photo: Tommy Edman (Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports)
Brian Walton suggests that if Tommy Edman was still a Cardinal, he would be a prime trade candidate alongside closer Ryan Helsley. Instead of being upset about Edman’s Dodgers success, he wonders what could have been had the Cards begun their new initiative to get younger a few months sooner.
I am surprised that some people are surprised about the current success experienced by infielder Tommy Edman. The National League League Championship Series Most Valuable Player is a quality player whose last partial year with the St. Louis Cardinals was ruined by injury.
Many are upset by another blatant example of an ex-Cardinal performing well elsewhere on the national stage.
I get that on an emotional level but see it a bit differently in the bigger picture.
Edman is doing what he should be doing. That he has a chance to succeed in the 2024 post-season would not have occurred with St. Louis. And his days with the Cardinals were numbered, whether he was traded in July or during this upcoming off-season.
If Edman had not been dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the July deadline, he would not have been enough to pull the .500-ish Cardinals into the 2024 postseason. Coming off the injured list following a nagging wrist injury, he appeared in just 37 games to close the regular season for his new team, batting .237.
Contractually, Edman is in a very similar situation to Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley. Both are one year away from free agency. In the meantime, they are set to receive a nice salary increase in 2025, their final year of team control.
Per estimates at MLB Trade Rumors, Helsley is expected to receive $6.9 million via the arbitration process in 2025. As a result, many are calling for the non-rebuilding, but really rebuilding Cardinals to trade Helsley this offseason. ‘Maximize his value by acquiring as many MLB-ready prospects as possible from a 2025 contender while saving salary’, goes the thinking.
I get it. And if Edman was still a Cardinal, the calls for him to be traded would be identical, if not louder.
Thanks to his current two-year contract signed with St. Louis, Edman will make $9.5 million next year. He plays positions for which the Cardinals have other options. He would be as replaceable now as he was in July.
Now that the Cardinals are cutting payroll, if Edman was still with the team, he would arguably be an even more obvious trade target than is Helsley. And it was not like the infielder was likely to be re-signed to a long-term deal covering his early free agent years.
In my humble opinion, if folks want to be upset, it should not be about the Cardinals trading Edman, but instead about what they received for him and why.
The initial results from the major take from the Edman trade, right-hander Erick Fedde, were less than advertised. The club hoped that the two July acquisitions from the historically terrible 2024 Chicago White Sox, Fedde and outfielder Tommy Pham, would be immediate difference makers. It quickly became clear they were not.
Sitting here today, one can easily second-guess the acquisition of a “sell-high” pitcher from the Sox with just a year-plus remaining on his own contract. Instead, why were the Cardinals so slow to recognize the inevitable conclusion that the 2024 season was their second consecutive failure and act accordingly in late July?
With a more realistic forward-thinking view, the Cardinals could have traded Edman for a cache of young players with potential who would have fit the new focus – not trying to bolster the current leaky roster for a futile Wild Card run, but instead, getting younger and better for the future.
But what’s done is done. Fedde still has the 2025 season ahead to make the Edman trade look better for the Cardinals than it does currently.
The question of whether Fedde can do it, and how much it would matter to the 2025 team if he can, is a topic for another day.
And one can only hope that if Helsley is traded, it will return meaningful building blocks for the Cardinals’ new vision of their future.
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Brian Walton can be reached via email at brian@thecardinalnation.com. Follow Brian on X/Twitter.
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