For reasons beyond my control, I got off to a late start today so there was no “Breakfast with Bernie.”
Though I did eat breakfast. A banana and a mini-muffin. It was OK.
Technical problems: hate ‘em.
But:
I’m still … willin.’
(Lowell George, man.)
YOUR 2026 TRADE DEADLINE EXTRAVAGANZA!
(Not really) …
1. The MLB trade deadline, sigh. This is the only time of the year when the baseball media act like NFL media. Regurgitating rumors, reheating speculation, conjuring fantasia trades, hyperventilating, staying conscious with living on “X” oxygen. We turn into short-tailed weasels. Or maybe Etruscan shrews, which have the fastest-running metabolic engine of any mammal.
2. Me? I am the world’s largest hummingbird, visiting up to 2,000 trade-rumor flowers a day before shutting down late each night in a state of deep hibernation/coma – torpor – just to conserve energy. I’ve put a short-wave radio mechanism in my head, via implant surgery, so I can pick up on vague but possibly meaningful signals from Chaim Bloom as he communicates with his people between now and Monday’s deadline. Hell, I may be dead by the deadline. Cause of death: overdosing on trade rumors.
3. And the thing is, the pre-deadline Cardinal Way has been mapped out by Bloom so many times over the last few weeks, he might as well be Lewis & Clark (both!) … with assistant GM Rob Cerfolio filling the valuable role of Sacagawea the navigator. So why don’t we listen to Bloom? Why do some of us act like startled kittens and start scratching the furniture and clawing at window screens when new scuttlebutt surfaces from folks like serial rumor spreader Jimmy Bowden? Bloom has been clear and firm about his designated approach.
4. Bloom, an honorable man, has been up front about this, even with the players. He’s planning to make trades. The Cardinals are crashing out, having careened to the NL’s worst record (16-26) since June 11. But he’d be trading away talent even if the Redbirds were doing better.
Some recent quotes reflect that. As shortstop Masyn Winn told local baseball beatwriter Jeff Jones: “We could win every game for the rest of the year and (Chaim) would still trade guys.”
Said starting pitcher Michael McGreevy: “We have X amount of games left, and I want every one of us to take as much as we can from these next games and take it into next year.”
Of course, there will be no next year – as a Cardinal – for some members of the 2026 team.
5. The best I can tell from the shortwave murmurs, here’s the simple check-off list of considerations:
6. Trade starting pitcher Dustin May. Is this really an up-in-the-air proposition? Where are the undecided voters on this one? They don’t exist, right? And why would they be undecided, especially Bloom? Make the deal. Quinn Mathews is ready for the majors. So, obviously, is Hunter “Suitcase” Dobbins. And soon enough the big-league club will be making room for several other starting-pitching prospects including Tekoah Roby.
7. In a subsequent decision, move Matthew Liberatore to the bullpen because (A) he’s one of the worst starting pitchers in all of Major League Baseball; (B) he was a pretty damn good reliever in 2024; (C) y’all desperately need relievers; (D) you will need more relief help if you trade one or two of your bullpen squatters. That said, manager Oli Marmol has already announced that Libby will make his next start as planned. Of course he will. You don’t find many guys with a 5.26 ERA, so they must be treated as something special.
8. Trade outfielder Lars Nootbaar … or not? (Sarcasm warning) Certainly there’s a case for keeping a frequently injured outfielder who has been a league-average hitter over his last 100 major-league games and can depart as a free-agent after next season if there is a next season. The Nootbaar obsession intrigues me. I mean, Noot is a likeable fellow and a good teammate and all of that. But in our baseball village, the way we talk about Nootbaar, you’d think he was a more athletic Matt Holliday, or a more likeable and less weird J.D. Drew.
9. Part two on Noot: no one (including me) is saying to give Nootbaar away as a charitable donation. If the offer is suitable, then Noot is scootable.
10. Ponder the inevitable bids for relievers JoJo Romero and Ryne Stanek. Not exactly a big scoop. I’ve always enjoyed media that state the obvious and think they’re sharing some top-secret information that no one has even thought about.
10. Wither, Riley O’Brien? I’m not sure if manager Oli Marmol, pitching coach Dusty Blake and Mr. Bloom still view O’Brien as the second coming of Bruce Sutter. But he’s 31. And relievers are unpredictable, relievers break. And since April 25 O’Brien has a badly inflated ERA, a sinking strikeout rate, an alarming walk rate, and a decline in whiff-swing rate. If the Cardinals’ decision makers are realistic, O’Brien should be available if Bloom gets his price. Something to keep in mind: internally the Cardinals have always liked O’Brien’s talent – and they like him personally – but there have been concerns over fragile confidence and how he’d cope with failure. O’Brien has gone through some of that this season.
11. Now, there is a flip side to the “Trade OB” position: he can’t become a free agent until after the 2030 season. So if Bloom isn’t thrilled by any forthcoming trade proposals, the Cardinals can keep him in place and see how he progresses. And they’ll probably have other opportunities to trade him in the future. This is risky because O’Brien’s value will plummet if his performance slides. Even if some front offices out there have some anxiety over O’Brien, I think we can assume his current trade value has some sparkle. He was a 2026 All-Star, after all.
12. Ivan Herrera? And now the plot thickens. You can make a case for trading him. Starting with this: Herrera can’t throw – Barney Schultz (circa 1964) had more velo on his knuckleball – and the Cardinals have 5,000 catchers anyway.
12a. Herrera has no position. He’s a DH who hits more ground balls than the late and great coach Red Schoendienst did during pregame infield practice. The Cardinals haven’t corrected Herrera’s launch angle – or can’t correct it. Either way, that’s concerning.
12b. According to the gossip and rumor and speculation and make-stuff-up deadline-trafficking centers, MLB teams are said to be anxious to deal for a right-handed hitter. (Herrera qualifies.) So what’s the market for him? That’s the key question. O’er at the ESPN Mother Ship, it is being reported that the Yankees and Red Sox are among the teams making goo-goo eyes in Herrera’s direction.
12c. OK, that’s a buzzyworthy item. And this leads us into some talk about why the Cardinals have a big reason to keep the 26-year old Herrera – and overlook his recent disorientation and mediocrity in the batter’s box. Start with contract control; he can’t become a free agent until after the 2029 season.
12d. Since the start of the 2024 season, only 12 right-handed hitters with at least 1,000 plate appearances have a higher OPS+ than Herrera’s 124: Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr., Willson Contreras, Byron Buxton, Junior Camineiro, Vlad Guerrero Jr., Mike Trout, Brent Rooker, Seiya Suzuki, Pete Alonso, Yandy Diaz and Will Smith. Moreover, when he’s right Herrera is an on-base machine. Since the start of the 2023 season only 10 MLB hitters (from either side of the plate) have a higher OBP than Herrera’s .370.
12e. It is true: good right-side hitters are hard to find. And that probably applies to the Cardinals as well, unless they are convinced that some of their RHB prospects – Rainiel Rodriguez, Joshua Baez, Jesus Baez, etc. – will pay off. But we can also point to Rodriguez as being the favorite-son hitter of the future. Does that make Herrera more expendable? Only Chaim knows. But the Cardinals need impact hitters, and shouldn’t go all willy-nilly in moving Herrera in a trade.
12f. If the Cardinals move Herrera and can’t find a suitable DH for 2027 or whenever the players and owners decide to play ball again – well, that would be a whiff by Bloom. And of course, if Bloom trades the All-Star Herrera and Herrera crushes 40 home runs for his new employer, Cardinal fans who are urging Bloom to trade Herrera will pivot, claim otherwise, and reach for their X pacifier – then demand that Bloom be fired.
12g: Yo, Yankees! Hey, Red Sox! Hey everybody else! Make an offer that Bloom can’t refuse. Be generous. And Herrera could be on the way. (This would admittedly make me nervous … but a helluva lot less nervous if Bloom gets a motherlode of talent.)
13. Interesting suggestion from the great Will Leitch, my friend in baseball and friend in life. In a column for MLB.com, Will touted first baseman Alec Burleson as a potential trade piece.
“Burleson is beloved in the clubhouse -- trading him would lead to many long faces -- and he has the second-highest OPS+ on the team, behind Jordan Walker,” Leitch wrote. “He has become the hitter the Cardinals long believed he could become. But the question remains: Is Burleson the starting first baseman on the next great Cardinals team? He’ll be 28 in November, he’ll be a free agent after the 2028 season and he doesn’t seem like an obvious extension candidate.”
Leitch continued…
“The Cardinals have no immediately obvious replacement for Burleson, though first base does look like a potential spot for Iván Herrera at some point -- maybe even next year,” he wrote. “But if the Cardinals are selling, Burleson could land a sizable return, as a well-above-average bat under team control for two more seasons beyond this one. If you’re looking for a shocking Cardinals trade, this might be it.”
14. Potential surprises? I’ve stated this before: everyone on this roster should be made available except JJ Wetherholt and Jordan Walker. By doing so, Bloom might field an unexpected and somewhat extravagant offer for a pitcher or hitter he wasn’t looking to trade. We’ve already contemplated Herrera. Candidates in that category would include starting pitchers Michael McGreevy and Andre Pallante, Burleson, and shortstop Masyn Winn.
15. How about something different? Would Bloom be interested in making a trade that isn’t your standard, traditional, old-fashioned, deadline deal? You know, trading prospects for an established veteran? What about trading prospects for prospects to balance the talent in your farm system? (Generic hypothetical: too many pitchers? Then trade a pitching prospect for a power-hitting prospect.) And then there’s the transaction where Bloom would trade one of his best prospects to acquire an exciting (and young) big-talent that comes with several years of contract control? The Red Sox sort of did that by trading starting-pitching prospect Connelly Early to the Nationals for the young power-hitting rookie infielder Curtis Meade, age 25.
16. What’s The Athletic saying? Mostly the same stuff that we already know. Excerpts …
– “Despite a surprisingly competitive first half, the Cardinals aren’t looking to deviate from president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom’s long-term outlook, which projects late 2027 or early 2028 as the team’s next competitive window.”
– “The Cardinals are looking to acquire meaningful pieces that align with that timeline, a source said. They believe by flipping May, Stanek or both, they can continue expediting a rebuild that is already off to a much quicker start than first anticipated.”
– “The Cardinals will most likely target upper-level prospects in returns. St. Louis has done a considerable job in bulking up what was once scarce pitching depth in Triple A.”
– “In addition, the Cardinals possess one of the deepest catching pools in baseball, with top prospects Rainiel Rodriguez (Double A) and Leo Bernal (Triple A) continuing to impress.”
– “But there aren’t specific positions in the farm system the Cardinals are looking to bolster. Instead, Bloom’s focus remains on building up a young homegrown core that can fully compete for division titles by 2028.”
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Keith Tkachuk, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.