On Friday, the Arizona Diamondbacks officially shut down trade talks for superstar second baseman Ketel Marte. And the residual effect for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chaim Bloom should be good news.

With Marte off the market, teams should start pivoting to other options. While some will be able to entertain the ideas of Bo Bichette and Alex Bregman in free agency, those who are cost-conscious will turn to Cardinals' All-Star Brendan Donovan, who has two years of team control remaining and will make only $5.8 million in arbitration this season.

His suitors have been known to include the Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants already, but others could get involved. The Tampa Bay Rays had been interested in Marte and have a number of prospects that could be of interest to St. Louis. Bloom also previously worked for the Rays and has relationships inside the front office.

I always think it's fair to admit when I'm wrong, or at least a little misguided. A few days ago I raised the question of "Is Bloom smartly playing hard to get when it comes to Donovan, or is he just being hesitant to make a deal, as was his reputation in Boston?"

Well it appears that it's the former. With Marte and Brandon Lowe (traded to Pittsburgh) off the market, the Cardinals should have multiple solid offers for Donovan in the coming weeks. Bloom has the situation he wants: Lots of demand for minimal supply. As long as he actually pulls the trigger on a deal, he will have handled this perfectly.

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Aside from a possible Donovan trade, the Cardinals are still likely to trade top reliever JoJo Romero. And they are also going to move on from Nolan Arenado, it's just a question of it will be through trade or through an outright release eventually.

The Cardinals are not expected to trade slugging first baseman/outfielder Alec Burleson, and there has been little movement on the idea of a Lars Nootbaar trade this offseason as well.

--St. Louis came to terms with several players on Thursday in order to avoid arbitration. You can read full coverage of that story here. 

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