This was always going to happen. The St. Louis Cardinals' dreadful season signaled that massive changes could be on the way at the trade deadline. At 47-60, all hope for a playoff spot is gone. While the team said that they weren't trading stars like Nolan Arenado, every other trade was on the table. Indeed, a few days before the trade deadline, St. Louis dealt two of their best pitchers in Jordan Montgomery (to the Rangers) and Jordan Hicks.

It seems like the flurry of trades isn't about to end for the Cardinals, too. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak bluntly said that more deals could be on the way, per Derrick Goold. Given the current state of their roster and their position in the standings, that's not entirely surprising.

“Today was an event,” Mozeliak said. “We (Cardinals) moved three key players. Do I anticipate more to come? Probably. We’re going to roll our selves back up, kind of reassess where we are. Might (move) some of our goals now because of what we were able to accomplish. … A lot of what we were focusing on in the last week or so was really trying to find the right pitchers.”

The Cardinals took back a lot of pitching prospects in exchange for Montgomery and Hicks. Elite prospects like Sem Robberse from the Blue Jays and Tekoah Roby from the Rangers will join their farm system. It remains to be seen if they'll be trading some of their other position players in order to acquire more prospects for the future. Only Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado seem to be untouchable: the rest are up for debate.

With this season all but over, the Cardinals will turn their attention to their current roster and evaluate them for the 2024 season. Which players deserve to stay, and which players will be moved before the season ends?