More than a year earlier, St. Louis general manager John Mozeliak compared Taveras to Albert Pujols, prompting Sports Illustrated to write prior to the 2013 season that Taveras, then just 20 years old, “is the X-factor on a deep and talented St. Louis team that is loaded for another run in October.”[1]

Even an ankle injury that limited Taveras to just 47 minor league games in 2013 and postponed his promotion to St. Louis did little to dim evaluators’ excitement. Baseball Prospectus ranked Taveras the No. 2 prospect in the game prior to 2013 and No. 3 entering the 2014 season.[2] MLB.com ranked him No. 3 headed into both seasons.[3] In December 2013, Keith Law of ESPN ranked Taveras the fifth-best prospect in the game while comparing him to Vladimir Guerrero at the plate and in the field, where he gave Taveras’s glove the edge while preferring Guerrero’s legendary arm.[4]

A native of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, Taveras was an unheralded, $145,000 signing for the Cardinals in 2008.[5] Two years later, in his first season in the United States, the 18-year-old hit .322 with eight home runs and 43 RBIs in 211 Appalachian League at-bats. In 2011, he placed himself on the national radar when he led the Class A Midwest League with a .386 batting average. That performance was enough to catch the attention of Cardinals manager Mike Matheny.

“You play a full season, and you hit .380, I don’t care if it’s tee ball, you’ve done something pretty special,” Matheny said during the 2012 spring training. “To see a 19-year-old that is doing the things that he’s been able to do … it’s legitimate.”[6]

Taveras successfully made the jump to the Class AA Texas League in 2012, batting .321 with 23 homers and 94 RBIs, and he was batting .306 in 2013 before ankle surgery cut short his 2013 campaign.

By the time the 2014 Cardinals entered May with a 15-14 record – already placing them 5 1/2 games behind the Brewers in the National League Central – fans and sportswriters were calling for Taveras to assist an ailing lineup.

“The Cardinals are willing to try anything except promote outfielder Oscar Taveras, their best hitting prospect since Albert Pujols,” wrote veteran St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz. “Any day now, I expect to hear that the Cardinals have placed Taveras into a witness protection program.”[7]

Thirty days later, Taveras finally arrived in St. Louis, claiming the roster spot of injured first baseman Matt Adams, who was headed to the disabled list with a calf injury.[8] For his debut game against the San Francisco Giants, Matheny inserted Taveras into the sixth spot in the Cardinals’ lineup behind Yadier Molina.

The game quickly turned into a pitcher’s duel between the Cardinals’ 22-year-old hurler Michael Wacha and San Francisco’s Yusmeiro Petit. Petit retired the first five Cardinals he faced before Taveras came to the plate with two outs in the second inning. With storm clouds gathering, the St. Louis fans gave Tavares a standing ovation as he stepped into his first major league batter’s box.

“How good must that feel?” Fox Sports Midwest broadcaster and former Cardinals pitcher Ricky Horton asked on the air. “You don’t have a hit yet, no home runs, no runs scored, and you get a standing ovation.”[9]

Petit was less generous toward the rookie, greeting Tavares with an 84-mph breaking ball on the outside corner. Tavares fouled the next pitch down the third-base line before lifting the ball to left field and into the glove of San Francisco’s Tyler Colvin.

Wacha and Petit continued to trade scoreless innings until Taveras came to bat in the bottom of the fifth. To that point, the game’s only hits had been a double by Michael Morse to lead off the top of the second inning and a single by Matt Carpenter in the bottom of the fourth.

Taveras had just taken the first pitch of the at-bat low and inside when it began to rain. Petit’s next pitch was a curveball that started on the outer half before coming in over the middle of the plate. Using the smooth, left-handed swing that had scouts raving, Taveras deposited the 1-0 pitch over the right-field wall, becoming the 12th player in Cardinals history to homer in his major league debut.[10]

“How about that for a debut?” Horton shouted into the microphone.[11]

“He’s got a good swing, you know?” Petit said afterward in a tone far less enthusiastic than Horton’s. “He swings hard, and he pulls everything, so I tried to stay away, and I missed with one pitch.”[12]

After accepting congratulations from his teammates, Taveras climbed the clubhouse steps once more and doffed his helmet for the home fans, who were still standing and cheering.

“Everybody knew it’s gone,” Taveras said after the game. “That’s a good swing right there. I’m so happy right there. Everything is happy.”[13]

As Taveras saluted the fans, the rain’s intensity increased, sending the grounds crew racing onto the field for a 47-minute rain delay. In the top of the seventh, rain delayed the action again, marking the end of the day for both Wacha and Petit. Wacha finished with seven strikeouts and three hits allowed over six innings. Petit exited with five strikeouts and just two hits allowed.

When play resumed, Cardinals left-hander Sam Freeman retired Hector Sanchez on a lineout and struck out Colvin and Brandon Hicks in a scoreless seventh. In the bottom half of the inning, the Giants turned to right-hander George Kontos, who allowed a leadoff single to Allen Craig before striking out Molina and Taveras.

As Taveras swung through an outside fastball for the third strike, Craig took off for second, sliding safely into the bag when the throw by Giants catcher Hector Sanchez skipped past shortstop Ehire Adrianza. Jhonny Peralta, who struck out in his first two at-bats, drove Craig home with a double into the left-field gap that made the score 2-0.

From there, the St. Louis bullpen maintained firm control of the game. Pat Neshek retired the side in order in the eighth inning. In the ninth, Trevor Rosenthal struck out Hunter Pence, Pablo Sandoval, and Morse in consecutive at-bats to earn the save.

Though the Cardinals’ four pitchers had combined for a three-hit, 13-strikeout shutout, the headlines all belonged to Taveras. In the next day’s paper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an infographic comparing Taveras’s first game to that of Pujols (both players went 1-for-3 in their debut, though Pujols’s hit was a mere single). Miklasz wrote a column declaring that Taveras’s bat was “packed with danger and fully charged with hope. It was the bat that the Cardinals and their fans had been waiting for.”[14]

With Adams on the disabled list and a seven-game swing through two American League cities coming up, the Cardinals couldn’t help but express optimism that June would mark the beginning of a long, successful career for Tavares.

“I’m supposed to downplay it, right?” Matheny said. “We’re supposed to downplay it because we believe that it will probably give him the best chance of doing what he can do. But I’d be lying to say to you that I wasn’t excited for him. Hopefully, this is an atmosphere that can launch him to the next level.”[15]

Taveras never got that opportunity. After batting .239 with three homers and 22 RBIs in 234 regular-season at-bats, Taveras played a reserve role during the playoffs. In Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, he hit a pinch-hit home run off Giants reliever Jean Machi to help lift St. Louis to a 5-4 victory. It was the final hit of his career.

On October 26, 2014, Taveras and his girlfriend, Edilia Arvelo, were killed in a single-car accident on the Sosúa-Cabarete freeway in Taveras’s hometown of Puerto Plata. In November, the Dominican Republic attorney general’s office disclosed that Taveras’s toxicology report showed a blood-alcohol content of 0.287 percent and that he was driving too fast for rainy conditions when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tree.[16] He was 22 years old.

“He was someone who became an identity for our organization to some degree,” Mozeliak said. “Think about how much was written about him … how much was said about him. He never really got to show it at the major league level.”[17]

Indeed, the world never got to see whether the comparisons to Pujols and Guerrero were justified. But for one Saturday afternoon in May, Taveras’s infectious smile – and his incredible potential – were enough to cut through the rain and bring more than 44,000 baseball fans to their feet.

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[1] Albert Chen, “Well-stocked Cardinals ready to make another run,” Sports Illustrated, March 27, 2013, https://www.si.com/mlb/2013/03/27/st-louis-cardinals-season-preview.

[2] Jason Parks and Staff, “Prospects Will Break Your Heart: Top 101 Prospects,” Baseball Prospectus, January 27, 2014, https://www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/article/22670/prospects-will-break-your-heart-top-101-prospects/.

[3] Jennifer Langosch, “Taveras ranks third among top 100 prospects,” MLB.com, January 23, 2014, https://www.mlb.com/news/oscar-taveras-of-st-louis-cardinals-third-in-top-100-prospect-rankings/c-66987862.

[4] Keith Law, “Top 100 prospects (1-50),” ESPN.com, December 19, 2013, http://insider.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/10166140/byron-buxton-tops-2014-ranking-top-100-prospects-mlb.

[5] Derrick Goold, “He’s the guy who sells,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 18, 2012: C12.

[6] Goold.

[7] Bernie Miklasz, “Birds fight back,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 1, 2014: C4.

[8] Derrick Goold, “Taveras on the way: Grichuk already here as Cards tap minors,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 31, 2014: B5.

[9] Fox Sports Midwest game broadcast, May 31, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZX1UyDUGB0.

[10] Derrick Goold, “Taveras makes it rain with home run in debut,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 1, 2014: C1.

[11] Fox Sports Midwest game broadcast, May 31, 2014.

[12] Alex Pavlovic, “Cards prospect homers in debut,” Sacramento Bee, June 1, 2014: C6.

[13] Goold, “Taveras makes it rain with home run in debut.”

[14] Bernie Miklasz, “Rookie gets right into the swing of things,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 1, 2014: C1.

[15] Goold, “Taveras makes it rain with home run in debut.”

[16] Derrick Goold, “Taveras had high blood alcohol,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 13, 2014: A1.

[17] Joe Strauss, “Cards look for solace amid a lack of answers,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 28, 2014: B1.

The post Oscar Taveras homers in his debut: May 31, 2014 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

As the defending National League champions prepared to play the final game of a three-game series against the Padres, they sat in third place in the Central Division, 2 ½ games behind the Brewers and half a game behind the second-place Pirates. A day earlier, Mozeliak took his first step toward bolstering a rotation that was missing both Michael Wacha and Jaime Garcia with shoulder injuries when he traded outfield prospect James Ramsey for righthander Justin Masterson.

That proved to be a precursor to an even bigger deadline deal that sent outfielder Allen Craig and pitcher Joe Kelly to the Red Sox for starting pitcher John Lackey, pitching prospect Corey Littrell, and $1.75 million. [1]

“What was the genesis of this deal? Trying to address a top-flight starter and add to the rotation for next year,” Mozeliak said. “We were going to have to do something in the outfield because what was happening now was not sustainable.”[2]

The deal came as a shock to a Cardinals clubhouse that was fond of both Craig and Kelly. Craig had emerged as a key part of the Redbirds’ postseason run to the 2011 World Series championship and both players were part of the 2013 team that won the National League championship before falling to the Red Sox in the World Series. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch quoted unnamed veterans who called the trade “shocking,” a “surprise,” and “a punch to the gut.”[3]

“It’s a tough morning for us, no question,” manager Mike Matheny said. “We ask these guys from day one to buy into the fact that we’re in this thing together. To buy into the culture and everything the organization stands for. To see a few guys who have bought into that packing their stuff up – yeah, there’s a business here, but we’re asking for more than just business. It caught everybody off guard.”[4]

The news was even more surprising to the team due to the manner in which it arrived. Craig was in a room just outside the Petco Park visitors’ clubhouse when a television report about the trade came on. Kelly learned about the deal on Twitter. Other players learned about the trade from reporters or online.

“I don’t think the Cardinals organization had any ill will with that,” Craig said. “Ideally as a player, you don’t want to find out that way but in today’s age, I don’t see how you can keep anything under wraps. That’s not even a big deal in my mind. Information travels.”[5]

With question marks in both the lineup and rotation, Mozeliak chose to pursue a top-of-the-rotation starter. That included talks with Boston about lefthander Jon Lester, but Mozeliak said Boston asked for too steep a price for the pending free agent.[6] The Red Sox traded Lester and Jonny Gomes to the Athletics for Yoenis Cespedes and a competitive balance pick.

The Cardinals also spoke to the Rays about David Price. Again, while the Cardinals had the pieces Tampa Bay was seeking, the Cardinals were unwilling to meet their trade demands. Price went to the Tigers instead as part of a three-team trade that sent Willy Adames, Drew Smyly, and Nick Franklin to Tampa Bay.

“We clearly could have matched up, but we didn’t want to go down that path,” Mozeliak said.[7]

Once the Cardinals made the trade for Masterson, a veteran right-hander who won a career-high 14 games in 2013, Kelly suddenly became an expendable piece to deal for Lackey.

In three years with the Cardinals, Kelly had posted a 17-14 record with a 3.25 ERA. In seven starts in 2014, he was 2-2 with a 4.37 ERA.

“I didn’t know any team wanted me at this point,” Kelly joked.[8]

“In Kelly, we feel like we have a guy who is … a developing, advancing major-league starting pitcher,” Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said. “Certainly not a finished product, but really talented and someone our scouts have liked for a long time. Highly athletic, really good stuff, and someone we feel can quickly develop into a core part of our rotation. He was an important addition as we go into the offseason. We wouldn’t have done the Lackey deal without getting someone like that back.”[9]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Joe Strauss wrote that dealing Kelly made sense for a team that needed a No. 2 or No. 3 starter.

“As a No. 5 or even a No. 4 starter, Kelly clicks,” he wrote. “As the No. 3 within a rotation that won’t know about Wacha’s return until mid-September, Kelly didn’t promise enough, especially four starts into his return from a serious hamstring injury. Rather than hope for the best, Mozeliak acted … clinically.”[10]

Less than 17 months earlier, Craig and the Cardinals had agreed to a five-year, $31 million contract extension after Craig hit .307 with 22 homers and 92 RBIs in 2012. The following season, he played in a career-high 134 games, batting .315 with 13 homers and 97 RBIs. That September, however, he suffered Lisfranc injury to his foot that caused him to miss the last 23 games of the regular season as well as the NLDS and NLCS. When he returned for the World Series, he went 6-for-16 (.375) with a double.

Craig’s 2014 season never got off the ground. After batting .220 with March and April, he appeared to recover in May, batting .291 for the month with 19 RBIs. In June, however, he hit .255 with a .311 slugging percentage, and his offense cratered in July, batting just .122 in 54 plate appearances.

“At some point what was happening in the outfield was going to have to be dealt with,” Mozeliak said. “When you look at the depth we’ve been building at the outfield position, trying to create opportunity in the short term is important.”[11]

That depth included highly touted prospect Oscar Taveras. Craig’s move to Boston essentially opened right field for Taveras.

“He’s going to get an opportunity,” Matheny said.[12]

Most importantly, the trade gave the Cardinals a dependable starting pitcher who had collected double-digit wins in every season since his rookie year, when he won nine as a 23-year-old. In eight years with the Angels, Lackey was 102-71 with a 3.81 ERA, including an all-star-season in 2007 in which he went 19-9 and led the American League with a 3.01 ERA.

In four seasons with the Red Sox, Lackey had gone 47-43 with a 4.46 ERA, and he was 11-7 with a 3.60 ERA at the time of the trade.

“He brings a presence, first of all,” said Cardinals catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who played alongside Lackey in Boston. “Second off, he brings competitiveness. He wants the ball. He doesn’t want to ever give up the ball. He’s won big games wherever he’s been. He’s got two rings and I know … that he’s looking for a third.”[13]

In 2012, Lackey suffered an elbow injury that kept him out the entire season, triggering a team option in his contract for 2015 that would pay him just over $500,000. Before finalizing the trade, the Cardinals confirmed with Lackey’s agent that the pitcher intended to play the 2015 campaign.[14]

“That’s a guy who’s been around a lot and helped two teams with a World Series and was the deciding game-winner in both of those World Series, and something like that doesn’t come around that often,” Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz said.[15]

Lackey made 10 starts down the stretch for the Cardinals, going 3-3 with a 4.30 ERA. In Game 3 of the NLDS, he held the Dodgers to one run over seven innings, striking out eight batters en route to a 3-1 win. He took the loss in Game 3 of the NLCS against the Giants, allowing four runs in six innings.

In 2015, Lackey enjoyed arguably his best season since 2007, going 13-10 with a 2.77 ERA. He placed ninth in the NL Cy Young Award voting, then won Game 1 of the NLDS against the Cubs, holding Chicago scoreless over 7 1/3 innings.

In Game 4, however, he allowed four earned runs over three innings and took the loss as the Cubs clinched the series. It proved to be Lackey’s final start with the Cardinals, as he signed a free-agent deal with the Cubs after the season.

Meanwhile, Craig never regained his swing in Boston. He hit just .128 the rest of the 2014 season and was batting.135 in 2015 before he was demoted to Triple-A. After making a brief return to the majors as a September call-up, Craig spent the rest of his career in the minors.

The Red Sox released him on June 30, 2017, and the following winter he signed with the Padres on a minor-league deal. Craig showed a glimpse of his previous form with Triple-A El Paso in 2018, batting .293 with 13 homers and 59 RBIs in 363 plate appearances, but the Padres released him the following March. That April, he accepted a job with the Padres as an advisor to baseball operations.

In six major-league seasons, Craig hit .291/.343/.460 with 57 homers and 291 RBIs.

In 2014 and 2015, Kelly started 35 games for the Red Sox, going 14-8. In 2016, Boston moved Kelly to the bullpen, where he found his niche and posted a 2.79 ERA in 2017. In five seasons with the Red Sox, he went 26-11 with a 4.33 ERA and won the 2018 World Series title.

He signed with the Dodgers ahead of the 2019 season and was part of their 2020 World Series championship team, compiling a 3.59 ERA over three seasons. He signed with the White Sox for the 2022 season.

In 58 1/3 career postseason innings, Kelly is 4-3 with a 3.55 ERA, including a 2.03 ERA in the World Series.

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[1] Anthony Gulizia, “Buchholz, others understand deals are part of the game,” Boston Globe, August 1, 2014.

[2] Joe Strauss, “Mozeliak moves to fix two problems,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2014.

[3] Derrick Goold, “Major Shakeup,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2014.

[4] Derrick Goold, “Major Shakeup,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2014.

[5] Anthony Gulizia, “Craig familiar with new home,” Boston Globe, August 2, 2014.

[6] Derrick Goold, “Major Shakeup,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2014.

[7] Derrick Goold, “Major Shakeup,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2014.

[8] Derrick Goold, “Major Shakeup,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2014.

[9] Peter Abraham, “Bogaerts back at short; Middlebrooks returns,” Boston Globe, August 1, 2014.

[10] Joe Strauss, “Mozeliak moves to fix two problems,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2014.

[11] Joe Strauss, “Mozeliak moves to fix two problems,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2014.

[12] Derrick Goold, “Major Shakeup,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2014.

[13] Derrick Goold, “Major Shakeup,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2014.

[14] Derrick Goold, “Major Shakeup,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2014.

[15] Anthony Gulizia, “Buchholz, others understand deals are part of the game,” Boston Globe, August 1, 2014.

The post July 31, 2014: Cardinals trade Craig and Kelly for Lackey first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

On November 17, 2014, the Cardinals traded pitchers Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins to the Braves for outfielder Jason Heyward and relief pitcher Jordan Walden. It was an out-of-character trade for the Cardinals, who had long hoarded young pitchers like a dragon protecting its gold. Coming on the heels of Taveras’s untimely passing, however, these were unusual times.

“We’ve always talked about development. We’ve talked about controlling our own players and having that cost certainty moving forward,” Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said. “We did feel after the events of this offseason that we had to do something different, that we had to look at a way to add an impact player to our club. We really felt that this would be the best way to improve our team and make a change on how you think about the St. Louis Cardinals for 2015. We’ve said all along we’re focused on 2015.”^[1]

Heading into the offseason, Mozeliak said the Cardinals planned for Taveras to be their everyday right fielder in 2015. ^[2] Before Taveras homered in his major-league debut that spring, he had been considered one of the top prospects in all of baseball, ranking as high as No. 2 with Baseball Prospectus[3] and No. 3 with MLB.com.[4]

Now the Cardinals found themselves with a significant hole in their lineup on a team that was expected to contend for a National League pennant. To fill that hole, the Cardinals moved outside of their standard comfort zone.

“If only for a brief time, one season, Heyward will not only stabilize the outfield, but he’ll also help calm the rolling emotions that unsettled this organization in the aftermath of Oscar’s shocking death,” wrote St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz. “And if we’re trying to assess every aspect of the trade’s value, that’s a consideration that shouldn’t be minimized.”

The 6-foot-5, 240-pound Heyward was drafted 14^th overall by the Braves in 2007 out of Henry County High School in McDonough, Georgia. He made an auspicious debut in 2010, batting .277/.393/.849 in his rookie season with 18 homers and 72 RBIs. Along the way, he was named to the all-star game, placed second in the Rookie of the Year Award balloting, and even received 11 points in the MVP voting.

During his five seasons in Atlanta, Heyward established himself as a premier defender in right field, winning Gold Glove Awards in 2012 and 2014. In his final season in Atlanta, however, Heyward’s slugging percentage had dropped to .384, down from a high of .479 when he hit 27 homers in 2012. The Cardinals believed Heyward’s decrease in power could be attributed to a change in approach after moving to the leadoff position in the Braves’ lineup.

“I do know a leadoff hitter is not one that’s looked at to strike out a lot,” Heyward said. “They’re supposed to attempt to get on base every at-bat. Regardless of how it gets done, you’re just trying to set the table. That was new to the season. I wasn’t developed with that mindset.”^[5]

Heyward was entering the final season of a two-year contract that would pay him $7.8 million in 2015 before he entered free agency.^[6] In trading Heyward, the Braves were seeking compensation for a player they didn’t believe they would be able to re-sign.

“It’s very difficult to trade Jason Heyward,” Braves general manager John Hart said, “but the deal was made to help us not only in the short term but the long term.”^[7]

For his part, Heyward said he never had an extension offer on the table.

“I’m not surprised at all about the possibility that a team would look to trade if they didn’t think they were going to get something done long term,” Heyward said. “I wasn’t necessarily saying I was gone to free agency. We just never had any talks, to be honest. Nothing longer than a five-minute conversation after the 2012 season.”^[8]

Heyward’s impending free agency made the trade risky for the Cardinals, though the team would receive a compensation draft pick were he to sign elsewhere.

“Our strategy in the past has been to bring players in here, let them get a feel for what this is about, and if they like it we tend to find ways to make them stay,” Mozeliak said. “If they don’t, then they move on.”^[9]

“Change of scenery can be very refreshing in a lot of ways,” Heyward said. “As far as going forward, I want to take things one step at a time, get acclimated to my new teammates, get acclimated with the new organization and put my best foot forward for 2015. Everything else after that will take care of itself.”^[10]

In Walden, the Cardinals obtained a 6-foot-5 right-handed reliever who had proven that he could pitch in the back end of a bullpen. As a rookie in 2011, Walden saved 32 games for the Angels, earning an all-star nod and placing seventh in the Rookie of the Year voting.

In 2014 with the Braves, he posted a 2.88 ERA and struck out 62 batters over 50 innings. For his career, he had 254 strikeouts in 211 innings, good for a 28.6% strikeout rate. Just as importantly, Walden’s addition allowed Carlos Martinez to compete with Marco Gonzalez for the fifth spot in the starting rotation.^[11]

To obtain Heyward and Walden, the Cardinals were giving up a lot of young potential. Miller, the Cardinals’ first-round pick in 2009 (19^th overall), had just completed his second full season in St. Louis. As a rookie in 2013, he went 15-9 with a 3.06 ERA, striking out 169 batters over 173 1/3 innings. In his sophomore campaign in 2014, Miller went 10-9 with a 3.74 ERA and 127 strikeouts in 183 innings.

“You never really know where this game is going to take you,” Miller said. “It’s hard leaving the good people and good teammates I had there. At the same time, they traded me for Heyward, an extremely talented outfielder, so it’s exciting to go to a team that wanted me. It’s a new opportunity.”^[12]

Jenkins, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, had been the Cardinals’ 2010 first-round pick out of Henderson High School in Texas. He had spent the 2014 season in High-A Palm Beach, where he went 6-5 with a 3.28 ERA in 74 innings.

“The Braves have always been a pitching organization,” Hart said. “We have the makings of a quality young rotation.”^[13]

As Miklasz wrote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, it was a steep – yet understandable – price for the Cardinals to pay.

“I’d like this trade a lot better if we knew that Heyward would stay in St. Louis beyond 2015,” Miklasz wrote. “But these are not normal times. The tragic death of right fielder Oscar Taveras put Mozeliak in an urgent – if not desperate – frame of mind. And in that context it isn’t surprising to see the GM take a substantial risk here. … Putting Heyward in place, if only for one season, provides a quick solution and gives Mozeliak a better chance to determine exactly what the Cardinals have in Grichuk and corner-outfield prospect Stephen Piscotty. This move buys some time, but the cost is expensive.”[14]

After Heyward’s 2015 season in which he hit .293/.359/.439 with 13 homers and 60 RBIs for the Cardinals, he proved even more expensive, as the Cubs signed him to an eight-year, $184 million contract. Heyward said he was attracted by the Cubs’ young core, which included Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell, Kris Bryant, and Javier Baez. The Cubs had beaten the Cardinals in a four-game NLDS the previous fall.

“Being 26 and knowing my contract would probably put me in any clubhouse longer than most people there, you have to look at age, you have to look at how fast the team is changing and how soon those changes may come about,” he said. “You have (Yadier Molina), who is going to be done in two years maybe. You have Matt Holliday, who is probably going to be done soon. There were already moves with Jon Jay gone, and then Tony Cruz, and (Adam Wainwright) is probably going to be done in three or four years. … I felt like if I was to look up in three years and see a completely different team, that would kind of be difficult.”[15]

As compensation for Heyward, the Cardinals received the 34^th overall pick in the 2016 draft and selected right-handed pitcher Dakota Hudson from Mississippi State University.

Walden pitched one injury-plagued season in St. Louis. After allowing just one earned run in 10 1/3 innings, Walden suffered a shoulder injury and was placed on the disabled list on May 6. He never pitched in the majors again.

Miller had mixed results with the Braves in 2015. He posted a 3.02 ERA over 205 1/3 innings and was selected for the all-star game, but he also led the league with 17 losses. After the season, the Braves traded Miller and Gabe Speier to the Diamondbacks for Aaron Blair, Ender Inciarte, and Dansby Swanson. Miller went 5-18 with a 6.35 ERA in three seasons in Arizona.

Jenkins spent the 2015 season in the Braves’ minor-league system. In 2016, he went 9-3 with a 2.47 ERA for Triple-A Gwinnett to earn a promotion to the majors, where he went 2-4 with a 5.88 ERA in 52 innings. That December, the Braves traded him and prospect Brady Feigl to the Rangers for Luke Jackson and was soon claimed off waivers by the Reds. The following month, the Padres claimed him off waivers. San Diego released him in July 2017, marking the end of his baseball career.

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[1] Derrick Goold, “Deal sends Miller to Braves, brings Heyward to play RF,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 18, 2014.

[2] Derrick Goold, “Deal sends Miller to Braves, brings Heyward to play RF,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 18, 2014.

[3] Jason Parks and Staff, “Prospects Will Break Your Heart: Top 101 Prospects,” Baseball Prospectus, January 27, 2014, https://www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/article/22670/prospects-will-break-your-heart-top-101-prospects/.

[4] Jennifer Langosch, “Taveras ranks third among top 100 prospects,” MLB.com, January 23, 2014, https://www.mlb.com/news/oscar-taveras-of-st-louis-cardinals-third-in-top-100-prospect-rankings/c-66987862.

[5] Derrick Goold, “Deal sends Miller to Braves, brings Heyward to play RF,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 18, 2014.

[6] Paul Newberry, “Atlanta to ‘move on’ without Heyward,” The Macon Telegraph, November 18, 2014.

[7] Paul Newberry, “Atlanta to ‘move on’ without Heyward,” The Macon Telegraph, November 18, 2014.

[8] Derrick Goold, “Deal sends Miller to Braves, brings Heyward to play RF,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 18, 2014.

[9] Derrick Goold, “Deal sends Miller to Braves, brings Heyward to play RF,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 18, 2014.

[10] Derrick Goold, “Deal sends Miller to Braves, brings Heyward to play RF,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 18, 2014.

[11] Derrick Goold, “Deal sends Miller to Braves, brings Heyward to play RF,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 18, 2014.

[12] Derrick Goold, “Deal sends Miller to Braves, brings Heyward to play RF,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 18, 2014.

[13] Paul Newberry, “Atlanta to ‘move on’ without Heyward,” The Macon Telegraph, November 18, 2014.

[14] Bernie Miklasz, “Cards are taking a big risk, but they were forced into it,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 18, 2014.

[15] Paul Sullivan, “A card-carrying Cub,” Chicago Tribune, December 16, 2015.

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