[DJ's left nut]

Today in "trade musings born of slow mornings" I have decided to rebuild the entire Cardinals roster in an attempt to push in a bit for 2018.

What if the Cardinals got a wild hair and decided to trade for both Stanton AND Yelich? Do that and you have some parts you need to move around on the big league roster.

Stanton (and his contact), Yelich and Volquez (and his $13 million while being unlikely to pitch in '18 due to TJ surgery) for Reyes, Alcantara, Bader, Grichuk, Perez and Diaz.

Pham to the Yankees for Chad Green and Greg Bird.

Gyorko and Kelly to the Jays for Donaldson.

Piscotty to the Orioles for Mychel Givens

Carpenter to the Rangers for Keone Kela

All of those deals are extremely doable, right? From the Marlins perspective you'd be getting a ton of salary relief as well as immediate help and high-end prospects. It boils down to Alcantara, Grichuk and Diaz for Stanton and Reyes, Bader and Perez for Yelich and Volquez. That's a ton of young, controlled players plus about $40 million in immediate salary relief.

Pham to the Yankees for Bird and Green gets the Yankees some athleticism in the OF that they desperately need and a great complementary part to their young power hitters. They're likely to make a play on Hosmer so Bird would be blocked but I believe in his power and would like the lefty with thump at 1b. Green is among the best relievers in baseball that nobody seems to know about.

Gyorko and Kelly for Donaldson seems fair given that Donaldson is a year from FA and entering his age 32 season. Gyorko is 3 years younger and sporting a well below market contract for the next 3 years. He established himself as a legit regular last year, has a plus glove and would easily hit 30 bombs in Toronto. I'm actually reluctant to make this deal as I'm not sure we get much better but it would send a signal to the team and get a hell of a personality in the clubhouse. I'd want a negotiating window though; he'd come with a deal that covers his 32-36 seasons at about $110 million.

Piscotty would be interesting to the Orioles given his long-term deal and their issues in 2019 when they're going to struggle to field a team; a lot of their guys are coming up on FA and their pipeline is barren. I'm not positive you could get them to give up Givens, but their bullpen has so much depth that if they want to get some help in the field, they'll have to deal from there. They'd have to believe that 2017 was an outlier for Piscotty but there's plenty of cause to believe it was.

Carpenter for Kela would get the Rangers a little immediate firepower to make a push while Beltre is still sharp. They could use more production from DH and Carpenter would give them that in spades. His new fly-ball stroke would actually play well in Arlington.

Meanwhile the Cards system is diminished but not gutted. They'd still have Flaherty, Weaver, Hicks, Hudson and Gomber as well as guys like Woodford and Fernandez. On the offensive side they'd still have Sierra, Bader, Mercado, Sosa and Knizner (who may be making Kelly trade-able) as well as the slew of international signings like Arozarena. They'd need to go after Maitan, Pena, Del Rosario and Negret from the Braves exodus to back-fill but I think they could snag a couple of those guys. Get 2 of them and the system is probably still top 15 in baseball; top 20 at worst. With a big wave of guys in the high minors that can move things back up in the next 3-4 years.

Now your OF is Fowler - Yelich - Stanton and your IF is Donaldson - DeJong - Wong - Bird (with Martinez as the other half of that platoon).

Your rotation is Martinez, Wacha, Wainwright, Weaver and Flaherty and I think you'd need to pursue Tyler Chatwood in FA; he'd bump Flaherty with Flaherty in reserve for Wainwright's eventual implosion.

Your bullpen might be the best collection of young power arms in baseball with Givens, Kela, Green, Tuiviala, Brebbia, Lyons and Cecil

Lineup:

Fowler
DeJong (yes, this seems crazy but he'd get so many pitches to hit here)
Yelich
Stanton
Donaldson
Bird
Molina
Wong
P

Seriously - that team can win a championship, right? You're counting on growth from the young arms but that core is a contender for 3 years while those arms come together.

After accounting for losses from last year's roster and trades, it moves the payroll from about $135 million in '17 to about $165 million in '18 (made a few arb projections and figured on the minimum for the pre-arb guys; backloaded Chatwood's deal so he's getting $7 million in '18); that would've placed the Cardinals 10th in MLB last year. I suspect it would put them around 12th for '18.

With the new cable deal and the fanbase/support this team has, they absolutely owe us that. That's not unreasonable at all and when Wainwright/Volquez fall off the payroll in 2019, they'll have plenty more money freed up.

Ah, **** it. That's too interesting for this organization. But it sure would be fun.