2023 has been a tough yr for the St. Louis Cardinals. They’re used to residing within the NL Central penthouse, wanting askance at no matter staff occurs to battle them for supremacy in a given season. Generally they lose these battles – the Cubs put collectively a pleasant run within the mid-2010s, the Reds had their time within the solar earlier than that, and the Brewers have been a thorn in St. Louis’ facet lately. However this sort of collapse – 47-60 and final place within the division – is remarkable.
The silver lining? The Cardinals had a ton of expiring contracts coming into the season, which implies they’ve a ton of gamers to commerce. With the deadline shortly approaching, they’re beginning to flip these gamers into prospects. In two offers on Sunday, the Cardinals despatched out Jordan Montgomery, Jordan Hicks, and Chris Stratton. Montgomery and Stratton are headed to the Rangers; in the meantime, higher hope Hicks has a passport, as a result of he’s now a Blue Jay. Eric Longenhagen is protecting the prospects who’re coming again to the Gateway Metropolis in a separate piece. Right here, I’m simply going to give attention to how these three match with their new groups, and the Cardinals’ normal technique from right here on out.
Let’s begin with the Rangers. This one is fairly simple: Montgomery slots right into a hilariously deep Texas rotation. After buying Max Scherzer on Saturday, their playoff rotation seemed strong. Now it appears to be like even higher. Scherzer and Nathan Eovaldi (well being allowing) are an above-average high duo, Montgomery is overqualified as a 3rd starter, and after him there’s a complete seize bag of fellows I wouldn’t really feel both nice or horrible about as my final playoff starter. Dane Dunning, Jon Grey, Andrew Heaney, and Martín Pérez are all cromulent choices, and the three who don’t draw a rotation project may play up out of the bullpen.
Montgomery is a reduce above that foursome, and that’s essential for the Rangers. He’ll assist in the common season, after all, and provides them tons of redundancy in case of damage. However a robust high three is admittedly necessary on condition that we predict they’re mainly a coin flip to win the division – end behind the Astros and a 3 recreation playoff collection awaits. Montgomery makes that collection barely much less more likely to come up within the first place, and he’s a significant improve because the third starter within the Wild Card spherical ought to that unlucky circumstance come to cross.
Stratton is actually a throw-in, however he’s a invaluable one for a Texas bullpen that was wanting skinny on the backside. Grant Anderson, Yerry Rodríguez, Spencer Howard, and John King (dealt on this commerce) had been all center inning sieves, turning small leads into small deficits and small deficits into large ones. Stratton is hardly a better, however he’s an inexpensive center reliever. He may get pushed down the pecking order when a number of the staff’s starters head bullpenward within the playoffs. Earlier than then, although, he’ll give the Rangers a marginal improve over what that they had earlier than each time he enters a recreation, and that sort of factor issues in tight divisional races.
The Rangers didn’t half with any present main leaguers – King pitched for the massive membership this yr, however he’d been optioned to Triple-A. Once more, Eric is protecting who Texas despatched out in higher depth, together with infielder Thomas Saggese, however Tekoah Roby, a High 100 prospect, is the principle identify value figuring out. This commerce is about profitable this yr with out sacrificing an excessive amount of from the instant future. Sure, Roby may make the bigs subsequent season, however Texas has a ton of pitching depth, what with all these names bouncing round as potential fourth starters and all. The staff’s greatest gamers are largely of their prime years proper now, in order that plan is smart to me. Giving up Roby isn’t costless, nevertheless it’s only a logical extension of the considering that led to buying and selling Luisangel Acuña to get Scherzer.
On to the following commerce: Toronto already has a reasonably good bullpen. Their worst pitcher for the time being might be Génesis Cabrera, who the staff not too long ago acquired from St. Louis in a separate commerce. After that, possibly it’s Nate Pearson or Trevor Richards, neither of whom are unhealthy choices as lower-tier bullpen arms. What Toronto is lacking is a real lockdown kind on the high with Jordan Romano on the IL.
That makes Hicks an ideal match north of the border. He has ludicrous stuff; his 103 mph fastball pairs fairly properly with a nasty sweeping slider that he throws within the higher 80s. The truth that he throws a sinker as an alternative of a using four-seamer means he’s at all times going to permit an honest variety of balls in play, and he’s at all times struggled with command, however the backside line is that this: nobody desires to face Jordan Hicks in an enormous spot. He was in all probability the most effective reliever available on the market after David Robertson received dealt.
When Romano returns, the Blue Jays could have a luxurious merchandise, a closer-level reliever doing setup work. That’s at all times good within the playoffs, when closing the door with a small lead is necessary. Extra importantly, although, the Blue Jays want a strong bullpen proper now. They’re in a tenuous place, clinging to the third Wild Card slot with 4 groups inside 5 video games of them. They’ll take into consideration the playoffs after they make the playoffs; they’re in survival mode.
Just like the Rangers, the Blue Jays didn’t sacrifice something from their 2023 plans to accumulate Hicks. That is smart – what would the Cardinals need with these guys anyway? Toronto didn’t hand over anybody with as a lot likelihood of being an affect participant as Texas did in Roby, however each Sem Robberse and Adam Kloffenstein appear like potential back-end starters, and the present plan in St. Louis for a 2024 rotation is Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz, and cardboard cutouts of Fredbird. A number of bulk arms are simply what the Cardinals are involved in.
That brings us again to the place we began: St. Louis. These offers are a part of a fairly apparent technique for the Cardinals. I prefer to name it Operation Get Pitching Now. The highlights of each of those commerce returns had been starters to rebuild each their skinny main league ranks and their uninspiring prospect pipeline. They’ve lagged behind the remainder of baseball in prioritizing strikeout stuff and leaning into pitcher improvement, and that is the inevitable consequence. John Mozeliak particularly talked about that the staff prioritized including pitchers with excessive whiff charges in these offers, actually.
There are seemingly extra arms coming in quickly. Jack Flaherty is nearly as good as gone. Paul DeJong might be nonetheless going to maneuver. Tyler O’Neill will likely be subsequent if Dylan Carlson isn’t. Giovanny Gallegos can be well-served to maintain an additional few modifications of garments in his highway journey bag. St. Louis got here into 2023 anticipating to make the playoffs, which implies they’ve a ton of gamers that playoff groups need. They’re going to show loads of these guys into pitchers to allow them to kick off 2024 doing the identical factor they do each season: attempt to take over the world NL Central.
