St. Louis Cardinals Rumors: Cards Should Accept Trade For Lorenzo Cain and Wade Davis

By foxsports
Published

The Winter Meetings have swung into full swing and the St. Louis Cardinals are busily shopping.  In shopping, the rumor mill has already linked the Cardinals to several potential deals.

I absolutely LOVE the MLB Winter Meetings.  I love teams wheeling and dealing and love when our St. Louis Cardinals are in the thick of things.  The 2016 winter meetings were over quickly for the Cardinals when they landed Jason Heyward.  While I was excited by this move, my phone’s battery was not put the test as it was yesterday.

This year’s meetings have kicked off with a flurry of rumors.  Every single team in the MLB know that the Redbirds are seeking outfield help and this has lead the baseball writers to attach the Cardinals to any team with a pulse and “spare” outfielder.  Thanks to this blizzard of activity, my phone died multiple times on Monday.

Monday night brought Mozeliak sharing with fans that the organization held many meetings with agents on Monday but that nothing was imminent.  Great… so my phone died for smoke bearing no real fire!  There was one connection on Monday- not yet completely confirmed- that I think the St. Louis Cardinals honestly need to consider.

Before moving into this, let me share here that we know now- on Tuesday morning- that the St. Louis Cardinals did meet with agents for Dexter Fowler and did make an initial offer.  That is the extent of our knowledge at this point aside from the fact that no announcement has come of Fowler signing with the Cardinals.

So what was offered?

Yesterday, Trevor covered Lorenzo Cain for us here at Redbird Rants and I recommend that you jump over and read it.  Here are the highlights of Trevor’s review on Cain: his 2016 season was shortened (played in only 103 games), batted .287 with nine home runs, stole fourteen bases, and he earned a 9.2 UZR in center in the limited exposure in 2016.

How about Wade Davis?  Davis served as the Royals’ closer in forty games in 2016 while appearing in forty-five games.  This oft-dominant closer would be really interesting to add to the back end of the Cardinals pen.  Can you imagine the end of games with Kevin Siegrist, Trevor Rosenthal, Davis, and Seung Hwan Oh?

Check out these numbers:

Year Age Tm W L ERA G GS GF SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA+ FIP WHIP
2009 23 TBR 2 2 3.72 6 6 0 0 36.1 33 15 2 13 36 118 2.90 1.266
2010 24 TBR 12 10 4.07 29 29 0 0 168.0 165 76 24 62 113 96 4.79 1.351
2011 25 TBR 11 10 4.45 29 29 0 0 184.0 190 91 23 63 105 85 4.67 1.375
2012 26 TBR 3 0 2.43 54 0 15 0 70.1 48 19 5 29 87 159 2.78 1.095
2013 27 KCR 8 11 5.32 31 24 2 0 135.1 169 80 15 58 114 78 4.18 1.677
2014 28 KCR 9 2 1.00 71 0 11 3 72.0 38 8 0 23 109 396 1.19 0.847
2015 ★ 29 KCR 8 1 0.94 69 0 24 17 67.1 33 7 3 20 78 448 2.29 0.787
2016 ★ 30 KCR 2 1 1.87 45 0 40 27 43.1 33 9 0 16 47 234 2.29 1.131
8 Yrs 55 37 3.53 334 88 92 47 776.2 709 305 72 284 689 113 3.69 1.279
162 Game Avg. 9 6 3.53 54 14 15 8 125 114 49 12 46 111 113 3.69 1.279

Would you take Davis?  Would you take the deal with Davis for Kolten Wong plus a prospect or two?  I’ve read that this prospect could be Luke Weaver or the mentioned Jack Flaherty that we have heard rumored and discussed in Trevor’s piece.

    To their credit, the Royals might well want this trade too to bolster their second base spot while also freeing some $21M in 2017 dollars to pursue other free agents, etc.  Based on this assessment, it wouldn’t surprise me if this rumor had teeth of truth to it.

    Here’s the skinny for me: I think this deal makes sense on both sides.  I believe that the St. Louis Cardinals would earn much in this deal and moving Wong opens the door for Breyvic Valera whom I believe is ready to rise.  Take my word that if Wong is gone that Valera is the 2017 surprise that Aledmys Diaz was in 2016.

    Want your voice heard? Join the Redbird Rants team!

    Rumors are wild things and my guess is that we will learn more today- Tuesday- about this rumor and others.  I’m giving myself the following advice: leave the phone plugged in today.

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