St. Louis Cardinals: Team has ignored August trade upgrades

The St. Louis Cardinals say they’ve been on the lookout for ways to improve the club for the 2017 stretch run.  The evidence points to a contrary reading.

Less than two weeks ago, the St. Louis Cardinals were in a virtual tie with the Chicago Cubs for the top spot in the NL Central. Since then, the teams’ fortunes have diverged, as the North Siders have ascended and the Cardinals dropped back to floating around the .500 mark.

A lot of the Cards’ woes in mid-to-late August can be traced to an overworked and erratic bullpen and failures among the starting rotation. Since a fine stretch following  the All-Star break, a couple of the key pieces of the relief corps — notably Matthew Bowman and Brett Cecil — have ERAs above 7, and starters named Mike, namely Leake and Wacha, have struggled mightily.

Cardinals management might be forgiven for not seeking the difference-making bat that the team has long indicated is missing. After all, those pieces are hard to come by, especially after the non-waiver trade deadline at the end of July.

And yet less than a couple weeks ago, the MLB-best Los Angeles Dodgers, clearing all 29 other teams in the waiver process, managed to pry substantial outfielder Curtis Granderson from the New York Mets in return for the Dodgers’  28th-best prospect. In other words, they got Granderson for virtually nothing other than salary assumption.

So put aside whether the Redbirds should have put in for Grandy during a run of meaty offense. But with the major deficiencies on the pitching side, wasn’t there anything the team could have done in August to stem the defensive tide?

Well, in point of fact, there was. As MLB Trade Rumors showed just days ago, a number of the top remaining trade targets were on the pitching side, with several of them either free agents after this season or next. In other words, the price would hardly have been significant for such add-ons.

These aren’t glamorous names, but then again, neither were Octavio Dotel, Edwin Jackson or Marc Rzepczynski in 2011 when they were acquired for the out-of-favor Colby Rasmus. That deal solidified both the stretch run and the amazing playoff performance culminating in a World Series victory.

Juan Nicasio? Who knows if the Pirates would deal him to their fellow NL Central contender, but the Pirates seem virtually out of it and Nicasio’s contract expires at year’s end. It’s doubtful there would have been a high price to pay.

Brad Ziegler? Another dependable arm sitting on the Marlins, who, while with a record just behind that of St. Louis, certainly aren’t acting like they have a major investment in this year’s pennant chase. Ziegler is signed through 2018.

With the Marlins now in the process of changing ownership, it sure seems like the Fish wouldn’t mind dumping some payroll, and would the Cards mind having a dependable arm in the pen for next season at a fair price, while shoring up the crumbling dike for this year as a bonus? It seems like there’s some appeal there.

Craig Stammen? We just saw him as the Padres dealt a major blow to the Cardinals’ chances by taking three of four at Busch. Stammen may not be front-line, but as a longtime useful core of many bullpens, he could have offered us stability at surely a reasonable price.

Another Pad, Clayton Richard, could serve as either starter insurance or long relief for the Redbirds for the remainder of the season, again for little investment. Same with the White Sox’ Miguel Gonzalez.

The point is, with the deals that have gone down — we mentioned Granderson, and the well-regarded Neil Walker was dealt as well — it sure seems clear that there were opportunities to improve a club for bargain-basement-level prices.

Do I think the St. Louis Cardinals delved seriously into this market exploration? Well, they say they did, but the results out in the real world suggest a contrary conclusion.

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Did the Cards “give up” on this year? I think that would be an exaggeration. But I think the team is so utterly committed to its youth movement that they seemed disinterested in upgrades that would benefit the postseason push, even for very little give up in return.

How does that make you feel? As I’ve written before, I’m a fan of seeing what we have for the future, and in sorting out the many prospects and their potential.

On the other hand, when one all of a sudden finds oneself in the thick of a race, it is the responsible thing to look for at least modest fixes to give the team and its fans a reasonable shot at keeping up with the Joneses, who in this case are the Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers.

Unless that happens in the next few days, I’ll have to conclude that the team of Mozeliak and Girsch weren’t willing to part with even minor minor leaguers to make the St. Louis Cardinals major league club better for the 2017 postseason push.

While hoarding top 10-15 prospects is certainly a fine idea, especially given the punishment rendered in the Astros hack, I think it would have been responsible to devote modest resources for the 2017 run, especially when the St. Louis Cardinals pulled even with the Cubs.

Next: If Gyorko can't return

But absent some major surprise, last-minute move, or an unexpected surge with the arms we’ve got,  I wouldn’t get too excited about the last few weeks of 2017. There doesn’t seem to be much of a commitment, based on the evidence, to reinforce the St. Louis Cardinals for a significant push.