Cardinals get front-row seat to growing list of whiffs over the past year

The St. Louis Cardinals have found themselves at the bottom of one of the worst divisions in baseball. They've taken chances in free agency and in the trade market over the last year and some of these choices have paid off but now it seems like more of them have not.

Oli Marmol's squad has found themselves in the uncomfortable middle ground between putting together a competitive team and completely rebuilding. In some cases, they sign aging veterans and hold onto aging stars. In other situations, they are quick to sell parts of their team in what looks to be rebuilding moves.

And one such trade, we saw this offseason when the Cards traded Tyler O'Neill -- who endured a tumultuous 2023 with St. Louis -- to the Red Sox for pitchers Nick Robertson and Victory Santos. Now, starting on Friday night, they'll get a front-row seat to that trade and how it may have been a mistake.

Cardinals face former St. Louis star Tyler O'Neill in series vs. Red Sox

Tyler O'Neill has looked back to his 2021 form, a season in which he finished eighth in the NLMVP voting. The outfielder is slashing .256/.371/.554 with 10 home runs for the Red Sox, production that St. Louis could desperately use as their offense continues to sputter.

He also returned to the Red Sox lineup on Friday night to face his former team in Game 1 of the series. It was a warm welcome at Busch Stadium as he received a standing ovation for his first at-bat (and a nice cheer as he took the field defensively). But there were substantially fewer cheers as he belted a single in his first at-bat before coming home to score and tie the game on a David Hamilton RBI triple.

The O'Neill trade, however, is just another in a list of moves from the Cardinals' past year that hasn't looked great. While Sonny Gray signing with the Cardinals has been heralded as one of the best moves of the offseason, some of the others in that category are painful for the St. Louis faithful.

Ranked one spot higher on Jon Heyman's list of the 20 best offseason moves from this winter is Jordan Hicks signing with the San Francisco Giants. Hicks being moved to a starting pitcher appears to have kickstarted his career in an even better direction.

The Cardinals opted to trade their flamethrowing reliever last season before the deadline. Now, looking to compete, the Cardinals could really use the services of a starter that has an ERA of 2.44, like Hicks.

St. Louis also let go of Jack Flaherty before the deadline last year, another move that pointed that they were entering a rebuild.

Flaherty has since joined the Detroit Tigers where he holds a 3.88 ERA, 2.95 FIP and a 10.5 K/BB rate.

The Cardinals could really use the services of these two starters if they were looking to compete. Unfortunately for the St. Louis faithful, it doesn't appear as though they'll be competitive this year. They may look to trade many of their best players, including Nolan Arenado and Kyle Gibson. Their roster could see a complete turnaround over the next month.