In 2017, the St. Louis Cardinals found themselves in need of an impact bat after a disappointing season.
That was when the team began to target Marcell Ozuna, who was coming off of a career year with the Miami Marlins.
In December, the Cardinals and Marlins agreed on a blockbuster deal that would send Ozuna to St. Louis in exchange for outfielder Magneuris Sierra, left-handed pitcher Daniel Castano, and right-handers Zac Gallen and Sandy Alcantara.
Ozuna is no longer with the Cardinals and has been with the Atlanta Braves since 2020.
Meanwhile, Alcantara was unanimously named the National League Cy Young Award winner on Wednesday night.
On Twitter, a fan posted a screenshot of a tweet from a Cards fan at the time, praising the organization for making the move.
— Baseball Images that Precede Unfortunate Events (@UnfortunateMLB) November 17, 2022
What Could Have Been
To this day, this is a trade that haunts Cardinals fans.
St. Louis gave up two pitchers who would turn out to be Cy Young-caliber arms.
To make matters worse, Gallen, now with the Arizona Diamondbacks, finished fifth in Cy Young voting.
So naturally, that tweet did not age particularly well.
The Cardinals got the short end of the stick, and Ozuna’s time in St. Louis was quite underwhelming, as he never replicated his success from the 2017 season.
While the Cardinals have remained in postseason contention, they currently lack an ace in their rotation, which is something they could still have if the trade was never made.
Alcantara, Gallen, and Adam Wainwright in the same rotation would simply be deadly.
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Win Corr says
Yeah. Threw away World Series champs at least twice since 2017….Realistically.