Cardinals: 4 aces St. Louis should trade for this offseason

The Cardinals are lacking a top-end starter in their rotation and could look to these five names to fill in this offseason.

The St. Louis Cardinals made two trades at the deadline to acquire starting pitching in the forms of Jose Quintana and Jordan Montgomery. Both moves proved to be excellent for St. Louis, as they desperately needed starters who could give them quality innings. This offseason, the Cardinals need to have their eyes set on higher level starters.

Quintana and Montgomery are great, but there is a tier of starters that are simply above them that the Cardinals need in their rotation. St. Louis has a lot of 3 or 4 level starters, but lack that true number one to lead their staff.

Free agency has a few aces on the market who will be available if the Cardinals want to spend big. The other option for St. Louis would be to look to the trade market and see what front-line pitching they could acquire.

Here are five ace level pitchers that the Cardinals could trade for this offseason.

Shane Bieber

The Cardinals have been linked to Shane Bieber for a few years now, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan had confirmed that Bieber “could be had” at the trade deadline despite another great year and the Guardians competing for the playoffs.

Bieber rose to national prominence in 2020 after he went 8-1 with a 1.63 ERA on his way to winning the AL Cy Young award in the pandemic shortened season. He followed that up with a good, but not great 2021 where he went 7-4 with a 3.17 ERA in 96.2 innings while battling injuries. Bieber did regain form in 2022 with a 2.88 ERA in 200 innings of work, but there are concerns.

Bieber has seen his fastball velocity dip by 4 MPH down to 90 MPH this season, and some of his other Statcast metrics raise flags for talent evaluators. Passan mentioned it would take an “exorbitant” asking price to get Bieber, which makes a move for him even riskier, considering the long-term concerns.

Still, Bieber was excellent in 2022, and has two years remain of club control should make him an attractive target for St. Louis, especially if they believe his underlying numbers will not impact future performance or could be turned around.

Tyler Glasnow

Back in December 2021, I suggested that the Cardinals package together Juan Yepez and a few other prospects to go after Tyler Glasnow, who was on the mend after Tommy John surgery. I still believe St. Louis may have been able to pull of a steal of a deal had they done a move like that, and they should still explore Glasnow now that he is healthy.

Glasnow fought his way back from his surgery all season and made it a point to be ready by the playoffs, looking great in his 6.2 innings of regular season work before giving the Rays 5 shutout innings in his playoff start against the Guardians.

Before going down with his season ending injury in 2021, Glasnow had thrown 88 innings with a 2.66 ERA and 123 SO, showing just how dominate of an ace he can be when he is heathy. He has mentioned that his injury was something he had been pitching through for awhile, so now that he had surgery, he is feeling great and ready to dominate.

The Rays, similar to the Guardians, would likely be open to trading their ace for prospects or immediate help in their lineup. Tampa Bay extended Glasnow for two-years in August, so he is under club control through the 2024 season. The Rays have never been shy about trading away top players with a few years remaining of club control, and this is an opportunity St. Louis needs to jump on.

Shohei Ohtani

Earlier this week, our own Ben Remis laid out the case for why Shohei Ohtani would be an excellent trade candidate for the Cardinals. Not only does Ohtani give St. Louis that third, powerful bat that they desperately need, but he can also be the ace caliber pitcher than they lack.

Ohtani will find himself in both the Cy Young and MVP conversation during award season after going 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA in 166 innings of work for the Angels on top of his .273/.356/.519 slash line with 34 HR and 95 RBI. Ohtani is the only player in baseball you can acquire who fills a club’s two most valuable needs in one player.

Focusing on the pitching side, Ohtani’s 219 SO in just 166 innings is the kind of pitcher St. Louis lacks. They ranked last in all of baseball in strikeouts amongst their staff this season, and although a lot of that was by design, no true contender can win in October without some guys who can create swings and misses consistently.

Ohtani will surely require a historic package, much like the one Juan Soto commanded this season, but it’s hard to measure just how much of an impact he could make on the Cardinals. He immediately upgrades their rotation to one that can matchup with most in baseball, and then gives them easily the best trio of hitters in today’s game. If the Cardinals want to win the World Series in 2023, this is the best way to do that.