{"id":184258,"date":"2026-05-07T15:18:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=184258"},"modified":"2026-05-07T15:18:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:18:56","slug":"cardinals-brutal-trade-deadline-bombshell-reliable-left-hander-jojo-romero-named-1-trade-chip-despite-hot-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=184258","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals&#8217; Brutal Trade Deadline Bombshell: Reliable Left-Hander JoJo Romero Named #1 Trade Chip Despite Hot Start"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2267908516-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2267908516-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2267908516-1.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2267908516-1.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Cardinals 29-Year-Old Hurler Named &quot;Most Likely&quot; Trade Candidate\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p>The St. Louis Cardinals have a few trade chips on their roster. A reliable left-hander could be one of the first shipped out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The St. Louis Cardinals are off to a strong start this season despite entering a rebuild. They are 21-15 and not too far back of the Chicago Cubs in the National League Central. However, it remains to be seen if they can keep this up. The popular consensus as that by the August 3 trade deadline, St. Louis will be selling pieces off to other contending teams.<\/p>\n<p>They have a couple of players on expiring contracts that could ultimately be offloaded at the deadline. One of the biggest trade chips they have is left-hander JoJo Romero. He has been one of their top relievers since joining the team in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report listed the top trade candidates for each team in Major League Baseball, and Romero was the top one for St. Louis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe jury is still out on whether the Cardinals are a legitimate contender. They\u2019re seven games over .500 and red hot as of late, but that was also true in late June last season en route to becoming deadline sellers\u2014and this team sure does seem to be punching above its designed weight class,\u201d Miller wrote. \u201cShould the Red Birds ultimately fade, the obvious top trade chip is Romero. He already has 11 holds, and he\u2019s one of the only impending free agents on this roster.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>JoJo Romero Named Top Cardinals Trade Chip<\/h2>\n<p>Romero has appeared in 17 games thus far for the Cardinals. In those appearances, the 29-year-old left-hander is 0-1 with a 3.71 ERA. He has been a very valuable piece at the back end of the Cardinals\u2019 bullpen for several years since being acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies.<\/p>\n<p>But in all likelihood, the Cardinals will still be sellers at the trade deadline, which makes sense given their long-term plans, and Chaim Bloom has made clear that he does not want to deviate from those plans.<\/p>\n<p>The Cardinals have picked a direction, and it would be wise for them to stick with it. That means trading players on expiring contracts, including Romero, who likely will not be back in 2027 anyway, so it makes sense to try and get something for him while they still can, especially since he is a rental piece.<\/p>\n<p>The Cardinals have a few other players on expiring contracts that could also be moved for the right price, so it will be interesting to see how Bloom operates in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline.<\/p>\n<h2>What a Trade Could Look Like<\/h2>\n<p>Obviously, the whole point of trading Romero is to capitalize on his value while it\u2019s still possible. The Cardinals missed a chance to do this with Ryan Helsley leading up to the 2025 season, and by the time they traded him, his value had gone down.<\/p>\n<p>The Cardinals could bring back an interesting prospect or two for Romero. They need to find some more prospects to strengthen their farm system, and trading Romero would be a good way for them to do just that.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll see if he ends up being one of the pieces they ship out in August.<\/p>\n<p>Curt Bishop Curt Bishop is a freelance sports writer who has written for various outlets including Heavy Sports, Sports Illustrated, FanSided, The Sporting News, Newsweek and Yardbarker. His work entails mostly breaking and trending news with a concentration on Major League Baseball (MLB). Curt graduated from Maryville University of St. Louis with a bachelor&#8217;s degree in communications with a focus on emerging and new media, as well as a music minor. More about Curt Bishop<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty The St. Louis Cardinals have a few trade chips on their roster. A reliable left-hander could be one of the first shipped out. The St. Louis&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cardinals&#039; Brutal Trade Deadline Bombshell: Reliable Left-Hander JoJo Romero Named #1 Trade Chip Despite Hot Start - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=184258\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardinals&#039; Brutal Trade Deadline Bombshell: Reliable Left-Hander JoJo Romero Named #1 Trade Chip Despite Hot Start - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Getty The St. Louis Cardinals have a few trade chips on their roster. 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