Red Sox fans made waves this past offseason with unrealistic trade proposals involving the Cardinals, most notably demanding St. Louis include rising star catcher Ivan Herrera in a deal for Nolan Arenado—just to offload part of Arenado’s contract. The assumption was that the Cardinals were desperate enough to sweeten the deal with valuable talent, a notion that looks increasingly misguided.
Herrera, now thriving in 2025 with an impressive slash line and defensive value, was never a realistic trade throw-in. Meanwhile, Boston’s Triston Casas, who was central to many of these imagined trades, is out for the season after an underwhelming start. The disparity in performance has only magnified the implausibility of the rumored deal.
Even Red Sox beat writers and Cardinals media have openly mocked those trade ideas. While fans of any team can overvalue their players or underestimate trade dynamics, the insistence from parts of Red Sox Twitter that they could acquire Herrera (and even Ryan Helsley) in one deal has aged particularly poorly.
Ultimately, the Cardinals held onto their top young catcher—as they always planned to—and Herrera is proving them right with his breakout play, making those offseason trade dreams seem more ridiculous with each passing game.
