The St. Louis Cardinals lost in a tough World Series matchup with the Boston Red Sox this postseason and now that the team has the chance to retool in the offseason, some trades could go down for the franchise and young pitchers like Lance Lynn or Shelby Miller could be on the trading block after players like Joe Kelly, Carlos Martinez and Michael Wacha stepped up during the year.
According to Hardball Talk, the Cardinals could be in the market for a more offensive minded shortstop after not getting much from the position this postseason and with general manager John Mozeliak having a number of young pitchers already, players like Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller could be on the trading block. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch put up the names as options and they also predicted that Carlos Martinez or Trevor Rosenthal could end up as starters like Adam Wainwright did after starting as a reliever in the playoffs and that could mean too many arms in the rotation, making Lynn or Miller expendable with Michael Wacha and Joe Kelly looking like solid rotation starters next season.
The Cardinals like Pete Kozma and Daniel Descalso, but after getting some bad offensive numbers from there in the playoffs and during the season, they could be looking for an upgrade there and one name they could go after if the trade doesn't work out is Jhonny Peralta, who may not get re-signed by the Tigers after the team traded for Jose Iglesias. The team may not even make a move, but with them already having a dearth of young pitching along with Chris Carpenter and Wainwright, they are in a position to deal and still be strong and the way they position themselves this offseason likely has to do with whether they re-sign Carlos Beltran.
Lynn is just 26-years-old and Miller is 23 and they each could attract some attention in the trade market after Miller won 15 games last season with over 165 strikeouts and a 3.00 ERA and Lynn also won that many games and was two away from an impressive 200 strikeouts in just over 200 innings. The writing on the wall could be there for Miller more than Lynn, who was used in the World Series, while Miller said to reporters that he was confused about his role in the postseason and why he wasn't used in the World Series, as he was on the roster for the postseason but ended up only making one appearance. Miller said that he would figure things out in the offseason and mentioned it may have been an innings issue, but either way, the Cardinals could decide to make a move.
