St. Louis Cardinals: 5 Unexplored Pitching Trades

Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Both the starting and relief pitching markets are just about played out at the high end. The St. Louis Cardinals won’t be able to sign any free agent without splurging on dollars and years. John Mozeliak should trade for a starter instead.

Last week, Fox Sports ran a nice little slide show running through the starting pitching options now for the jilted Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals. The Dodgers have already inked one of the pitchers in the slide show, Hisashi Iwakuma. The other ten are still either free agents or subjects of trade rumors.

Most of the names have already been picked apart by the Redbird Rants staff. The free agents you’d expect are on the list. Yovani Gallardo. Scott Kazmir. Mike Leake. So is former St. Louis Cardinals starter Shelby Miller, who the Atlanta Braves may soon take off the market and wait to move at the July trade deadline, when teams are more desperate and irrational.

Let me just say this before we go any further. The St. Louis Cardinals need offense more than they need pitching, even with the Lance Lynn loss. GM John Mozeliak is likely working to get a big bat. The St. Louis Cardinals have enough pitching talent at the upper levels to plug holes until, maybe, the team can add a #1 or #2 starter at the July deadline.

That said, four the names on the Fox list stand out as bombshell acquisitions should the St. Louis Cardinals pull off a deal for any of them — now or in July. Remember, talks Mozeliak is having in Nashville this week could become the foundation of a major deal struck at the deadline.  Should the St. Louis Cardinals acquire any one of the following 5 pitchers, now or then, the team will easily have one of the best staffs in baseball.

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