3 Cardinals prospects who won't survive the July 30 trade deadline and why

The St. Louis Cardinals are in quite a tough position. Their roster is so old and loaded with veteran talent that they really have two options. The first option is to enter a full-on, fire-sale rebuild. This means trading away basically everything they have and starting from fresh. They would struggle for the next few years with this option.

Or they could go all in and try to win now, while these veterans are still contributing. As of now, it seems like Oli Marmol and John Mozeliak want to win and they want to win now.

With that being said, to buy the players they want, they're going to have to part ways with some key prospects in their farm system.

1. RHP Tekoah Roby

As of July 2, Baseball Reference gives St. Louis a 13.4 percent chance to make the postseason and FanGraphs gives them a 43 percent chance to make it. Obviously, the Cardinals are going to need to make a few big moves here if they want to up those odds at all and sneak into the postseason.

Any big trade is going to begin with Tekoah Roby. Assuming the Cardinals are out of the most expensive names like Luis Robert and Garrett Crochet, they should be able to keep their top prospects, including Tink Hence. But a deal for a rental ace or a starter with a year or two of team control likely begins with Roby.

The Cardinals' number-5-ranked prospect, per MLB Pipeline, isn't having the best year either, which means he could also benefit from a career reset in another system. Roby has quite the electric arsenal, featuring a great fastball and two plus breaking pitches, but he's been a victim of the home run in Double-A this season.

St. Louis will likely look to take advantage of his value while it's as high as it still is right now. Their farm system is loaded with pitching talent so it wouldn't be a huge loss to move him in a win-now move.

2. RHP Gordon Garceffo

As stated above, the Cardinals system is loaded with pitching talent. Among their top 30 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline, 18 of them are pitchers including their top prospect, Tink Hence. That makes some of the middle-of-the-pack arms expendable in these trades, especially the MLB-ready arms.

As of now, Gordon Graceffo has made one appearance for the Cardinals, but he came in out of the bullpen. Graceffo has so much talent and a diverse arsenal of pitches that it would be criminal to lock him down in the bullpen just because St. Louis has veterans in the rotation. He's able to compete with the best in the game and deserves a chance to start.

His performance in Triple-A and his one appearance in the big leagues will be enough to have opposing teams scouting him out when the Cardinals call trying to buy their players. With the Cardinals system so loaded, top to bottom, with arms, they could go to move some of these pieces for the bats and MLB players that Oli Marmol needs on his squad.

Graceffo has the talent to be involved in quite a large trade for the Cardinals. If they go all in and buy like they very well could, I wouldn't be surprised to see Graceffo attached to a deal before the deadline.

3. RHP Michael McGreevy

Again, 18 of the Cardinals' top 30 prospects are pitchers, with a ton of those being right-handed pitchers. St. Louis will likely be super stubborn in giving up their position player prospects, which makes it that much more likely that Graceffo, Roby and now Michael McGreevy could be moved before the July 30th trade deadline.

McGreevy, St. Louis' 15th-ranked prospect, is one of those high-floor, low-ceiling prospects. You know exactly what you're getting with him. He has good stuff and incredible command, but he lacks the explosive fastball or true wipeout pitch that's become common in today's game. His command is so good though, that he could eat innings in bunches and provide a middle-relief arm in the next few years. His ceiling is a back-of-the-rotation starter unless he develops a true wipeout pitch.

Because of his high floor though, the Cardinals could find a trade partner for him quite easily. He could be the key piece in a deal for a rental bat or bullpen arm or he could be a complementary piece in a bigger trade for a starter.

McGreevy doesn't have the ceiling to compete with the Cardinals farm system loaded with pitchers. They will likely actively shop him when calling teams about upgrading their roster.