come out as the loser.
3) Cardinals trade turning against them: Edmundo Sosa for JoJo Romero
The best, most minor yet unexpected but also important trade of all made at last year's trade deadline was the swapping between the Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies. Infielder Edmundo Sosa was practically a non-entity on the St. Louis roster. Hitting .189/.244/.270 at the time of the deal, the Phillies acquired him in exchange for lefty reliever JoJo Romero.
Sosa took off immediately in Philadelphia. He batted .315/.345/.593 for them in 2022 in their miraculous quest for a National League Pennant that began by eliminating the Cardinals in the NLWC. He has supplemented them often at third base this year, only recently seeing his numbers start to decline.
It's still looking like a better deal for the Phillies. After pitching to a quality 3.77 ERA out of the bullpen for the Cardinals last year, he gave them a 3.52 ERA performance this season in 7.2 innings. The earned run average is a little overblown, though. Control has been a big issue throughout his career. Both last year and this season, Romero has averaged nearly 6 walks per 9 innings of work for the Cardinals.
Romero remains a work in progress with much of his 2023 season spent in Triple-A. He has some awesome stuff but what good is it if he can't find the plate?
This Cardinals trade still has a chance to turn around in their favor. The same cannot be said about sending Oviedo and Nunez to the Pirates. Who else feels like that's going to haunt them in a big way at some point?