One swing at the 2024 trade deadline could look a whole lot bigger now.
At the time, the Cardinals were praised for the move. John Mozeliak sent an injured Tommy Edman to the Dodgers in a three-team deal with Los Angeles and Chicago that brought Erick Fedde and Tommy Pham to St.
Louis, while Miguel Vargas went from the Dodgers to the White Sox. It was viewed as a smart way to help a club in the playoff race without giving up prospect capital.
Fast-forward, and the “what if” attached to Vargas is hard to ignore.
Vargas has broken out in 2026, emerging as one of the best hitters in baseball. He’s slashing .251/.363/.484 with 29 home runs, 60 XBH, and 76 RBI, good for a 137 wRC+.
That mark ranks 13th in all of baseball and sits a few points ahead of Jordan Walker. He’s also piled up 4.5 fWAR, which ranks eighth among all position players in the sport.
That kind of production would have filled a glaring hole in St. Louis.
The Cardinals have gotten -0.9 fWAR from their third base options this season, the only team in baseball with negative fWAR at the position. That group has also produced below-average defense and a 70 wRC+.
Vargas didn’t look like this right away. He struggled badly in 42 games with the White Sox in 2024, putting up a 17 wRC+, then settled in as a league-average hitter in 2025. This year, though, the gains have shown up across the board, with better bat speed, stronger contact quality, improved plate discipline, and more solid defense.
For the Cardinals, the trade now reads like another short-term fix that delayed a bigger reset. The team quickly fell out of the race after the deadline, and the move wound up looking more like a Band-Aid than a solution. The bigger regret might not even be the deal itself, but what came next: the Cardinals later made clear they were headed toward a different direction, announcing just a few months after the trade that Chaim Bloom would take over for Mozeliak after the 2025 season.
That shift makes the deadline approach feel even more frustrating in hindsight. If the Cardinals knew a rebuild was coming, the case for chasing young talent was stronger than ever.
And Vargas would have fit that bill. Instead, St.
Louis is left looking at a third-base situation that has been a real problem, even as help may be on the way. Jesus Baez, acquired from the Mets in the Ryan Helsley trade at the 2025 deadline, is a candidate to become part of the answer, and there has also been speculation that top prospect Rainiel Rodriguez could get looks there.
In Other News...
Cardinals Just Took A Rotation Hit That Changes One Recent Trade
The Cardinals pitching depth took a jolt this week when Hunter Dobbins underwent elbow reconstructive surgery Wednesday, a setback that changes the picture for one of the clubs more recent trade additions. Dobbins had given St. Louis a useful stretch before the injury, posting a 3.67 ERA in 11 appearances this season, and his arrival had offered another arm to help stabilize a rotation that can never seem to have enough certainty.
Instead, the focus now turns to recovery, with a Cardinals official saying he will face a 12-month rehabilitation period after his second surgery on the same right elbow. The timetable points to him missing the rest of the 2026 season and most of 2027, leaving St. Louis to rethink how it fills the innings it expected to get from him and how this move fits into the broader plan for the staff. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Deadline Trade Suddenly Looks Better Than Fans Expected
The trade deadline move that sent Dustin May and JoJo Romero to Milwaukee had plenty of Cardinals fans wondering how much immediate value St. Louis was giving up, especially with the rotation already asking a lot of its remaining arms. May was supposed to bring stability for the Brewers down the stretch, and the kind of trade involving a big-league pitcher for prospects usually carries a familiar wait-and-see warning for the club that deals him away.
Instead, the early returns have leaned the Cardinals way. May has labored through five starts with Milwaukee, and St. Louis has already added Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale to the farm system, giving the front office at least some reason to feel better about the deadline deal even as the big-league rotation continues to need help. For a team trying to balance present needs with future value, this one suddenly looks a little more favorable than it did in July. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Suddenly Face A Riley O'Brien Decision They Can't Ignore
Riley OBriens recent stretch has turned a once-comfortable Cardinals bullpen discussion into a real point of tension. The St. Louis closer, who entered the season as one of the National Leagues most reliable finishers and earned an All-Star nod, had built a strong case with a 2.94 ERA through 53 appearances before things started to wobble.
Over his last five outings, OBrien has been hit hard, allowing multiple runs and carrying a far less forgiving ERA across that span. It has forced the Cardinals to at least consider whether the ninth inning needs a different look, even if his broader body of work argues for patience and a little more time to sort through the rough patch. [Read more 🡒]