While the Cardinals are looking to buy at the deadline as they chase an NL wild card slot, the team could also pursue some strategic selling, as the Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya reports that the Dodgers have interest in Tommy Edman’s services. The versatile Edman could provide depth or even a starting role at multiple positions for an injury-riddled Dodgers team, and it be can argued that St. Louis already has enough position-player depth to make Edman expendable.
Of course, the chief obstacle to a deal is Edman’s own health status, as he has still yet to play in a big league game this season. Edman underwent wrist surgery last fall and the rehab process has taken considerably longer than expected — his recovery has been delayed by a couple of shutdowns due to recurring wrist soreness, as well as a sprained ankle. He has played in seven games during his rehab assignment with Double-A Springfield, but only as a DH, rather than any action in the field.
The Cards would certainly be selling low on a player who generated 5.4 fWAR as recently as 2022, between Edman’s strong glovework all over the diamond and an above-average (106 wRC+) performance at the plate. However, 2022 represented the high-water mark of Edman’s offensive production over a full season, as he had an 89 wRC+ in 2021 and a 92 wRC+ in 528 PA last season.
The two-year, $16.5MM extension Edman signed last January also puts a significant price tag on his services, with about $2.4MM still owed to him this season and then $9.5MM owed in 2025. The Cardinals would almost certainly have to eat a big chunk of that money to accommodate a trade, unless they perhaps swapped Edman to the Dodgers or another team for another unfavorable contract.
Such a creative move might in some way address the Cardinals’ other deadline needs, which Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat outlines as a right-handed hitting outfielder, starting pitching, and some bullpen depth. For this latter goal, Jones reports that the Cards have interest in White Sox reliever John Brebbia.
It would be a reunion between the Cardinals and the veteran reliever, as Brebbia broke into the big leagues with St. Louis in 2017 and quickly established himself as a workhorse. Brebbia posted a 3.14 ERA over 175 relief innings over the 2017-19 season, but a Tommy John surgery kept him sidelined for the entire 2020 season, and the Cards non-tendered him following that lost year. He re-established himself pitching for the Giants from 2021-23, and signed a one-year free agent deal with the White Sox this past winter that pays him $4MM in salary, with a $1.5MM buyout of a $6MM mutual option for 2025.
Brebbia’s work with the Sox has been a lot better than his 5.22 ERA might indicate, as a .352 BABIP has inflated the righty’s bottom-line numbers. In terms of secondary metrics, Brebbia has a strong 29.5% strikeout rate and a 5.8% walk rate, as well as above-average hard-contact numbers. With the White Sox in clear sell mode, Brebbia is a likely candidate to be on the move before the deadline, and St. Louis could among several terms intrigued by Brebbia’s Statcast line rather than his misleading ERA.
The Cardinals figure to land pitching even some internal arms are on the mend, as Steven Matz is tentatively slated to begin a minor league rehab assignment later this week (as per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Matz’s injury-plagued tenure with the Cards has now seen him miss almost three months due to back problems, with the southpaw posting a 6.18 ERA over 27 2/3 innings in April before being sidelined. Since Matz’s rehab work has already been shut down twice by recurring back pain, this next rehab assignment doesn’t represent a clear sign that the veteran is fully on the road to recovery, but he did log two simulated innings in a throwing session on Saturday.
In more concerning injury news, Adam Kloffenstein has discomfort in his right shoulder, manager Oliver Marmol told Jones and other reporters. Kloffenstein is currently on the minor league injured list as testing is being done to determine the nature and extent of the problem. Acquired in the Jordan Hicks trade with the Blue Jays last summer, Kloffenstein has a 4.74 ERA in 89 1/3 innings and 17 Triple-A starts this season, and he made his Major League debut in cup-of-coffee form with one inning in the Cards’ 6-5 win over the Giants on June 20.
Dodgers should jump at the chance to get Edman cheap.
Its possible Edman gets traded, just not to the Dodgers, The Dodgers would probably have to trade Betts or a few Pitchers.
Wut?
I see all of these comments and suggestions and let’s unpack some of it.
1.) Goldscmidt isn’t going in a trade. He can block a deal if he wants and no one is paying his price tag with such a steep decline at the plate.
2.) Edman could get traded, how much value he gets in return is speculative. Edman has great bounce back potential so acquiring him could cost the other team something they won’t part with.
3.) Getting Brebbia doesn’t move the needle. Although he’s a familiar face, he doesn’t bring anything above what they already have.
4.) Kloffenstien is a depth arm and I doubt he would help the big team anytime soon. Hopefully he has a speedy recovery.
5.) Matz is dead money. All they can do is wait his contract out. Nothing is expected from him.
Mozeliak needs to loosen the string on some of his prospects and deal. Guys like Graceffo and McGreevy should get an opportunity to pitch in the bigs if they aren’t in the plans. Package those guys with another player and land a big league starter.
It’s time to crap or get off the pot. Mozeliak needs to quit second guessing and let it rip. You can’t run a team and be afraid of making bad decisions.
STL has given up on Edman, unfortunately. They act like they have all these great prospects pushing the veterans at the major league level. We all know they do not. STL has very little to trade of value to acquire other, better talent.
I believe if Edman is traded it will be for financial flexibility going forward. Freeing that 9.5 million in salary could help next year I’m sure. Perhaps they could ask for a young bounce back candidate, perhaps Bobby Miller, and see if it fits.
Bobby Miller is ok… I feel like there’s definitely better candidates.
I think for four out of the five teams in the NL Central, you can say crap or get off the pot.
Maybe the GMs are ON pot.
Cards are not trading Edman. They need him in centerfield.
Not exactly. STL has multiple players who can play CF, but Edman has to be on the field and stay on the field as well as hit better than the other CF’s. He may have outlived his STL welcome, unfortunately, as STL has a bad habit of giving up on players who do not play or play well and they just dog them until they are cut loose.
The CF has been terrible this year. Edman has not outlived his stay at all. He was just hurt. They’ve been anxiously waiting to get him back.
We have Michael Siani which is candidate for Gold and possibly even Platinum glove.
And he can’t hit. We need offense. Love siani’s defense though
He’s hitting .245. That is just fine for his first year as a semi-regular at age 25. Needs to learn how to take a walk like he did in his minor league stats and he can be useful for about 5 years until his defense starts slipping and his salary grows. Worked great with Bader.
His OBP is .279 and SLG is .315, a 67 OPS+. His defense buys him time to see if his offense can get to >85 OPS+.
Siani needs to be at Center Field and Edman needs to play 2nd base. It’s literally perfect, but there are dunceman on here who insist he play center field and using his bat as the reason. Like, HELLO, Edman can play 2nd base and he would do a hell of a lot better than Nolan Gorman and Brendan Donovan, not that Donovan is terrible or anything.. Edman playing 2nd and his bat are the 2 things that this team needs. Too much hate towards Siani because “HE CANT HIT .300! when the league average is .248, which makes him 3 points under the MLB average, and his average is only going up.
Edman is barely above a league average hitter. No arguing he is a phenomenal defender at 2B, but we have way too many above average defenders who are league average hitters. Goldschmidt, Arenado and Siani to name a few.
I believe Arenado is now batting .300 or something like that. Goldys got to go, especially because of the Cardinals trying to obtain Snell. Everyone calls me insane that I’m encouraging them to trade him away to a team with a shotty 1b like the White Sox for Pitchers like Crochet Brebbia, Crochet Kopech, or Fedde Brebbia, Fedde Kopech. Preferably Fedde and Kopech but i’m sure they would take Brebbia too.
Edman is not even a league average hitter right now, He is batting.207 in minors as of now. People are INSISTING that Edman replace Siani but that’s not necessary at all, we need Edman at 2b to replace Gorman. Gorman is an insane home run producer, but he doesn’t really advance RISP because all he does is crush the ball or strike out. Arenado, we need, as he’s actually waking up and becoming better at fielding and hitting. Goldschmidt right now is just eating our salary, we can easily have Lars Nootbar play LF, (him or donovan.) Burleson could play 1b and RF. We actually need a left handed RF to trade for as well.. Don’t believe John Mozeliak’s crack rock ideals or these oblivious people on here. We need pitching specifically a veteran starter to pair with Sonny Gray and Gibson, If Edman gets traded we need a gold glove 2b, and we need a left handed right fielder.
I know Arenado is batting exactly .261 because I looked it up in about 15 seconds:
baseball-reference.com/players/a/arenano01.shtml
Of course, he BA isn’t nearly as important as his OBP and SLG, .316 (okay) and .386 (weak), respectively. His OPS + is 97, slightly below average. The Cards need more from him.
I think you’re proposing trading Goldy for 1 of 4 different pairings of CWS pitchers: Crochet + Brebbia, Crochet + Kopech, Fedde + Brebbia, or Fedde + Kopech. There’s zero reason for the White Sox to trade for Goldy, who has an OPS+ of 88 and is a free agent after this year.
id like to see the cards trade gorman plus a couple specs for a starter, move edman to 2nd.
THIS IS WHAT IVE BEEN SAYING THE WHOLE TIME. THANK YOU FOR BEING SMART.
Cardinals are a clown show with management and player development. They have no clue how to manage a 40 man roster. It doesn’t matter who they get. They still have Dusty Blake as her pitching coach and they have the great and powerful Almighty all the Marmol as their baseball manager. Go get Joe Maddon and make some trades if you really want to get in the playoffs.
There’s some truth to what you’re saying, but if I’m going to be fair, Mozeliak had a decent off season, with positive results from Gray, Lynn, Gibson, Kittredge, Fernandez, Robertson, etc
They’re still behind the times when it comes to player development but the fact is, they’re doing well this year given the down seasons from their two ‘big guys’ Arenado and Goldschmidt.
They need to trade Goldschmidt for pitching from the White Sox or Detroit, a Goldschmidt Skubal or Crochet trade would pair wonderfully with our veteran starter lineup and add some great pitching talents, defensively were one of the better teams, but pitching and offensive needs a lot of work, it would also help icing dusty Blake and picking up Bryan Price from San Fransisco or Pete Maki from Minnesota.
@Aetherlian, you’re joking, right? Because there is no way Goldschmidt and his 85 OPS+ is good enough for either Crochet or Skubal. For the Sox in particular, they’re starting a rebuild. They’ll want prospects, not veterans wrapping up their careers.
You think I don’t know that? We don’t need Goldschmidt… the White Sox need any fielder that they can get their hands on.
WSOX don’t need goldschmidt are u clown
You’re the clown here, friend, A 5th grader can type better than you. Don’t come at me calling me a clown when you can’t form a complete sentence.
Why would a team on pace to lose the most games in league history trade for a 37 year old who is a free agent at the end of the year? How does that help them? It doesn’t.
I can’t tell if your trolling or just oblivious. Or both.
Because we don’t need Goldschmidt, and if they give us Fedde or Crochet it opens up salary room for them to extend his contract accordingly.
Not to mention he would be able to play with DeJong again, a Short stop he is more familiar with than Masyn Winn.
All those pitching acquisitions are thanks to Chaim Bloom.
I give them a bit of a pass this year. Mo made some great pitching moves that delivered on the strategy he was going for. Injuries killed the lineup, playing most of the year without the starting outfielders they planned for. and so many guys stopped hitting. I don’t think it was that foreseeable on the hitting front. The failure to get a 5th starter and instead rely on Matz and Libertore was ridiculous. I don’t really like Marmol but the cards struggles this year are not on him
Cardinals need to trade Gorman. Either strikes out or gets a homer.
Agreed, probably for pitching.
I get it but it’s hard to trade your HR leader when the team struggles to score. Herrera is the guy getting traded.
Herrera def has value, but he also could be used to give contreras more time at dh to give him as many at bats as possible.
They seem committed to Pagés. I like Herrera but don’t know where he fits unless we carry three catchers or move Contreras to first.
yea it would totally make sense to move contreras to 1st in a bubble. but cardinals also have gorman, burleson, luken baker, and Jordan Walker. any of them could be in line for goldys spot.one of thst group and herrera like you said prob should be traded
I’m only using Bobby Miller as an example of a “buy low” guy. Ultimately the Dodgers would be trading from their pitching depth one would assume.
Getting Landon Knack in a package would be better but I really don’t know how available he would be.
Landon Knack would be a pretty alright pickup, not a terrible trade. Personally, if I were POBO of the Cardinals id push for him or Yarborough.
…which still overall makes him a league average hitter who plays decent defense. There are bigger priorities than trying to upgrade a position that isn’t really broken.
Besides, trading Gorman means they lose an OF to cover 2B and will be forced to continue putting Siani’s terrible bat in the lineup against RHP even after Edman gets back. Gorman’s offense dwarfs Siani’s at the very least.
Siani just needs time to time his swings and make better contact. I’ve seen his contact and its pretty impressive. We don’t need Edman playing CF, though it’s not fair to say he shouldn’t play on this team at all, him being a backup CF and mainly playing 2nd base is perfect for what this team needs right now. Honestly John Mozeliak needs to lay off of the crack rocks because it doesn’t really matter if a center fielder is left or right-handed, that’s only LF and RF that you have to worry about handedness.
I doubt they trade Edman because center is still a need and if they do they wouldn’t eat money to do it. The only way I see Edman being dealt is if the Cardinals go get Robert which is a long shot.
The Cardinals need to do something. The team is decent but it’s not good enough right now to truly contend.
Not for Roberts, I would love a trade for someone in Minnesota, maybe for Baily Ober.
The Cardinals need a difference maker. Robert is a difference maker.
Who, Bobby Miller?
A 5.22 ERA with a BABIP over .350, and his ERA is misleading? No it isn’t. It means players are hitting him very well. The Cards need to stop going after bad pitchers.
I know RPs are going for premium prices currently but if I were the White Sox, I’d take Carlson for Brebbia. The list of ex-Cardinals who have thrived after leaving (Arozarena, A Garcia, L. Thomas, O’Neill, Yepez, etc.) says that could pay off handsomely, and quite frankly, if I were Stl., I’d make that deal.
Fair, or they can do a Carlson-Goldschmidt or Carlson-Matz Trade for Brebbia and Fedde.
Look at the 2025 salaries. Brebbia for Carlson would be an idiotic trade for the Cards unless the White Sox kick in 5m, which they aren’t going to.
Brebbia would be ok….. not the greatest. We dont need veteran relievers, we need relievers and alternating closers possibly James McArthur from KC.
The Cardinals can give Edman to the Dodgers if the Dodgers agree to accept the Matz contract.
If Matz was used just in the bullpen where he should be at this point in his career he is worth something but that salary is a joke for what the Cardinals have received from him.
Yep. He and Libertore have roles in the BP but FO keeps trying to push them to start
Libertore is doing ok…. I wish we had better pieces though.
The Cardinals should keep Edman rather than give him away this season. Let him prove he’s back to form and possibly trade him in the offseason.
Eh… we don’t really need him, unless he plays JUST 2nd base (the position he has a gold glove in.) and fills in for people in their break time. If not, we need to trade him for a 2nd baseman or pitching.
Trading him before he proves he’s healthy is simply giving him away. There will be no value in the return.
We absolutely need him in CF. Siani is not the answer in this lineup, though he is great in the field.
Siani doesn’t need to bat amazing; Siani isn’t going anywhere, hes candidate for Gold Glove and possibly Platinum Glove. Saying “hEs NoT tHe AnsWeR tO oUr LiNeUp!!!” is simply not true.
No, Siani doesn’t need to bat amazing, but he does need to bat much better than he does to outplay Edman. Face it, Siani’s bat is not acceptable in the starting lineup no matter how good his defense. Only at C can offense *this* bad be ignored for great defense for a starting position player.
Why wouldn’t we need him as an OF when we’re playing Siani’s lead bat in CF? Even against RHP (and especially against LHP), Edman is a much better hitter, just as good of a baserunner, and there wouldn’t that much of a defensive drop-off.
Again, Siani doesn’t need to out bat Edman, for the 40 billionth time. Siani is doing amazing things in CF and it would be foolish to send him down, currently his only flaw is his bat, and even that its not terrible, he has the skill to line drive and when hes on base hes VERY fast, not as fast as Winn but hes up there, and besides, an Edman-Winn combo would be nasty!
His only flaw is what this team desperately needs most if it is going to make anything of the season. Cards need the better bat and Edman has made some amazing plays in CF. It’s not like he a lot weaker on defense than siani. Siani is better but not so much that it outweighs getting a better bat in the lineup.
Thats why Edman should play 2nd base. So, we would have that bat, but we have an amazing outfielder in that position. It’s really a win-win. If you think about it, having a fast 2nd baseman and a fast short stop that can throw over 100 MPH isn’t such a bad combo now, would it?
Bud, hes hitting .245 which is only 3 points under league average, find a better excuse other than “HE CAN’T BAT .300!”, Edman at second and Siani in center are what this team needs more than Edman being in center field. Siani is a gold glove candidate, its mostly Gorman thats the issue. Right now Tommy Edman in minors is only batting .207 and ALL HES DOING IS HITTING. Find a better excuse.
A better excuse would be that siani is atrocious against lefties and the team needs to find a way to hit lefties. Edman is much better against lefties.
Edman at 2nd makes sense when Contreras is behind the plate so Gorman is still in the lineup. Gorman is so frustrating but you have to bat the guy that leads the team in bombs when you desperately need runs.
It’s the tail end of July, and Edman hasn’t even taken the field yet. He’s missed the entire season and his rehab progress can be measured with a sundial. No contender is gonna give them much of anything for him, and nobody can say with any certainty that he’ll be able to play at all within 2 months. Might as well just hope ‘25 works out for him.
He’s on a rehab assignment right now. The only reason he wouldn’t be back within the next couple of weeks is if he has another setback (neither of which have been related to his initial wrist injury, anyway).
I do agree that he current status limits his value, although the same could’ve been said for Harrison Bader.
People seem to forget that Edman IS the right-handed OF they need! Even better, he’s a switch-hitter who hits better right-handed and also plays most of the infield positions.
Trading Edman would be robbing Peter to pay Paul, not worth it unless it’s the only way to get a decent starting pitcher.
I agree, but a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush and we already have Michael Siani playing center, who is on track for a gold glove his ROOKIE YEAR. A better position Edman could play could be him play 2nd base like he has a gold glove in and trading Gorman, An Edman-Winn combo is what we need right now. WE DO NOT NEED EDMAN IN CENTER FIELD.
Cards should be looking to trade Carlson before Edman. They will need Edman in CF (unless they trade for Luis Robert and there’s no way they do). Carlson is definitely a “change of scenery” player. Sure he can take off like Arozarena, Garcia, etc, but his tenure in St. Louis should be over.
We don’t need Edman in center field, we have a GOLD GLOVE CANDIDATE IN CENTER FIELD. Edman won gold glove for 2nd base and he would be better suited for 2nd base, and would pair wonderfully with Masyn Winn.
Aeth….there’s more to hitting than BA. Modern baseball recognizes an empty BA means little. No one is saying Siani should be cut or demoted, but his playing time should be curtailed when Edman comes back.
To put it in YOUR terms: Siani is hitting .186 vs LHP. Repeat that aloud: .186. You don’t belong in a major league lineup if you’re hitting .186..
The scenario I’ve seen discussed is Edman would be a full time player, replacing Siani against LHP and floating to other positions to give those guys a breather the rest of the time. That makes sense and improves the team.
How bout them apples? We’re Getting Fedde and Pham.
Did you realize that Same handedness players batting average is going to be SIGNIFICANTLY lower, its just how it is..