The St Louis Cardinals tried their best to get Giancarlo Stanton, but that won’t be happening.
The team announced on Friday that despite their efforts to get the slugger to waive his no-trade clause and accept a deal to play for them, Stanton wouldn’t budge. Hence, they are moving on.
#STLCards owner Bill DeWitt: “We had an agreement to acquire Stanton . . . We have been notified that he will not waive his no-trade clause to come to St. Louis.”
GM John Mozeliak: “We felt this was a great landing spot for him, but it was not meant to be.”
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 8, 2017
The Cardinals were 83-79 last season and placed in the middle of the pack in the NL for home runs. Yadier Molina, Matt Carpenter, Tommy Pham, Jedd Gyorko, Paul DeJong, Randal Grichuk, and Dexter Fowler all popped at least 18 home runs, but none of them have the kind of 40-homer power Stanton does. That’s why they were working so hard to land the slugger.
The Giants are the other team that was working hard and had a deal in place to get Stanton. However, they are not on his reported list of four teams where he would accept a trade. The question becomes whether Stanton caves and agrees to go to San Francisco, or if another team he prefers steps up instead.