The one Cardinals trade that will force fans to praise John Mozeliak for once

St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations is in a rough spot as the month of June nears a close. Thankfully for Mozeliak, St. Louis has plenty of time before they must decided whether to buy or sell at the trade deadline. A few weeks during rumor mill season is equivalent to a full year in real time.

Thus far, Mozeliak has remained open to minor additions, such as a fifth starting pitcher or right-handed hitting center fielder. Those options are readily available, and can be acquired by St. Louis. Yet, if the Cardinals actually want to reach their postseason aspirations -- as in get to the playoffs and win -- they should aim higher.

St. Louis signed Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn this winter. All three have been stable, but there's still plenty of room to improve at the top of the rotation. That's where the Detroit Tigers come in.

The one trade that will force Cardinals fans to praise John Mozeliak

It's a longshot, but the Cardinals ought to place a call to Detroit Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris in the coming weeks. While a Jack Flaherty return is enticing, that is not the move I'd consider if I were Mozeliak. No, the first call should be about Tarik Skubal. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic opined that the Tigers could be open to such a trade for the right price, especially if they fall further down the AL Wild Card standings in the coming weeks.

"I don’t want to be the guy pounding the table and saying the Tigers must trade the best thing they’ve produced in years...The Tigers have two possible paths forward. The first might be the hardest. They would have to get creative and either sign some hitting or make creative, risky, out-of-the-box moves to build a winner in the next two years, while Skubal is under team control. The second is to admit you just don’t have enough," Stavenhagen wrote.

For the Tigers to trade a pitcher like Skubal with multiple years of contractual control remaining, they'd need a credible return, with at least one if not more top-100 prospects headed back to Detroit in return. That'd be costly for the Cardinals farm system, but a decision which proves Mozeliak cares more about winning in real time more than the hypothetical future.

If Mozeliak can pull off this move, St. Louis will have no choice but to praise him.