St. Louis Cardinals: The Trade Deadline Blowback

With the July 31st Trade Deadline come and gone, we are now seeing the blowback of the St. Louis Cardinals inability to make a deal. What should they do next to try to stay in the NL Central Race?

The St. Louis Cardinals will enter this weekend’s series vs the Pittsburgh Pirates reeling from their five straight losses against the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers, where they only managed to score five runs. After an 8-0 victory vs the Chicago Cubs on August 1st, the Cardinals inability to make a significant move at the trade deadline has exposed the team’s shortcomings going into the stretch run.

Marcell Ozuna‘s highly expected return has yielded two hits and one RBI. Michael Wacha‘s return to the rotation saw him give up six earned runs in only 3.2 innings of work. Matt Carpenter‘s return may have been waylaid by another injury. One of the Cardinals few trade deadline deals, lefty Adalberto Mejia, has already been DFA’d.

We don’t know if we will see Alex Reyes and Austin Gomber before next Spring since as of yet, there is no timetable for their return in 2019.

In addition, former spark plug, Tommy Edman, is hitting a slash line of .211/.250/.263 in his last 15 games. Has he been exposed? Paul Goldschmidt, after coming alive at the plate post-All-Star break, is now hitting a slash line of .185/.214/.296 in his last seven games. Finally, Carlos Martinez, although has five saves in his last seven appearances, also has a 5.68 ERA over the same time period.

There is some good news

Hey, the news is not all bad. Jack Flaherty in his last seven starts has a 1.67 ERA and Miles MIkolas has a 3.14 ERA over his last seven. Also, the two ‘aces’ of the staff are showing the ability to get into the seventh inning more consistently than in the first half of the season.

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Meanwhile, Giovanny Gallegos, hasn’t given up an earned run his last seven outings and Junior Fernandez has finally been called up to strengthen the bullpen. Ryan Helsley is back with the major league club, and Tyler Webb has been surprisingly consistent as the other left-handed option coming out of the bullpen with his 2.35 ERA.

Plus, with the extended IL stint of Yadi Molina, Matt Wieters and Andrew Knizner have been more than capable in handling the catching duties.

Finally, in spite of this recent tough stretch which saw the Cardinals go 3-8, they are only 3.5 games behind the Cubs and only .5 game behind for the second Wild Card spot. This could turn around quickly as we have seen in the past (see 2011).

Some suggestions to keep the Cardinals in the race

We all know now that the solutions have to be internal since there will not be a waiver trade deadline in 2019. So any additions to the major league roster will have to come from the Cardinals minor league system.

First of all, the Cardinals need to find a way to get Randy Arozarena on the 40-man roster. I mean the guy is hitting .370 in Memphis. This team needs something to wake it up offensively, and I can’t see how adding Arozarena can hurt. Remember Tommy Edman was a spark plug when he first came up, Arozarena could do the same for this team. But if they do call him, please, play him every day.

Next, I would consider trying Gallegos in the closer role. He is the hottest hand in the bullpen and Carlos has struggled recently. We know CMart runs hot and cold at times, and he could just be going through one of his cold spells. Nevertheless, giving Gallegos a try as the closer can’t hurt at this point.

What to do about the fifth starter? Why not after the September 1st roster expansion, use the fifth spot in the rotation as a ‘bullpen start.’ With the added arms in the bullpen in September, this could be a solution and won’t risk wearing out any arms. A start under this scenario could look like a Ponce de Leon/Helsley/Wacha start. Once in the postseason (if they make it), a fifth starter wouldn’t be needed.

Finally

The Cardinals just completed a stretch of games against teams who are all likely postseason bound. The next stretch of games on the Cardinals schedule is filled with teams who are not going to the postseason, or like the Cardinals, have some work to do.

Also, Paul Goldschmidt and Marcell Ozuna, along with Tommy Edman could find their swings again, thus reigniting the offense. After all, Ozuna has just returned and there is no reason to think he won’t start hitting again.

But the St. Louis Cardinals are seeing the blowback for their lack of moves at the Trade Deadline. They need to make some roster changes while looking at fresh options for current roles. My ideas may not work, but they wouldn’t hurt either. Hopefully, some changes will be coming soon.