Cardinals Rumors: Evaluating 5 prospects acquired St. Louis fire sale

The St. Louis Cardinals have loaded on prospects in the first of what could be a fire sale for the organization looking to improve for the future. 

The Cardinals received five prospects in exchange for pitchers in their final years of control with the organization.

In a deal with the Texas Rangers, the Cardinals are trading lefty starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery and right-handed reliever Chris Stratton in exchange for infielder Thomas Saggese, RHP Tekoah Roby, and LHP John King.

In a deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, the Cardinals are trading RHP Jordan Hicks for RHP Sem Robberse and RHP Adam Kloffenstein.

Overall, these deals seem to do what President of baseball operations John Mozeliak wanted to accomplish. The deals move pitchers on the final years of their contracts in exchange for young prospects that can help carry the Cardinals into the future.

The moves have the bullpen down two arms and the rotation down a left-handed arm. Adam Wainwright, who is in his final season as a Major Leaguer, leads a rotation that now includes Miles Mikolas, Matthew Liberatore, Steven Matz, and, for now, Jack Flaherty.

Flaherty is also expected to depart the team before the trade deadline on Aug. 1.

In addition to Flaherty, the rumor mill has also mentioned teams looking into Alec Burleson, Dylan Carlson, and Paul DeJong. While the Cardinals may not return a big name during this deadline period, they are looking to add depth to a minor league system that has declined over the past few seasons. These moves could allow the Cardinals to bring up pitchers who are having good seasons at AAA Memphis but haven’t been brought up due to that lack of depth in the system.

All five prospects are expected to be assigned to AAA Memphis.

Let’s take a closer look at the prospects the Cardinals were able to get in these deals.