Earlier this offseason, the Milwaukee Brewers traded their star closer Devin Williams to the New York Yankees. This opened up the market quite a bit for the St. Louis Cardinals to follow up and trade their own star closer, Ryan Helsley, away, too.
SBNation's John Stolnis expects the Cardinals to pursue this idea. Stolnis recently suggested the Cardinals could trade Helsley before 2025's spring training begins.
"Like (Framber) Valdez, Helsley can become a free agent after this season, and with the Cardinals retooling/rebuilding for the future, having the game's best closer last season means more to St. Louis as a trade chip than he does on the field in 2025. The 30-year-old had a 2.04 ERA in a league-high 62 games finished and led all of baseball with 49 saves. He finished 9th in the Cy Young voting this year, and over the past three seasons has a 1.83 ERA in 152 games (167 2/3 innings), with a K/BB ratio of 225/60," Stolnis wrote. "For a contender in need of a shut-down ninth-inning guy, it's hard to argue Helsley isn't a better option than Devin Williams was before he was dealt to the Bronx."
When the top free agent closers, including Tanner Scott, come off the board, Helsley's value in the trade market will skyrocket. When this happens, the Cardinals may be inclined to listen to more trade offers for him.
For now, it appears as though general manager John Mozeliak intends to keep his star closer in St. Louis.
At some point, the Cardinals front office will realize they're going to be much better off if they trade Helsley as early as possible in order to get the most value out of him. Trading him once Scott signs would be the best course of action.
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