The St. Louis Cardinals pulled off a big move with the Angels on Friday, trading David Freese to Los Angeles for Peter Bourjos, a deal that had been rumored about and now is complete according to Hardball Talk and Fox Sports.
UPDATE above. The MLB offseason just got a shot in the arm from the deal that sent Prince Fielder to the Texas Rangers for Ian Kinsler and now more trades could be in the works, as the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Angels have discussed a trade for 3B David Freese, while the Yankees and Marlins have also previously shown interest in the World Series hero.
The news on the Yankees and Marlins was reported a few weeks ago, while the news today comes from Ken Rosenthal, who is reporting that the Cardinals and Angels have discussed the trade for Freese. While no deal is imminent, this shows that the Cardinals are willing to deal this season and they have already been linked to the Rockies and Troy Tulowitzki as a possibility. The team has also been mentioned in deals involving young pitchers Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller and that could be packaged in with the Freese deal depending on what team it goes down with, if it goes down at all.
The Cardinals are looking to get some power hitting up the middle and they feel comfortable shopping Freese, as they have Matt Carpenter able to play third base and that opens second for Kolten Wong and adding someone other than Pete Kozma to shortstop would strengthen the middle offensively. The team loved Freese when he helped them win the World Series, but after hitting near .300 with 20 home runs in 2012, he dipped to .262 with nine home runs in 138 games and he also did not hit all that great in the postseason. The Angels could love to add a third baseman after trading Alberto Callaspo and a deal here likely would include some prospects.
SI.com reports that the Angels could be willing to part with some players for Freese and he is coming into the offseason after hitting .289 in 48 career games in the playoffs with seven homers and 29 RBIs and while that propelled him in 2011, last season he went just 10 for 56 while hitting .179 and he struck out 16 times.
At the age of 30, Freese is in a strange spot, as he is getting older, but is in his prime years, meaning the Cardinals might be hoping to turn him into something younger for the long term. The trade between the Rangers and the Tigers gave both sides things they were lacking and the same could happen depending on who ends up doing the deal with St. Louis.