A Cardinals-A’s trade to keep St. Louis turnaround rolling

A few weeks ago, the St. Louis Cardinals were set to enter a fire sale. They were destined to trade away all their talent including the likes of Ryan Helsley, Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt. Their season truly looked to be lost and headed straight down the drain.

But they've since turned that around, moving to above .500 and contending in the NL Central again. With this kind of turnaround, the Cardinals' trade deadline intentions likely have turned around too. Rather than selling, they can enter an all-out "buy mode" this deadline season.

What better place to start than in Oakland, with their dominant closer Mason Miller?

A Cardinals-A's trade that gives St. Louis a historic 1-2 bullpen punch

The idea of Mason Miller or Ryan Helsley not being the closer of their team is absolutely ludicrous. But, what would happen if they were on the same team?

For one, they would create a historic 1-2 punch at the backend of games. These two closers could effectively shorten baseball games to 7 innings for the Cardinals, meaning they only need to win the first 7 innings because Miller and Helsley have taken care of the last two innings scoreless already.

The price would be quite steep for St. Louis though.

St. Louis would have to send their top-ranked prospect, a top 50 prospect in the game, in Tink Hence to Oakland. The package doesn't stop there, as St. Louis would need another one of their top 10 prospects, Won-Bin Cho, added to their deal to make Oakland consider it.

Oakland needs to be blown away by a trade package in order for them to move the 25-year-old Mason Miller, who's under team control for multiple more years. This package would blow them away enough to make it impossible to say no.

Hence has been dominant across 49 professional starts. The righty has shown an electric fastball, touching 99 MPH, and a true out-pitch in his changeup.

Cho has seen exit velocities north of 110 MPH in his short professional career. The outfielder has the ability to turn into a true power hitter as his approach and swing go through small adjustments.

But St. Louis would be getting one of the best closers in baseball, who is still 25 years old. Mason Miller was a top prospect last year and has since exceeded expectations tremendously. He's got an incredibly high ceiling and some of the best potential of all the young pitchers in baseball.

It's going to be expensive to get him, but if St. Louis can get him for this package, they need to jump on it. Pitchers like Miller exist once in a generation.