MLB Trade Grade: Cardinals steal Paul Goldschmidt from the Diamondbacks
The Cardinals entered the offseason in need of a bat to strengthen the middle of their order. Paul Goldschmidt will definitely do that.
Cardinals fans were justifiably upset when the team failed to sign Josh Donaldson ahead of the Braves. Fortunately, St. Louis didn’t hesitate to move on to Plan B.
Swinging a one-sided trade for Paul Goldschmidt will make a lot of Cards fans forget all about the club’s failure to acquire Donaldson.
Normally when we evaluate trades it’s easy to see where both franchises are coming from. That’s not the case in this deal. If you are a Diamondbacks fan looking to read good news we’d suggest you go somewhere else.
The Cardinals are acquiring Goldschmidt in exchange for Carson Kelly, Luke Weaver, Andy Young and a compensatory selection in the 2019 MLB Draft. Spoiler alert, the draft pick needs to be the best asset of that group if Arizona is going to break even.
As usual, we’re here to thoroughly grade the deal for you. Expect one team to be very pleased and another fan base to be scratching their collective heads on this one.
Cardinals
If you’re a Cardinals fan who is expressing any sort of negative sentiment about this trade then you might want to have your head examined.
The St. Louis front office managed to acquire one of the most productive first baseman in the game without giving up an elite prospect or average regular.
This is the kind of trade that front office dreams are made of. Goldschmidt immediately slots into the middle of the Cardinals order. The 31-year-old slugged 33 home runs last year en route to providing Arizona a WAR of 5.4.
He’s the sort of hitter that will elevate everyone else in the St. Louis lineup.
The only real concern here is whether or not the Cardinals can keep Goldschmidt long-term. He’s going to be a free agent after this season and he could turn out to be a very expensive player to keep. Simply put, St. Louis can cross that bridge when they get there.
This is a phenomenal deal for the Cardinals.
Grade: A
Diamondbacks
As much as we like this deal from the Cardinals point of view, we detest it for the Diamondbacks. They parted with a tremendously valuable player without getting a single exciting piece in return.
Their front office will certainly point to Goldschmidt’s impending free agency as the reason they needed to deal him this winter, but if this was all they could get in return they should have kept him in the fold.
The hope in Arizona has to be that Kelly and Weaver can develop into average regulars pretty quickly. Both players have some talent, but neither really has star potential.
The Diamondbacks should have tried to get one player with a really high ceiling rather than multiple lottery tickets in this deal.
Weaver should slot immediately into the hole Patrick Corbin left in the Diamondbacks rotation. He showed some promise last year in St. Louis, but throwing 136.1 innings pitched with an ERA of 4.95 doesn’t portend stardom. He profiles as an average starter at best.
Next. Trade grade: Phillies pry Segura away from Mariners. dark
Arizona better hit on the draft pick in this deal if they expect this trade to be viewed positively in years to come. Right now it looks terrible for the Diamondback front office.