Cardinals could trade ace to Dodgers to offload money, start rebuild

The St. Louis Cardinals missed the playoffs after finishing 83-79 and now will look to begin a rebuild.

The nature of the rebuild is not yet known, but significant movement is expected, and St. Louis will likely be saying goodbye to some key pieces.

One of those pieces could be right-hander Sonny Gray, who Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report lists as the Cardinals' top trade chip heading into the offseason.

Rymer listed the Los Angeles Dodgers as a team the Cardinals could link up with to complete a trade.

"No speculation is required here, as Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported in September that the Cardinals are planning to shop Sonny Gray this winter," Rymer wrote.

"The only question is what the Cardinals would want to accomplish with a trade of Gray. They might simply want to dump his contract. But if they also want talent back, chances are they'll have to eat some of it.

The Dodgers have a deep farm system full of young pitchers, some of which could be sent back to St. Louis in a potential trade.

Los Angeles has Landon Knack, Kyle Hurt, Michael Grove, Emmet Sheehan, and even Bobby Miller, though Miller is unlikely to be moved.

Still, there are options the Cardinals could take a look at if they want young pitching to try and speed up the rebuilding process.

It's obvious that the Cardinals are planning to take a step back from contention and focus solely on their young core while building for the future.

But adding to that young core could at the very least give fans something to be excited about, even in the midst of a rebuild, and Los Angeles could give St. Louis some young pieces to build around.

It will be interesting to see if St. Louis and Los Angeles ultimately decide to make a deal with Gray as the centerpiece.

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