Cardinals prospect just did team a massive favor for buying at trade deadline

It's been a strange season, to say the least for the St. Louis Cardinals. Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado have not been their usual star selves, Willson Contreras has missed substantial time, and they're 36-37 entering Thursday's action.

Despite being under .500 and 7.5 games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central, the Cardinals are currently in a Wild Card spot at the time of this writing. That says a lot about how bad the NL is, but it also says a lot about what the Cardinals will do when the trade deadline approaches.

For better or for worse, assuming the Cardinals don't completely collapse over the next month and fall completely out of postseason contention, they're going to be buyers at this year's trade deadline. The fact that they're in a postseason spot right now only emphasizes that.

Buying would mean parting with prospects in exchange for players who can help the team win right now. While top prospects like Tink Hence, Thomas Saggese, and Victor Scott II might not be available, the Cardinals do have several other prospects who could receive serious trade interest. One of those prospects, Cooper Hjerpe, might have just increased his value.

Cardinals prospect does team a massive favor with dominant performance

The Cardinals' AA affiliate, the Springfield Cardinals, threw a no-hitter on Thursday, Hjerpe, St. Louis' No. 6 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, threw the first five innings of the game, walking just one with six strikeouts. He was dominant.

The funky left-hander struggled mightily in his last time out which just so happened to be his AA debut, but he showed that he belonged in that level this time around with this performance. Sure, it's only one start, but teams can't see this and not think about the impressive potential this player has.

Hjerpe earned a promotion from High-A to AA after posting a 3.35 ERA in 11 starts for A+ Peoria. While command can elude him at times, Hjerpe has 65 strikeouts in 45.1 innings of work overall this season. What that shows is he has the stuff to not only get to the major leagues but be an effective arm one day, especially if he can improve his command.

It'd have to take a good player for the Cardinals to consider giving a talented former first-round pick in Hjerpe up, but what if this Cardinals team can get another legitimate frontline starter to pair alongside Sonny Gray? What if they can get a big bat to give them the production they thought they'd get from Goldschmidt and Arenado?

Whether they're buyers or sellers, the Cardinals have an intriguing prospect on their hands whose stock is only rising.