Yepez is not ranked high in any rankings that I have seen... He isnt a strong fielder and also is blocked in the organization. He's also behind Baker as a 1B prospect.. Shoot I'd swap a SP prospect for him as long as it wasn't on of our top guys... He has a listed FV of 40 and likely wouldn't even get into our top 30 prospects overall...
Also in 23 the Cardinals have a ton of prospects to protect and they have open 40 man spots. I believe once things open back up they will bring in pieces to help them now.
I honestly feel like Yepez overall isn't going to be as nearly expensive as you think...
Lets wait to see what Yepez rankings and FV are when his past season is taken into account.
If you research all the media reports involving the Cards...both local and national...and if you do the same with their roster, Yepez is far and away the odds on favorite to be their opening day DH. And if you look at Steamer projections, his is for a 117 wRC+.
Now, if you look at the StL needs to cement themselves as strong contenders for the NL Central, they are a back end reliever and another SP...preferably one who is a proven solid MOR at least.
We don't have either that we would trade for Yepez.
StL also has to decide what to do with their MIF situation, and we can't help them there. They aren't interested in a bat first SS, because their defense is built on inf defense behind a groundball staff. Their main concern is upgrading DeJongs offense without hurting the defense. We don't want DeJong and his contract and they don't want Amed. While I am very high on Gimenez, he hasn't yet shown to be a better option than DeJong. The Cards aren't gonna entrust their middle defense to an untested rookie...not in their present situation, so a kid like Arias is not an option either.
We are planning on contending this year on a team built around the rotation and Clase, so we are not trading a present rotation piece for a prospect, unless we get a viable MLB SP in return.
So what does StL have that we might trade a rotation piece for? One of their starting OFs....which StL has no interest in doing.
Forget the BTV site. All their numbers are created in a vacuum, and therefore have little real value. According to BTV, trading Arias for Carson Kelly would be a fair trade. I highly doubt that Arizona agrees.
According to BTV, Arias has basically the same value as Civale, Plesac, or Quantrill. Anybody really want to make that kind of trade...one of our SPs for a MIF prospect?
In any trade proposal, if we are to do it correctly, we have to begin by looking at it from the other teams point of view.
I'd trade Bobby Bradley right now for Yepez, because I dont think that Yepez would be worse, and because he is a RH bat with no splits. They supposedly have the same value, but the Cards would hang up the phone, even though they don't have a left hand bat (2 switch hitters, though) in their lineup.
Fans love BTV...but only to stoke their own preconceived notions. When BTV doesn't fit, they ignore it.
Weeks ago their were some firm opinions that several on here would not trade Palacios (2.4 per BTV) for Ian Happ (18.2). I wish one of them was the Cubs new GM, instead of Carter Hawkins...lol.