St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals won the dogfight that is the NL Central, and proceeded to beat the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. Despite being slaughtered by the World Series champion Washington Nationals, there is a lot of optimism shining throughout the Red Birds.
Despite that, Marcell Ozuna is a free agent and needs to be replaced if they don’t re-sign him. They could ink another free agent or make a trade instead. Martinez could entice the Cardinals as he would be a humongous addition to the middle of their batting order.
Just like the dilemma with the Phillies and Indians, Martinez would have to man left field if he was sent to St. Louis. There is reason to be optimistic about Martinez on a National League team.
Martinez was dealt by the Detroit Tigers to the Arizona Diamondbacks in July of 2017. He proceeded to tear the cover off of the ball, perhaps his best offensive stretch in his career. Martinez wasn’t anything special with the glove, but that’s not why you acquire a player of his caliber.
The Cardinals main struggle in the NLCS against the Nationals was the inability to do any damage against the starting pitchers. Martinez can do a better job offensively than Ozuna and be an immediate presence in the order, providing protection for Matt Carpenter, Paul Goldschmidt, Kolten Wong, and Dexter Fowler.
The main roadblock in the way of this trade is that Ozuna and the Cardinals likely have a mutual interest in inking a contract together. Because of that, the Cards may be able to get a discount.
Realistically this trade won’t happen because Ozuna thrived in 2019 with the Cardinals and Martinez isn’t too flashy with his glove.