Cardinals Rumors: St. Louis not a possibility for Max Scherzer

The St. Louis Cardinals are looking for options at the deadline still, but they can take Nationals righty Max Scherzer off their list.

In the early parts of the regular season, as the St. Louis Cardinals were atop the National League Central, one prominent question kept coming up: will they acquire Max Scherzer?

The answer, quite frankly, seemed like yes. At least they figured to be a prominent player in the Scherzer sweepstakes come July. But after ace Jack Flaherty went down with a significant oblique injury, the Cardinals season went into a spiral, and at one point they fell to fourth place and over 10 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers. And the Scherzer rumors quickly went from the talk of baseball to off the table.

Now, with the Cardinals eight games behind the Brewers and in desperate need of rotation help, they aren’t even in contention to pursue Scherzer. Jon Heyman of MLB Network said there were 14 teams that have checked in on Scherzer, with Jayson Stark of The Athletic listing the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, Houston Astros, New York Yankees and New York Mets as teams that are involved.

It’s not surprising that the Cardinals are not in on Scherzer, but it is rather disappointing after they entered the season with so much promise following the Nolan Arenado trade. It’s the position that the Cardinals find themselves in, not going all-in on a rental arm who’s ERA sits at 2.83 in 18 starts, instead preferring lower-end arms who are controllable beyond the 2021 season.

But it’s the right strategy for the Cardinals as they look to build a sustainable winner. They have been adamant about not going all-in on this season and impacting future seasons and trading for Scherzer, who is going to require a haul with so many teams involved, would have been a step in the wrong direction.

Scherzer will likely be dealt in the coming days, perhaps to some team in the National League West. But it won’t be the Cardinals. That much we know.