3 routes the Cardinals can take to save their rotation from truly imploding

The St. Louis Cardinals' rotation has two black holes in it right now, and if they can't figure out a way around that soon, the club may truly free-fall in the standings over the next few months of baseball.

For much of the season, the Cardinals' rotation has been "good enough" to help the club be competitive and win a lot of ballgames. Going into this week, the Cardinals were nine games above .500, their best start to a season through their first 85 games in 17 years, and were sitting in a playoff spot. Is this one of their better teams of the past 17 seasons? No, but it did go to show that for all of the angst that many felt about the club, they were competing through the month of June.

Cracks did begin to show in June, though, with the offense becoming even more inconsistent, some of their reliable bullpen arms having tough stretches, and of course, the implosions that Miles Mikolas and Erick Fedde have had on the mound.

When it comes to the offense, other than potentially adding another right-handed bat, most of the answers will come from the return of injured players like Ivan Herrera and Jordan Walker, as well as players like Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar, Willson Contreras, and others getting out of the slumps they have been in. Same goes with the bullpen, that while one addition would be helpful, the guys they have in the organization have to step up.

What remains very unclear right now is how the Cardinals plan on fixing their rotation woes, and I would argue that how they handle their starters moving forward will play the greatest role in whether or not the team remains in contention all season long. The concerns around the lineup and bullpen are real and could also trip this club up if they are not careful, but I see far more solutions already in place with those groups than I do with this rotation.

Today, I wanted to lay out three routes the Cardinals could take to improve their rotation. One of them feels a bit unlikely but is possible should they pursue it, another is very much in reach but I'm not sure if they are ready to pull the trigger, and the third is a route that I could for sure see them taking, and could spell disaster for them from here on out.

Here are 3 routes the Cardinals could take to save their rotation from a true implosion this month