MLB Trade Deadline: 5 players Cardinals should trade for

The Cardinals are in a rare position of chasing teams above them in 2016. Can they add enough to make the playoffs?

The St. Louis Cardinals have won the National League Central in each of the last three seasons. In 2016, however, it seems that some of the younger players who had been emerging in the past three years have come back down to earth a bit. That puts them currently are seven games back in their own division, and are chasing the Mets and the Dodgers for the wild card.

On top of that there is the devastating news that their top All-Star Matt Carpenter went down with an oblique injury.

Still, they have the roster that is in contention to compete. In Adam Wainwright’s last two outings he struck out 14 and walked three over fourteen shutout innings. Aledmys Diaz has been a surprise story and an All-Star, and they may have the depth to survive the Carpenter injury. Carpenter will also be back this season so the Cardinals will more than likely be buying for another summer.

The two biggest needs that have stuck out to them would be relief pitching and a hitter that could either play center field or first base. The Cardinals have had to shuffle closers and both Trevor Rosenthal and Jonathan Broxton have had shaky moments.

The Cardinals have been through a few center fielders throughout the season, and have even experimented with Kolten Wong there. Wong now has to play second full-time for Matt Carpenter, who had seven starts at first base himself. The Cardinals have holes and they have some assets so they should be able to pull off some type of trade before the deadline.

With that said, here are the five players that the St. Louis Cardinals should trade for 

Next: 5. Carlos Beltran