Last season, Ryan Helsley was perhaps the best closer in baseball. He recorded 49 saves, finished No. 9 in National League Cy Young voting and posted a 2.9 WAR, the best of his career. This season, Helsley has already blown more saves than he did all of last season and his WHIP has jumped to 1.542 from last season's 1.101.
But that's not going to stop opposing teams from getting into a bidding war for the St. Louis Cardinals reliever, even as he'll become a free agent after the season. Enter, the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, who Jim Bowden of The Athletic says are "...In a race to see which team can bolster its bullpen the best..."
While Bowden doesn't specifically connect Helsley to those two teams, he did mention that St. Louis will "jump" on the right offer for its star reliever.
Cardinals need to let teams get in a bidding war for Helsley
Obviously, Helsley's numbers are down in 2025. But he can still hurl over 100 miles per hour consistently, and will still be a high-leverage arm out of the bullpen for whichever team eventually trades for him.
There's no reason to rush a deal. If multiple teams want Helsley — and it's seems like they do, despite his relative struggles so far — then the Cardinals have to make sure they're squeezing every bit of that value from a trade.
Even in a down year, Helsley has the talent to swing a playoff series. But St. Louis' front office is in a tougher spot now than it was during the offseason, when Helsley's value was sky-high.
St. Louis still might "sell" despite surprising star to season
As of today, June 12th, the Cardinals are 2.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot in the NL and five games out of the top spot in the NL Central. They're 4-8 in their last 12 and June hasn't been too friendly to them, but this is still a better team than most expected to watch in STL this year.
That leaves the Cardinals in a bit of an awkward middle ground: they're better than expected, but probably not good enough to compete in the NL, so trading Helsley will probably be for a package of prospects, but Helsley's value is down so they likely won't get top-shelf prospects, so maybe it's not even worth trading Helsley at all and hoping for a miracle playoff push.
What would a Phillies trade for Ryan Helsley look like?
Philadelphia has four prospects in MLB's Top 100: P Andrew Painter, SS Aidan Miller, OF Justin Crawford and C Eduardo Tait. I assume Painter and Miller are non-starters here. Helsley can be a difference-maker, but he's potentially a rental and he's in a down year. Parting with a top-end prospect is a tough sell for the Phillies.
But I could see Crawford or Tait being on the table, and I think a Top 100 prospect could be the "right" offer that Bowden was talking about. The Phillies seem to be extremely high on Tait's potential (he has a monster bat) but he won't be a Major Leaguer for a few years. If St. Louis is looking to fully embrace a rebuild, it's worth tossing his name out there in a potential Helsley trade.