Colorado Rockies: The top five remaining destinations for Trevor Story

The St. Louis Cardinals are a better fit for Trevor Story

Other than the Houston Astros, the St. Louis Cardinals may be the best fit for Trevor Story as they check nearly every box on Story’s list.

Winning: The Cardinals have won the World Series two times since 2006 and they have made the postseason 15 times in the 22 seasons in the millennium, including each of the last two seasons.

Geography: It’s, admittedly, not great considering that the Cardinals rarely play in Texas and it’s about 650 miles away but it’s a two hour flight. Both of those are comparable to the distance between Denver and Dallas.

A “pretty close” roster: If taken in the winning perspective for that, it’s a yes since they are a playoff team. If taken in the camaraderie perspective, it is also a “yes.” Former Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado and Story are still great friends with each other so Arenado may be able to convince Story to go to St. Louis.

The Cardinals also don’t have a great bat at shortstop in Paul DeJong. He hit .197 with an OPS+ of 86 in 2021. Story, even having a down year himself in 2021, is much better than that. DeJong is, arguably, as good or better defensively than Story so if the Cardinals wanted to keep him around, he could be on the bench or play second (more on that in a moment). DeJong platooned with Edmundo Sosa in 2021, who was much better offensively (108 OPS+) but not as good defensively.

DeJong hasn’t played second in a while but did play 20 games there in 2017. Sosa can play second, short, or third (and he did play center field for one out in 2021).

Tommy Edman is their current second baseman and he was good defensively, as he had 6 DRS and won a Gold Glove. But he has played third, short, and all of the outfield spots too, including 41 games in right field in 2021.

The Cardinals outfield is very good (when healthy) as they have Tyler O’Neill, Harrison Bader, and Dylan Carlson out there but if the DH comes to the NL, the Cardinals could mix and match with the aforementioned infielders and outfielders in the DH spot.

The most likely action would be that DeJong would be traded but the Cardinals could make it work with all of them.