Guardians have obvious trade target in Cardinals reclamation relief project

On April 15, St. Louis Cardinals reliever Riley O’Brien dug into the mound at Busch Stadium and promptly set the Cleveland Guardians’ down 1-2-3 in the ninth inning. 

The first victim was Angel Martínez, who went down swinging at a sinker up in the zone. Then it was Rhys Hoskins, who was caught looking at a fastball in the corner of the strike zone. 

And the final victim was Juan Brito, who hit a lazy grounder to JJ Wetherholt, who threw to first for the game’s final out. 

The day prior, O’Brien picked up the win on the mound after Nathan Church hit a walk-off sacrifice fly in the 10th inning. This time, he was on the mound to pick up his fifth save in a dominant outing. 

While O’Brien’s come back down to earth after that strong start to the season, he still has been generating some buzz as a potential trade candidate due to the fact he’s 31 years old (though won’t be eligible for arbitration until 2028). 

Even if the bullpen isn’t as clear of a need for the Guardians as a position player or starting pitcher, O’Brien would help bring some additional stability to the Guardians' bullpen. 

Riley O’Brien is a clear trade candidate for the Guardians 

You can’t talk about O’Brien without talking about how things have gone for him lately, however. When he took the mound against the Guardians in April, he was one of the hottest relievers in baseball and had yet to give up an earned run.

But he’s given up earned runs in bunches since then, and posted a 6.05 ERA since the start of May (18), though he has recorded 11 saves in that time. 

The biggest thing he’s struggled with has been giving up runs in bunches, as he’s allowed multiple earned runs in five of the 18 appearances he’s made in that time while also making 10 scoreless appearances. 

He may be prone to the big inning, but he’s also just as likely to shut the opponents down in order. 

Now, that doesn’t mean that his struggles should be ignored, which is something our friends at Redbird Rants pointed out, especially since his struggles have resulted in his numbers regressing down to his career averages. 

But there’s more to O'Brien's profile than his performance this season. While he’s 31, he entered this year with just one year of service time, and is set to be under team control until 2030. 

O’Brien obviously wouldn’t be the Guardians’ closer, but he’d immediately fit into the middle-to-high-leverage picture alongside Hunter Gaddis and Colin Holderman. And the very least, adding him to the roster means we’d see less of Matt Festa. 

O’Brien had a career year in 2025 (2.06 ERA in 48 innings) while working as a setup reliever, so he’s had that level of success before. And even if his numbers have taken a bit of a dip recently, he still has a fastball that averages 98 miles per hour and a stellar ground ball rate (54.8%). 

Even though the Cardinals are still hanging around in the National League Wild Card standings, trading O’Brien seems like a no-brainer considering how strong of a market relievers always have at the trade deadline. 

Even if a reliever isn’t a huge need for Cleveland, O’Brien has everything the Guardians love in a pitcher and is an obvious fit.

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