By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today | @cbrown_STLBBT | July 31, 2016, 9:46 am CT

The day has come, and it’s time for the Cardinals to choose a direction.

Do they add a reliever or an impact bat, showing management believes they can make a run at the NL Central this season?

Or do they trade away an outfielder, a bullpen arm, or starter Lance Lynn, signaling more of an eye on 2018?

Or will they stand pat, doing nothing at the trade deadline, and letting things play out on their own the rest of the season?

We should know the answer by this afternoon.

With mere hours left until Monday’s 3 pm CT non-waiver trade deadline, we’ll keep track of the latest news and reports involving the Cardinals, as they come in, below:

OLNEY: SPECULATION WITHIN INDUSTRY LYNN MIGHT FIT BEST WITH CLE.

12:19 pm CT: ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets that there is “speculation within the industry than Lance Lynn might fit best with the Cleveland Indians.” The Astros, Royals, Yankees, and Rockies have also been connected to Lynn, who’s set to become a free agent this offseason.

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Indians have scouted Lynn’s starts recently. A source also suggested to Goold that the Cardinals would talk to Cleveland about one of their outfielders. As previously reported, he notes the Cardinals are open to trading an outfielder.

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