St Louis is having a surprisingly good season. Will they buy or sell at the Deadline though? I could see either happening, but that decision shouldn’t affect a trade like this, which could improve the team for the next several years. Morel is a RHB with reverse splits (hitting 122 wRC+ against RHP and below 50 wRC+ against LHP) but he’s playing on a team with all lefty outfield bats. Which means the Rays are misusing him horribly by making him play almost exclusively against LHP. That wouldn’t be a problem in St Louis, where he could return to his 110-120 wRC+ overall bat days. Plus, because the Rays have misused him for the past year, his trade value is about 1/4 what it was when the Rays acquired him. The cost to acquire Morel is the Cardinals 2nd best catching prospect and a potential mid-rotation pitcher. That should be an easy package to trade if the Cardinals believe in Morel’s bat and buy-low potential.

I think if the Cards deal from C depth, they start with Pages, Cooks & Bernal both have higher upside.

I'm not advocating trading for Morel. We have lots of utility type guys throughout the system, we need a Polar Bear to anchor the middle of our lineup.