The Cardinals’ offseason may not hinge on a splashy free-agent chase. It could turn on a trade, and Andre Pallante looks like the kind of arm that might draw real interest.
With the offseason now underway, Chaim Bloom has time to choose his lane before December 1, and that choice could say plenty about how St. Louis wants to handle the winter.
Teams can jump early into free agency, hold back until there’s more clarity on the 2027 season, or use the trade market to reshape the roster with cost-controlled talent. For the Cardinals, that last path feels especially relevant.
Bloom hasn’t given much away, saying only that everything is going according to plan so far. That leaves plenty of room for speculation, and Pallante keeps surfacing as a name that makes sense in a deal.
He’s coming off a 12-win season with a mid-3 ERA, a strong rebound from a miserable 2025, and he made 30 quality starts. On arbitration projections, he’s expected to make $7.5 million next season, which only adds to his appeal as a movable piece.
That’s where Arizona enters the picture. The Diamondbacks are looking for controllable starting pitching, and Mike Hazen has been on the record about that need. With the free-agent market spread thin across different tiers this offseason, a trade could be the cleaner way for Arizona to address the rotation.
The Cardinals and Diamondbacks have already done plenty of business together, and those deals have carried major weight for both clubs. St.
Louis and Arizona have exchanged stars like Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, and they also linked up on a Lars Nootbaar trade at the past deadline. The Goldschmidt and Arenado moves have looked like one-sided wins for the acquiring team, while the Nootbaar deal has been a wash so far.
A Pallante trade could swing that ledger back toward the Cardinals.
If a deal gets done, the return could take a few forms. St.
Louis might ask for MLB-ready position players, or it could chase lower-level lottery tickets in the minors. Arizona’s farm system sits near the middle of the pack, and a contender would not be expected to part with premium prospect capital for Pallante.
That’s what makes the fit so clean. Both clubs are trying to stay efficient with their payroll and their roster construction, and that kind of overlap often pushes teams toward each other.
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