St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom certainly has a tricky few months ahead and this is a good thing. When the season began, the expectations out there were that the Cardinals would simply struggle and when the trade deadline got here, they would be the perfect team for other clubs to look to as a way to try to improve their own playoff runs. This was the case last year with the Cardinals as they traded away relievers, including Ryan Helsley, Phil Maton and Steven Matz. The Matz deal specifically has worked out for the Cardinals. St. Louis traded a rental reliever for a 23-year-old slugger with years of team control ahead in Blaze Jordan. The Cardinals are going to have to find a way to toe the line between giving up pieces if the club is still in contention for a playoff spot, and trying to hit home runs with trades, like the Jordan deal. It's not going to be easy. If the Cardinals were five games under .500, the talk around the team would just be about who the club could trade away. But instead, the Cardinals are six games above .500 at 42-36. Bloom certainly isn't going to have an easy job ahead, but that just goes to show that the Cardinals have played well enough to change the narrative. On Wednesday, the Bloom and newly-appointed CEO Bill DeWitt III made it clear that the Cardinals aren't interested in taking "shortcuts" in this rebuild and alluded to the idea of not going after rentals. On Thursday, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal added more fuel to this idea on "Fair Territory." The Cardinals Have Decisions To MakeAug 28, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Chaim Bloom, Chief Baseball Officer of the Boston Red Sox on the field before the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-Imagn Images | Winslow Townson-Imagn Images"They're not going to be interested in rentals," Rosenthal said. "If they make trades, it will be preferably for control players. Guys they can control for a while. It doesn't mean that they would ignore rentals entirely if they could get one for the right price, but what they're trying to do is build something sustainable. ... That's where the Cardinals are. The door was left open to the front office's view of the season changing if the team keeps winning, but that won't include rentals. Arguably, the worst thing that the Cardinals could do is just stay put. Either try to trade for a few pieces, or trade a few away. If you stay put, you're wasting time. We've already put together a few mock trades for ways the Cardinals could add pitching under team control. If the Cardinals want to add a position player, it would have to be someone who really moves the needle. If you move on from Lars Nootbaar, you have Joshua Báez waiting for his turn down in Triple-A. Unless you don't believe in Nathan Church, you likely don't add an outfielder. If Nootbaar gets moved, you roll with Báez, Church and Jordan Walker. Church is batting .266 as a rookie right now with five homers. If you look to add a position player, you're not looking at first base, second base, shortstop, or catcher. You're loaded in all of those spots. Third base is the only spot that makes sense if you want a veteran, but Jordan is manning the spot right now and has been great. They don't really need to add a position player in the trade market, unless it is a star. The bullpen could make sense, but it's very difficult to get a reliever under team control at the deadline without giving up an arm and a leg. Someone like Garrett Whitlock of the Boston Red Sox would be a dream target with two club options on his deal, but his price tag is going to be very high if Boston sells. This is where St. Louis is right now with the deadline a little over one month away. They're still in playoff contention and maybe could even make a run this season, but they are not going to add a rental, which definitely limits the options to add. Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow