Ryan Helsley comments sound like he knows Cardinals are about to trade him

Since becoming "the guy" at the end of the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen, Ryan Helsley has been as good of a closing pitcher as you'll find. While he totaled only 33 saves over 2022 and 2023 in a mixed role, he was the full-time closer in the 2024 campaign and finished with a league-leading 49 saves. Oh, he's also posted a 1.83 ERA and 0.954 WHIP since 2022 with 225 strikeouts in 167.2 innings.

The 30-year-old flamethrower has dominant stuff and has now proven he can be a nails closer for a winning team. Unfortunately, the Cardinals are not a winning team right now after back-to-back seasons finishing under .500. Moreover, it appears that St. Louis is bracing for a mass rebuild wherein pieces are sold off, leadership eventually changes hands from John Mozeliak to Chaim Bloom, and so on.

Helsley is one of the pieces who has been mentioned quite often in trade rumors, and why not? If the Cardinals are tearing it down, at 30 years old, a haul of prospects from a contender could change things for the future more so than the hurling right-hander. And sadly, it seems like Helsley knows he's as good as gone given the situation.

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Ryan Helsley sounds like he's 100 percent being traded by Cardinals

Helsley talked about the possibility of moving elsewhere and his comments quite clearly sounded like a player who has already mentally considered himself playing somewhere other than St. Louis, whether that's what he wants or not, per John Denton of MLB.com.

"Sometimes guys think the grass is greener on the other side, but that’s not always the case,” Helsley said. “There are a lot of good organizations out there and the Cardinals aren’t the only one that have a winning history.

“If I get traded, I hope it’s to a team that I can help win. But that would be an emotional day because I grew up rooting for the Cardinals, got drafted by them in 2015 and I’ve spent 10 years with them. But, at the end of the day, I’ve got to be professional and move on if it comes to that.”

Helsley had more to say, noting that fellow Cardinals trade candidate Nolan Arenado has more control over where he ends up than the closer does. Moreover, while he does believe that St. Louis would want to keep him and he would want to stay long-term with the team that drafted him, Helsley also knows the business of MLB and what that means for him.

Whenever we see a teardown like the one St. Louis quite opaquely is entering, someone like Helsley always seems to get caught in the crossfire of business and emotion. He wants to be a Cardinal but it doesn't make business sense for the organization to do that if there is a trade market for him.

So if you're a Cardinals fan, go ahead and start getting ready to say goodbye to Helsley. Because based on these comments, what he knows and what he's hear has him preparing to say goodbye to St. Louis all the same.