With the Cardinals sliding at the wrong time, the trade deadline conversation in St. Louis has shifted fast.
A club that was sitting atop the National League Wild Card picture a few weeks ago is now 53-53, fourth in the National League Central and 1 1/2 games out of a playoff spot in the National League. That’s a rough turn, especially with two teams ahead of them in the standings also currently outside the postseason field.
The recent form has only fueled the noise. St.
Louis is 2-8 over its last 10 games and carries a -5 run differential on the season, and the chatter around the club has moved from buying to selling. JoJo Romero and Dustin May have been among the names mentioned most often in rumors, while catcher/designated hitter Iván Herrera has mostly stayed out of that spotlight.
That’s exactly why he looks like the one player the Cardinals can’t afford to move.
If St. Louis does end up selling, Chaim Bloom and the front office will have plenty to sort through in the next few days.
There’s a real chance more veterans could be on the move, much like what happened this past offseason. But dealing Herrera would be a different kind of decision, and not a good one for a team that still has reasons to believe in its future.
Herrera has been one of the Cardinals’ best offensive pieces this season. In 105 games, he’s hitting .244/.365/.380 with a .746 OPS, along with 12 homers and 44 RBIs.
That kind of production is hard enough to replace on its own. For a team already fighting to stay in the race, losing it would make the path even tougher.
The age and upside matter here too. Herrera is 26 and earned his first All-Star selection this season.
He was even better at the plate in 2025, though injuries limited him. In 2024, he appeared in just 72 games but still made a loud impression by batting .301 with five homers and 27 RBIs.
When he’s healthy, there haven’t been many right-handed bats around the league who’ve matched that level of success over the last few years.
That’s why moving him would land so poorly unless it was part of a deal for a star. Otherwise, it would send the wrong message to the rest of the organization.
The Cardinals have stumbled badly lately, but they still have enough promise on the roster to justify patience. Trading Herrera would not feel like a reset. It would feel like a step back.
In Other News...
Cardinals Suddenly Have Trade Deadline Leverage They Desperately Needed
The trade deadline has a way of turning bad news for one club into opportunity for another, and the Cardinals may have stumbled into exactly that kind of opening. After a rough stretch that has pushed St. Louis toward seller territory, the front office suddenly has a little more leverage than it did a few days ago, because clubs looking for help now have one more reason to call. The Yankees are among the teams with a clear need in the outfield, which puts the Cardinals back in the kind of deadline conversation they have been hoping to avoid but may now be able to use.
St. Louis has players who could draw interest if it decides to move pieces, and the fit with New York is obvious enough to keep the phones ringing. Any conversation would likely revolve around young pitching depth on the Yankees' side, the sort of names that could make sense if the two clubs decide to revisit a familiar kind of exchange. The Cardinals and Yankees have done business before, and while nothing is close to done here, this is the sort of situation that can quickly turn a seller's market into a real chance to reshape a roster. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Just Sent A Troubling Deadline Message Amid This Ugly Slide
The Cardinals have spent much of July looking like a team stuck between directions, and the results have only sharpened the conversation as the trade deadline approaches. A loss in seven of their last nine games has dragged them down to No. 14 in the power rankings, while the offense has gone cold enough to leave little doubt that this is more than a short slump.
Since early July, St. Louis has been near the bottom of the league in nearly every meaningful hitting category, which makes the next move especially tricky. The front office has already started making small roster adjustments, but the bigger question is whether the Cardinals lean into a retool or try to ride out the current group, and the answer could say plenty about how they view the rest of this season. [Read more 🡒]