St. Louis Cardinals: Richard Rodriguez is a trade target

The St. Louis Cardinals upcoming series against the Pirates could provide a look at trade candidates, with Richard Rodriguez being among them.

If the St. Louis Cardinals are buyers at the deadline, which is no longer the certainty everyone thought, they need help in all parts of the roster. Rotation. Offense. Bullpen. You name it, the Cardinals need it.

And their upcoming four-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates provides another glimpse at some intriguing trade candidates, perhaps none more so than right-handed reliever Richard Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, 31, is viewed by rival teams as one of baseball’s most underrated relief pitchers, and rightfully so. He has a 1.84 ERA and 25/3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 29.1 innings, emerging as a dominant closer and reliever for a struggling Pirates team. He has had a 2.70 ERA or less in three of the last four seasons, with his career ERA being 3.17.

Acquiring Rodriguez does not figure to be cheap. He is widely expected to be one of, if not the best, reliever available on the trade market. And with relievers always being at a premium at trade season, he figures to land the Pirates a lucrative multiplayer haul in return — and it remains to be seen if that is something the Cardinals would consider for Rodriguez or any other player on the open market.

But there is no doubting what Rodriguez would bring to the Cardinals. He would immediately step into the eighth inning role, with Alex Reyes remaining in the ninth inning, but it’s possible that Rodriguez would shift to the closer role in 2022 when/if Reyes moves to the rotation. But Rodriguez, who is signed through 2024, would help the Cardinals win now and in the future, which is the type of player that president of baseball operations John Mozeliak is sure to covet in the next five weeks.