The St. Louis Cardinals ended months of trade speculation on Wednesday, shipping RHP Ryan Helsley to the New York Mets for a haul of prospects. The Mets are officially all-in. St. Louis, meanwhile, is punting on this season and setting up the future with Chaim Bloom slated to take over the front office from John Mozeliak in 2026.
Odds are Helsley won't be the only reliever traded by the Cardinals before Thursday's trade deadline. St. Louis has several high-end bullpen arms nearing the end of the road contractually. For a team looking to reboot the farm system and add controllable talent, it only makes sense to clean house on that front.
Here are a few names we could see join Helsley on his way out the door — and where they'd fit best among potential deadline buyers.
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RHP Steven Matz → Los Angeles Dodgers
Steven Matz is on an expiring contract worth $12 million. The Cardinals initially paid him as a starter, but after an up-and-down career, Matz has settled nicely into a long relief role. He has a 3.44 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in 55.0 innings across 32 appearances this season, notching 47 strikeouts. Matz sits in the 98th percentile for walk rate, operating with impressive command and consistently missing the meet of the bat, despite a similarly low strikeout rate.
Tanner Scott and Shohei Ohtani were the latest victims of an ongoing injury plague for the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff. That bullpen just needs bullets. Matz isn't a shutdown guy at the end of games, but he can stretch out to a starting role in a pinch and give the Dodgers dependable length in the middle innings. His contract is a bit rich for some, but Los Angeles has money to burn and a dire need for more options out of the bullpen.
He's only a rental, but this feels like the best situation for all parties. L.A. gets reinforcements in an area of need, the Cards poach from a strong farm system and Matz ends up with the World Series favorites.
LHP JoJo Romero → Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays recently struck a deal for former Baltimore Orioles closer Seranthony Domínguez midway through a doubleheader between the teams. That was a nice first step, but Ross Atkins still has work to do in the bullpen. Prying JoJo Romero from the Cardinals would be a huge win for the folks north of the border.
Toronto currently holds a comfortable division lead, but the Yankees and Red Sox are both surging into the second half of the campaign. This is where the Blue Jays always wanted to be — in the thick of World Series contention with the ammo to strike gold at the deadline. Atkins is one of the most ambitious GMs in baseball and he won't shy away from the potentially substantial asking price for a controllable reliever like Romero.
Unlike Matz, Helsley and other popular Cardinals trade candidates, Romero's contract includes an extra season of team control in 2026. So the Blue Jays can squeeze two postseason runs out of Romero at best. If things go south, he just ends up back on the trade block as an expiring contract next summer, letting Toronto recoup some value before he hits free agency.
Romero has 2.12 ERA and 1.21 WHIP with 34 strikeouts in 34.0 innings pitched this season. He's still in the middle of his prime at 28. This would be a huge win for the Blue Jays.
RHP Phil Maton → Chicago Cubs
Phil Maton, 32, is another expiring contract on the chopping block in St. Louis. The Cardinals are probably hesitant to deal within the division, especially with the Chicago Cubs, but few teams are better positioned to woo Mozeliak. Chicago has a top-shelf farm system and a pressing need for one more elite bullpen arm.
Daniel Palencia has acquitted himself well in the closing role, but Chicago's lack of depth and optionality remains a concern looking ahead to the playoffs. Maton is enjoying his best individual campaign to date with a 2.35 ERA and 1.12 WHIP, notching 48 strikeouts in 38.1 innings. He's missing bats en masse, in the 95th percentile for whiff rate and the 91st percentile for strikeouts.
Maton is a unicorn of sorts. Most strikeout-heavy relievers dial up the velocity; Maton leans occasionally on a sinker that sits in the high-80s or low-90s, but he mostly deploys a cutter-curveball combo to get batters swinging outside the zone. His ability to mix speeds and locations is masterful. With plenty of MLB experience under his belt, the veteran righty feels like a smart short-term investment for the postseason-bound Cubs.