STL Cardinals Rumors: Sell-high trade asset, top prospect concern, superstar trade target

STL Cardinals Rumors: Oscar Mercado should be a sell-high trade asset

The Tyler O’Neill injury taking a turn for the worse in terms of his recovery timeline certainly complicates things for the St. Louis Cardinals as they eye the trade market. There isn’t an area in the organization where they are richer in talent than in terms of the outfield depth, but not having O’Neill in the fold for what appears to be an unknown amount of time makes that a little trickier.

Luckily, a sell-high candidate that the Cards could potentially take advantage of might end up being a nice trade chip for the club to work with.

Oscar Mercado, the 28-year-old outfielder who spent hist first four MLB seasons with Cleveland before playing one game with the Phillies last season, was called into action essentially when the realization came about that O’Neill could be out for longer than expected, even before the most recent update.

In the 12 games he’s played, though, Mercado has looked quite good. He’s posted a .333/.357/.444 slash line while playing solid defense, knocking three doubles and earning fie RBI while also stealing a pair of bases as well.

All of these numbers far exceed what Mercado has been throughout his still-young career. However, if he can even remotely maintain that, he could be a sell-high option for the Cardinals to potentially trade or include in a trade package to acquire a player at a position that is more of a need.

Or, on the flip side, if he keeps this up, perhaps the team would be more inclined to deal a higher-upside asset like Dylan Carlson or Alec Burleson in a deal because they have a replacement on the roster. In any case, though, Mercado seeming to break out does give the Cardinals more options than they seemingly had previously, especially in the wake of the O’Neill injury.