Its All Over. What's Your Trade Deadline Grade?

[Melville]

Mo did exactly as I said he would do with the pitching.
Last fall, I said he would hang onto pitchers who were in the last year of their contracts in hope of being in the playoff hunt come July.
I said that he would keep them if STL was within 5 games of the division lead or hanging onto a W/C spot - but would go into sell mode if the team was short.
I was, of course, 100% correct.
11 games back in the division and tied for 8/9/10 in the W/C prompted Mo to do exactly as I forecast.
Not a surprise.
I know Mo better than Mo knows Mo, as has been established for many years now.
So, it is unfair to grade him too harshly for his deadline performance since he did meet the relatively low bar which defines him.
The quality of the return for the 3 pitchers won't be known for some time - but he did reasonably well.
Clearly, hanging onto Helsley until the deadline, rather than moving him last December, didn't reduce the return.
The return for Matz and Maton was about right.
Again, all depends on how it works out.
In the 3 pitching deals, I give a solid B.
His biggest miss was failing to trade N/A a 2nd time (owner may have prevented that by refusing to eat enough money) and failing yet again (3+ years and no end in sight) to trade Mootbaar (Mo's love affair and The Human Sushi-baar's inability to remain ambulatory certainly made that nearly impossible).
On that front, he earns an F.
Overall score is TBD, but a D+ at this moment.

[Ronnie Dobbs]

B

Wish they would have moved some of these guys earlier, but what's done is done, so they got what seems to be fair market value for what relievers are going for this deadline. I can't give them an A just because I don't know anyone who feels like they totally stole a bunch of players. But they got market value and I've gotta trust Bloom and his people to know who they're scouting and pick the right players.

Probably could have traded Romero, though, but I don't really know what was offered. I was initially (upset) that they didn't trade anyone like Donovan, Burleson, Nootbaar, or Gorman, but I'm thinking those are moves best left to the offseason when teams are more likely to move MLB talent.

[JuanAgosto]

Incomplete. Won't be able to grade it until i see if these moves lead to more deals this winter.

[Ozziesfan41]

Mo did exactly as I said he would do with the pitching.
Last fall, I said he would hang onto pitchers who were in the last year of their contracts in hope of being in the playoff hunt come July.
I said that he would keep them if STL was within 5 games of the division lead or hanging onto a W/C spot - but would go into sell mode if the team was short.
I was, of course, 100% correct.
11 games back in the division and tied for 8/9/10 in the W/C prompted Mo to do exactly as I forecast.
Not a surprise.
I know Mo better than Mo knows Mo, as has been established for many years now.
So, it is unfair to grade him too harshly for his deadline performance since he did meet the relatively low bar which defines him.
The quality of the return for the 3 pitchers won't be known for some time - but he did reasonably well.
Clearly, hanging onto Helsley until the deadline, rather than moving him last December, didn't reduce the return.
The return for Matz and Maton was about right.
Again, all depends on how it works out.
In the 3 pitching deals, I give a solid B.
His biggest miss was failing to trade N/A a 2nd time (owner may have prevented that by refusing to eat enough money) and failing yet again (3+ years and no end in sight) to trade Mootbaar (Mo's love affair and The Human Sushi-baar's inability to remain ambulatory certainly made that nearly impossible).
On that front, he earns an F.
Overall score is TBD, but a D+ at this moment.

You said he would keep Helsley and offer him a QO and said in the offseason they should keep fedde and helsley because they would help the cardinals win and could be traded for a haul at the deadline when they had more value lol also said arenado would be traded and if you check the roster he’s still a cardinal. You had a bad offseason set of predictions

[icon]

Mo did exactly as I said he would do with the pitching.
Last fall, I said he would hang onto pitchers who were in the last year of their contracts in hope of being in the playoff hunt come July.
I said that he would keep them if STL was within 5 games of the division lead or hanging onto a W/C spot - but would go into sell mode if the team was short.
I was, of course, 100% correct.
11 games back in the division and tied for 8/9/10 in the W/C prompted Mo to do exactly as I forecast.
Not a surprise.
I know Mo better than Mo knows Mo, as has been established for many years now.
So, it is unfair to grade him too harshly for his deadline performance since he did meet the relatively low bar which defines him.
The quality of the return for the 3 pitchers won't be known for some time - but he did reasonably well.
Clearly, hanging onto Helsley until the deadline, rather than moving him last December, didn't reduce the return.
The return for Matz and Maton was about right.
Again, all depends on how it works out.
In the 3 pitching deals, I give a solid B.
His biggest miss was failing to trade N/A a 2nd time (owner may have prevented that by refusing to eat enough money) and failing yet again (3+ years and no end in sight) to trade Mootbaar (Mo's love affair and The Human Sushi-baar's inability to remain ambulatory certainly made that nearly impossible).
On that front, he earns an F.
Overall score is TBD, but a D+ at this moment.

You said he would keep Helsley and offer him a QO and said in the offseason they should keep fedde and helsley because they would help the cardinals win and could be traded for a haul at the deadline when they had more value lol also said arenado would be traded and if you check the roster he’s still a cardinal. You had a bad offseason set of predictions

He hates people with memories.

[Melville]

Mo did exactly as I said he would do with the pitching.
Last fall, I said he would hang onto pitchers who were in the last year of their contracts in hope of being in the playoff hunt come July.
I said that he would keep them if STL was within 5 games of the division lead or hanging onto a W/C spot - but would go into sell mode if the team was short.
I was, of course, 100% correct.
11 games back in the division and tied for 8/9/10 in the W/C prompted Mo to do exactly as I forecast.
Not a surprise.
I know Mo better than Mo knows Mo, as has been established for many years now.
So, it is unfair to grade him too harshly for his deadline performance since he did meet the relatively low bar which defines him.
The quality of the return for the 3 pitchers won't be known for some time - but he did reasonably well.
Clearly, hanging onto Helsley until the deadline, rather than moving him last December, didn't reduce the return.
The return for Matz and Maton was about right.
Again, all depends on how it works out.
In the 3 pitching deals, I give a solid B.
His biggest miss was failing to trade N/A a 2nd time (owner may have prevented that by refusing to eat enough money) and failing yet again (3+ years and no end in sight) to trade Mootbaar (Mo's love affair and The Human Sushi-baar's inability to remain ambulatory certainly made that nearly impossible).
On that front, he earns an F.
Overall score is TBD, but a D+ at this moment.

You said he would keep Helsley and offer him a QO and said in the offseason they should keep fedde and helsley because they would help the cardinals win and could be traded for a haul at the deadline when they had more value lol also said arenado would be traded and if you check the roster he’s still a cardinal. You had a bad offseason set of predictions

Nope - I was perfect, of course.
I said he would keep Helsley and settle for the comp pick if they were within 5 games of the division lead or in control of a W/C spot, and would trade at the deadline if they were not in that position.
I was perfectly right - 8 months in advance.
My advice?
Keep reading.
Keep learning.
The former is inevitable - you have no choice.
The latter remains questionable - as your post above evidences.

[Melville]

Mo did exactly as I said he would do with the pitching.
Last fall, I said he would hang onto pitchers who were in the last year of their contracts in hope of being in the playoff hunt come July.
I said that he would keep them if STL was within 5 games of the division lead or hanging onto a W/C spot - but would go into sell mode if the team was short.
I was, of course, 100% correct.
11 games back in the division and tied for 8/9/10 in the W/C prompted Mo to do exactly as I forecast.
Not a surprise.
I know Mo better than Mo knows Mo, as has been established for many years now.
So, it is unfair to grade him too harshly for his deadline performance since he did meet the relatively low bar which defines him.
The quality of the return for the 3 pitchers won't be known for some time - but he did reasonably well.
Clearly, hanging onto Helsley until the deadline, rather than moving him last December, didn't reduce the return.
The return for Matz and Maton was about right.
Again, all depends on how it works out.
In the 3 pitching deals, I give a solid B.
His biggest miss was failing to trade N/A a 2nd time (owner may have prevented that by refusing to eat enough money) and failing yet again (3+ years and no end in sight) to trade Mootbaar (Mo's love affair and The Human Sushi-baar's inability to remain ambulatory certainly made that nearly impossible).
On that front, he earns an F.
Overall score is TBD, but a D+ at this moment.

You said he would keep Helsley and offer him a QO and said in the offseason they should keep fedde and helsley because they would help the cardinals win and could be traded for a haul at the deadline when they had more value lol also said arenado would be traded and if you check the roster he’s still a cardinal. You had a bad offseason set of predictions

He hates people with memories.

I appreciate folks who possess a good memory.
And correct those who have a poor one - as well as those who merely pretend to.

[Francis Park Thug]

delete

[Whatashame]

The Cardinals opened up 3 spots for their 40-man roster . That's important as the Cardinals have a few minor leaugers who are Rule 5 eligible that we need to protect that are not currently on the 40-man. Case in point, C Bernal needs to be protected .
So Mo gave Bloom some better flexibility . Also added depth to minors which later can be trade bait too.

Good point about the 40 man roster.
We knew Arenado and Mikolas weren’t going because of the NTC’s.
The primary focus heading into 2026 will be the rotation.
The Cards still have excess depth with LH bats.
And more on the way(JJ and Crooks)

They didn’t open up 40 man spots that weren’t going to be there anyway. Matz contract was ending and was not going to be resigned and his spot would have been there. Helsley is a FA and was not going to get the contract here that he would get on the open market so his spot would have been there. Maton also had an expiring contract and was not being resigned, unless he was willing to come back on a 1 year/2 million dollar deal again. Yes the spots are open now but they were going to be open anyway at the end of the season.

40 man spots will be needed but we have junk at the bottom of the 40 man plus these guys were leaving anyway. Mikolas spot will be there also. It wouldn’t have been difficult to come up with 7-8 spots minimum.

Ok so they should have held onto the pending FA’s?????

Where did you get that from what I wrote. The post I commented on was about these moves opened up 40 man spots. They didn’t open up spots that weren’t already going to be available at the end of the year anyway.

The Cardinals should have absolutely moved the guys they did but it had no bearing on opening up 40 man spots, they were going to be there anyway. Just like Mikolas spot. Trading him wouldn’t have opened up another spot that’s not going to be there at the end of the year. That was what I was commenting on.

[kyace]

B-

I’m not terribly disappointed with it.

Imagine being a Cubs fan (ok I know, I know) and being in a playoff hunt with the Brewers and your pick ups are Soroka, Willi Castro, and Andrew Kittredge.

I imagine they will get the final laugh as they almost certainly will be in the playoffs and their minor league systems still rated higher than Cards

[Cusecards]

The Cardinals opened up 3 spots for their 40-man roster . That's important as the Cardinals have a few minor leaugers who are Rule 5 eligible that we need to protect that are not currently on the 40-man. Case in point, C Bernal needs to be protected .
So Mo gave Bloom some better flexibility . Also added depth to minors which later can be trade bait too.

Good point about the 40 man roster.
We knew Arenado and Mikolas weren’t going because of the NTC’s.
The primary focus heading into 2026 will be the rotation.
The Cards still have excess depth with LH bats.
And more on the way(JJ and Crooks)

They didn’t open up 40 man spots that weren’t going to be there anyway. Matz contract was ending and was not going to be resigned and his spot would have been there. Helsley is a FA and was not going to get the contract here that he would get on the open market so his spot would have been there. Maton also had an expiring contract and was not being resigned, unless he was willing to come back on a 1 year/2 million dollar deal again. Yes the spots are open now but they were going to be open anyway at the end of the season.

40 man spots will be needed but we have junk at the bottom of the 40 man plus these guys were leaving anyway. Mikolas spot will be there also. It wouldn’t have been difficult to come up with 7-8 spots minimum.

Ok so they should have held onto the pending FA’s?????

Where did you get that from what I wrote. The post I commented on was about these moves opened up 40 man spots. They didn’t open up spots that weren’t already going to be available at the end of the year anyway.

The Cardinals should have absolutely moved the guys they did but it had no bearing on opening up 40 man spots, they were going to be there anyway. Just like Mikolas spot. Trading him wouldn’t have opened up another spot that’s not going to be there at the end of the year. That was what I was commenting on.

Ok

[Cusecards]

I see ME-ville showed up with another “always about the game” soliloquy.
LMAO.....priceless!

[Braund241]

Anyone that could make AA would be equal to the current talent. We are talking minor league baseball with this organization

[cardstatman]

F for the offseason when they should have traded Fedde and Helsley and gotten a much better return.

B for the trade deadline. Maybe one of the prospects they receive will make the majors.

They have relievers in Memphis to replace the reliever they traded and we can "see what we have".

Springfield can replace Memphis guys. Peoria can replace Springfield guys. We got back several Peoria guys.

[TopofthePerch]

Mo did exactly as I said he would do with the pitching.
Last fall, I said he would hang onto pitchers who were in the last year of their contracts in hope of being in the playoff hunt come July.
I said that he would keep them if STL was within 5 games of the division lead or hanging onto a W/C spot - but would go into sell mode if the team was short.
I was, of course, 100% correct.
11 games back in the division and tied for 8/9/10 in the W/C prompted Mo to do exactly as I forecast.
Not a surprise.
I know Mo better than Mo knows Mo, as has been established for many years now.
So, it is unfair to grade him too harshly for his deadline performance since he did meet the relatively low bar which defines him.
The quality of the return for the 3 pitchers won't be known for some time - but he did reasonably well.
Clearly, hanging onto Helsley until the deadline, rather than moving him last December, didn't reduce the return.
The return for Matz and Maton was about right.
Again, all depends on how it works out.
In the 3 pitching deals, I give a solid B.
His biggest miss was failing to trade N/A a 2nd time (owner may have prevented that by refusing to eat enough money) and failing yet again (3+ years and no end in sight) to trade Mootbaar (Mo's love affair and The Human Sushi-baar's inability to remain ambulatory certainly made that nearly impossible).
On that front, he earns an F.
Overall score is TBD, but a D+ at this moment.

You said he would keep Helsley and offer him a QO and said in the offseason they should keep fedde and helsley because they would help the cardinals win and could be traded for a haul at the deadline when they had more value lol also said arenado would be traded and if you check the roster he’s still a cardinal. You had a bad offseason set of predictions

Yea he waits to see what happens and then claims he said it would all happen but never claims about all the times he was wrong. Half the time he just says he said things so he can claim he was right even though he never said a lot of the things he claims to say

[82birds]

F for the offseason when they should have traded Fedde and Helsley and gotten a much better return.

B for the trade deadline. Maybe one of the prospects they receive will make the majors.

They have relievers in Memphis to replace the reliever they traded and we can "see what we have".

Springfield can replace Memphis guys. Peoria can replace Springfield guys. We got back several Peoria guys.

agree on that F for the offseason.
simply pathetic.