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The St. Louis Cardinals made a lot of trades last offseason. However, they are already reaping the benefits of those deals.

The St. Louis Cardinals have been a lot better than they were expected to be. The National League Central is currently a division in which all five teams have a winning record, including St. Louis.

After trading away Brendan Donovan, Sonny Gray, Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras, preseason projections were not kind to St. Louis. Many had the Cardinals sinking to the bottom of the NL Central. While that could still happen, they are currently 16-13 and sit just three games back of first place.

In fact, the Cardinals strangely are outperforming the Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks, all of whom received veterans from the Cardinals and were expected to be clear contenders.

St. Louis Cardinals Reaping Benefits of Offseason Trades

For context, the Diamondbacks are 15-13 and sit in third place in the National League West, while Seattle is 15-16 and sits in second place in the American League West. Meanwhile, the Red Sox have been a major disappointment this season and have sunk to the bottom of the AL East with a 12-18 record.

In fact, things got so bad for the Red Sox that they took things a few steps further, firing manager Alex Cora and several other members of the coaching staff.

The Cardinals still could fall out of contention, especially after making so many trades this past offseason. But for now, they are reaping the rewards of these trades. With all four veterans gone, more playing time has been opened up for players like JJ Wetherholt, Nolan Gorman, Alec Burleson and even Nathan Church.

With no pressure on the team, the younger players have been able to simply go out and play nine innings each day and not have to worry about their jobs being on the line. That has allowed the Cardinals to play loose and relaxed and even defy some of their preseason expectations.

And the fact that they are playing better baseball than all of the teams that they did business with this past offseason is a testament to the attitude and vibes of the team, as well as manager Oli Marmol’s ability to make the most out of limited resources.

The Cardinals may just be able to fly under the radar this season and prove their doubters wrong by finding more ways to win and maximizing what they have in their younger players. There is certainly a difference between this year’s team and the past three seasons.

Chaim Bloom Changing the Vibes in St. Louis

Bloom may have been tasked with initiating the Cardinals rebuild and by all accounts, tearing down the roster by getting rid of veteran players, but that hasn’t stopped the Cardinals from showing a lot of promise early on.

The vibes are certainly different, and a lot of that has to do with the new energy that Bloom has brought to the table for the organization, and it’s clear that the Cardinals are benefitting from that.

It was time for changes to happen, but perhaps that was all that was needed to get them back to where they need to be.