All the wrong moves: What Cardinals rotation could have looked like if front office didn’t blow it

3. Marco Gonzales

After much of four seasons with the Cardinals, the team traded Gonzales, then a prized prospect in the organization, to Seattle for their top-hitting prospect, Tyler O’Neill.

Except for the 2020 and 2021 seasons, O’Neill has struggled through injuries. The Cardinals give O’Neill every opportunity to improve, which is excellent. But it also makes you wonder what-if that trade involving Gonzales hadn’t happened.

Gonzales has a record of 64-49 over 881.1 innings of work. He’s had 657 career strikeouts and a 4.17 ERA.

The deal is what it is now, but what if that deal hadn’t happened? How different would both of their careers be at this time? Gonzales signed a long-term contract with the Mariners. He won’t be a free agent until 2025. Meanwhile, O’Neill and the Cardinals are still in arbitration deals.

With the Mariners, he’s been a mid-rotation arm on a team that allows him to grow and learn. The Cardinals could easily have had him as a fourth or fifth spot in the rotation. The Cardinals did have several young arms in development at the time of this deal and were looking for a young outfield with lots of potential.

Gonzales could have provided a steady, young arm for the middle of the rotation.