The Cardinals Fleeced the Diamondbacks in the Paul Goldschmidt Trade and it's Just That Simple

The St. Louis Cardinals effectively revived the franchise when they traded for Arizona Diamondbacks star slugger Paul Goldschmidt before the 2019 season. Prior to this move, the Cards hadn't made the postseason since the 2015 campaign, when they were embarrassingly ousted by the division-rival Chicago Cubs.

But Goldy's presence changed everything. The Cardinals eclipsed 90 wins for the first time since 2015 and reached the NLCS for the first time since 2014. The veteran slugger actually had one of his worst seasons as a pro, but nobody is going to complain about a .260/.346/.476 slash line with 34 home runs and 97 RBI. Plus, he signed a five-year extension to remain in St. Louis, so the NL Central champs are here to stay.

But more importantly, the Cards DESTROYED the D-Backs in this trade.

#MLBTonight breaks down the @Cardinals trade for Paul Goldschmidt, right now! pic.twitter.com/SpJlTE3ciA
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) December 5, 2018

We know Goldy -- before signing the extension -- was entering a contract year, but you can't give up a generational talent for this return. Luke Weaver, Carson Kelly and Andy Young make up a package with a lot left to be desired and no surefire top talent with a trajectory to succeed in MLB for years to come.

While Weaver did impress in 12 starts in Arizona last season, finishing with a 2.94 ERA and 1.07 WHIP, he still owns a career 4.39 ERA in the bigs (64 total games). Kelly, who added some pop to Arizona's lineup with 18 home runs, 47 RBI and an .826 OPS across 111 games, is going on 26 years old and has just 174 career games under his belt. And Young? He's actually an intriguing prospect with experience playing all over the infield. And he dominated in his first stint at Triple-A with the D-Backs. It wasn't a bad haul for Arizona, but the Cards are the clear winners because they dealt all of these players from positions of depth -- there was little need for any of them in St. Louis.

Paul Goldschmidt’s trade serves as a reminder of MLB’s depressing boom-and-bust cycles, where rebuilt teams compete for only a few inexpensive years (by @JATayler) https://t.co/jlLY9mDvkR
— SI MLB (@si_mlb) December 7, 2018

It's hard to believe the Diamondbacks could only come away with this package, especially since Goldy was coming off an All-Star campaign in which he won a Silver Slugger and finished sixth in the NL MVP voting.

It's still possible Arizona ends up OK after this deal, but they didn't even come away with a top-10 prospect at the time.