While the St. Louis Cardinals have been better than expected so far this season, don't be shocked if you see Chaim Bloom and the front office cut ties with a piece or two ahead of the 2026 Major League Baseball trade deadline.For example, ESPN's Jeff Passan noted that the club will "almost certainly" trade veteran left-handed reliever JoJo Romero ahead of the 2026 trade deadline this summer."As far as subtracting ... well, they pretty much did that all winter," Passan wrote. "Which has left them with a paucity of clear candidates to move. Nootbaar hasn't played yet this season, but he's a high-on-base outfielder who can play some center and has another year of club control. JoJo Romero will almost certainly move, as every team can use left-handed relief help, and Dustin May — St. Louis' only other impending free agent — could as well. The question multiple teams have: Will the Cardinals cash in on their excellent closer Riley O'Brien, who has four years of control remaining beyond this season but is 31 years old." The Cardinals Should Trade JoJo RomeroJun 2, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jojo Romero (59) pitches against the Texas Rangers during the sixth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn ImagesThis is how it should be for the club. Romero had the best season of his career in 2025 and logged a 2.07 ERA in 65 appearances to go along with a 55-to-29 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 61 innings pitched. Arguably, he should've been included in the offseason veteran exodus that included trades of Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray and Brendan Donovan. Romero will be a free agent after the season and he isn't having the same season so far. He has allowed at least one run in each of his last two outings. He allowed one run in 2/3 of an inning on Tuesday and followed up by allowing two earned runs in 2/3 of an inning on Wednesday. Now, he has a 3.54 ERA in 28 appearances so far this season. Now, of course, that is still very solid. But it's not the 2.07 ERA he had last season. After the season, Romero is heading to free agency and there's no way to know if he'll be back. Action beyond the 2026 season is completely up in the air right now anyway with the collective bargaining agreement set to expire in December. If the Cardinals can trade Romero for prospects, there's really no reason not to. Hopefully, he can turn things around in the short term and then the Cardinals can get a bidding war going for him.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow