The St. Louis Cardinals waded into the trade deadline frenzy on Wednesday night with a pair of trades that figure to shake up the roster for the remainder of the 2025 season, dealing closer Ryan Helsley and lefty Steven Matz to the Mets and Red Sox, respectively.
Interestingly, gauging the early returns on the reactions to both moves, folks seem to have been more fired up about the return for the rental arm that we would perceive as the lesser of the two.
Helsley has been a known commodity as the closer of the Cardinals for a number of years, so when the return from New York for his services was announced as a trio of prospects that had not yet advanced in their careers beyond High-A ball, some fans vented frustration that the Cards didn't manage to net more of a surefire return for the trade asset deemed to have been, ostensibly, the club's best at the July deadline.
In fairness, people just don't know a lot about Jesus Baez, Nate Rohm and Frank Elissalt at this point. Perhaps someday they will, but they don't tonight. So it's deemed a bit of a disappointment, especially comparing the return the Twins got for their closer Jhoan Duran, who netted a pair of touted prospects including starting pitcher Mick Abel, who has already seen some big-league time for Philadelphia.
Of course, Duran and Helsley came into this deadline in vastly different categories. Helsley is an impending free agent this winter, whereas Duran won't be one until the 2027 season concludes.
Duran has also sported an ERA near 2.00, while Helsley's is above 3.00. Although it was probably never realistic to expect a Duran-like return for Helsley, it didn't help optically that the Duran news dropped about 20 minutes before the Helsley news did, sparking unfounded optimism from Cardinals fans who hastily compared the scenarios and began dreaming on the possibilities.
But before Wednesday night concluded, the Cardinals had struck a deal to land a prospect with more name recognition than anyone that appeared in the Helsley trade. The Cards moved Steven Matz, sending the versatile left-handed to Boston. Matz, reports indicate, could join the Red Sox as a starter, which perhaps explains Boston's willingness to include 22-year-old infielder Blaze Jordan, in whom the Cardinals' interest dates back to the 2020 MLB Draft.
The Red Sox took Jordan in that draft out of high school. Their top baseball executive at the time? Chaim Bloom.
So while Cardinals fans were somewhat tentative to celebrate the return from the Helsley trade, they got something to dream on before the night concluded when Matz was reportedly swapped for Blaze Jordan, whose .809 OPS since being called up to Triple-A at least suggests some potential. Between two levels of the minors, Jordan has slugged 12 home runs with 61 RBIs this season.
Something else the fan base enjoyed in reading between the lines on the Matz move is tacit confirmation that the POBO in waiting, Chaim Bloom, is getting some say-so behind the scenes in the movement being executed by John Mozeliak's front office.