Bullet point summary by AI
- A contending NL Central team is drawing serious trade interest in one of their star relievers despite a strong start to the season.
- Multiple contenders have identified the same pitcher as the missing piece for their late-inning struggles, but the asking price remains steep.
- The decision now rests on whether the franchise’s long-term blueprint can justify a major trade that would reshape their playoff outlook.
The St. Louis Cardinals are MLB’s most surprising team thus far, as they enter Monday’s action with a 27-19 record. The expectation was for the 2026 campaign to be more of a retooling year after St. Louis offloaded several veterans for prospects in the offseason, but the Cardinals would be sitting firmly in a postseason spot if the season ended today.
Despite their strong start, though, the Cardinals don’t appear to be hellbent on competing in 2026 — at least based on what USA Today’s Bob Nightengale had to say. “While the St. Louis Cardinals’ surprising success may thwart plans for selling at the trade deadline, teams still are keeping a close eye on closer Riley O’Brien and pitchers JoJo Romero and Dustin May,” Nightengale wrote over the weekend.
Bloom might not be desperate to sell, but he sounds open to the idea if the right deal came about; this is a long-term build, not the culmination of a contention window. And the New York Yankees would be a team willing to present Bloom the kind of offer he couldn’t turn down.
Why the Cardinals would consider selling
It feels wrong to suggest that the Cardinals would be open to selling with how well they’ve played, but let’s be honest: What’s the ceiling for this team as constructed? There’s reason to believe in the offense with Jordan Walker playing at an MVP level and JJ Wetherholt looking like an immediate star, but the pitching is a problem. Outside of closer Riley O’Brien and righty Michael McGreevy, whom do you trust on this Cardinals pitching staff to produce consistent results?
St. Louis could make trades to address their pitching staff at the deadline, but is Bloom really going to draw from the farm system he’s worked so hard to build up for short-term success? That feels unlikely.
So, if the Cardinals won’t go all-in, why not go the other way? It’d be painful, but O’Brien makes a lot of sense as a trade candidate. He’s having an unbelievable year, he’s got several years of additional club control and, at 31 years of age, who knows what his future holds? I’m not here to say St. Louis should trade O’Brien for whatever it can get, but the Yankees have a package that could be of interest.
This Cardinals-Yankees trade would force Chaim Bloom to sell
Would the Cardinals make this trade?
This trade makes a lot of sense for the Cardinals. Again, there’s reason to sell high on O’Brien, and there’s reason to like the return they’d be getting. Sure, Spencer Jones comes with some major hit-tool concerns, but he’s a tremendous athlete with legitimate 40-home run upside. If the contact can be somewhat respectable at the MLB level, he has star-level upside. Given how mightily Victor Scott II has struggled in center, why not give Jones a runway to see if he can meet his potential?
In addition to Jones, the Cardinals would be receiving Ben Hess, a right-hander who would immediately become one of their best pitching prospects. Hess might not be quite at the same level as a prospect as others in New York’s system like Carlos Lagrange, and he’ll need to refine his command to stick as a starter. But he has outstanding stuff that could make him a potential mid-rotation arm in the not-too-distant future. Hess is in Double-A right now, so he could be big-league ready as soon as the second half of this season or early in 2027.
Harrison Cohen is an interesting lottery ticket thrown into this deal as well. He’s an older prospect at 26 years of age and he’s off to a rough start to this season, but he was dominant in the upper Minors in 2025 and has a wipeout slider that can get him plenty of whiffs at the highest level. The Cardinals will need to replenish their bullpen after trading O’Brien, and Cohen is a worthwhile gamble to make.
Would St. Louis do the deal? Admittedly, probably not. There’s a lot to like about this package, but there are notable red flags with each player the Cards would be receiving, and O’Brien has so much team control. Bloom would probably need a better headliner than Jones or Hess to be comfortable moving on from his closer.
Verdict: Probably not
Would the Yankees make this trade?
While the Cardinals would be hesitant to pull the trigger, there’s no reason to believe the Yankees would. O’Brien would be an unbelievable fix to New York’s biggest problem right now: its bullpen. The Yankees are in dire need of relief help, and O’Brien might be the best option available before deadline day. Add in his years of club control, and Brian Cashman should be all over him.
Yes, the cost will hurt. Jones is a prospect they’ve coveted, and if he turns into a superstar in St. Louis, it’d sting to part with him. The odds of that happening feel rather slim with his hit tool in mind, though, and once the Yankees get one of Jasson Dominguez or Giancarlo Stanton back, Jones will likely get sent back down to Triple-A. They don’t have a need for Jones in 2026, and there’s a good chance he won’t be an everyday player for them in 2027 either. It makes more sense to trade him now while his value is high.
Parting with Hess, a pitcher with frontline upside, would hurt as well, but he has a low-ish floor, and it’s not like the Yankees are starved for starting pitching. In fact, they might have the best collection of MLB and MiLB starting pitching talent in the sport.
This deal would not involve any of New York’s top three or four prospects and lands them a player who can not only help now at the team’s biggest area of need but can continue to do so for several years to come. If they’re able to get O’Brien without parting with Lagrange, George Lombard Jr. or Dax Kilby, it’ll be hard for Cashman to turn it down.
Verdict: Deal
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