Cardinals trade former NL Reliever of the Year
Tuesday evening, with the trade deadline looming, St. Louis Cardinals backup catcher Yohel Pozo approached a teammate in the clubhouse with a baseball and pen in hand, looking to lock up a meaningful souvenir with an inevitable trade in the offing.
He got his deal done just in time, and the Cardinals did as well. Closer Ryan Helsley was traded to the New York Mets on Wednesday evening, according to multiple media reports, including Jeff Passan of ESPN and Jon Heyman of the New York Post.
In return, the Cardinals received 20-year-old infielder Jesus Baez, 22-year-old righty starting pitcher Nate Dohm, and 23-year-old righty reliever Frank Elissalt. All three are playing for the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones.
Helsley was the team’s longest tenured player, having been selected in the fifth round of the 2015 draft. He has been one of the most dominant closers in baseball over the last four seasons, making the All-Star team in 2022 and 2024 and leading MLB with 49 saves last season, when he won the Trevor Hoffman Award as the National League reliever of the year.
This year, with some decreased effectiveness of his fastball, Helsley recorded 21 saves for the Cardinals with a 3.00 ERA. Due to be a free agent at the end of the season, the Cardinals took on the posture of a seller following a disastrous road trip to Arizona and Colorado out of the All-Star break.
MLB Pipeline ranked Baez as the Mets’ eighth best prospect and Dohm as their 14th-best; Elissalt did not rank within the top 30. None of the three are considered especially close to the majors, as the Cardinals evidently opted for a package of talent that is firmly focused on a view toward the future.
Relief pitchers began to move off the board in a flurry on Wednesday evening, one day before the deadline, with the Minnesota Twins moving star closer Jhoan Duran to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets responded in kind to their division rivals, making an aggressive move to shore up the back end of their bullpen.
In pairing Helsley with Edwin Díaz, the Mets now have a dynamic closing duo that should give them the opportunity for early matchups and strong lock-down opportunities late in games. Díaz and Helsley also form a mutual insurance policy for each other, should one or the other falter.
The Cardinals continue to work on deals for their other pending free agent relievers, Phil Maton and Steven Matz, while fielding broader interest in players under team control. Both Maton and Matz are expected to be traded by Thursday’s deadline, with lefty JoJo Romero also in play.
In Helsley’s absence, should Romero not be traded, he would figure to pick up some opportunities as the team’s closer, as he did in 2023 when Helsley finished the season on the injured list. In addition to Romero, Gordon Graceffo, Riley O’Brien and Matt Svanson all figure to receive increased leverage opportunities as the team evaluates their long-term bullpen options.
None of the three players acquired for Helsley are on the team’s 40-player roster, and none require protection from the Rule 5 draft this winter. That allows for more flexibility than the crop the team received when they undertook a sell off at the 2023 trade deadline, which is a necessity given the ascension of some of their incumbent top prospects.
A longer timeline also provides a longer evaluation and building period for incoming president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, and could be a signal that the Cardinals are planning on using the coming season or two as an opportunity to undertake a deeper reset of their minor league system in the face of rebuilding their player development apparatus.
With Helsley’s departure, Iván Herrera is now the team’s longest-tenured player, having signed as an amateur free agent from Panama on July 7, 2016.
This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 6:27 PM.