Cardinals' nightmare situation may come to an end with surprise trade interest

For all of the players that the St. Louis Cardinals could potentially trade today, I certainly didn't have Miles Mikolas on my bingo card!

If you watched Miles Mikolas' last two starts with the Cardinals, you may have noticed a substantial uptick in the velocity he is throwing, and apparently that may be drawing interest from teams in desperate need of pitching at this deadline.

Miles Mikolas may be drawing interest from contenders as Cardinals hope he'll waive his no-trade clause

Jon Heyman just reported that Mikolas' velocity uptick has come from some changes he has made to his mechanics, and that because of the success he is having with that, teams may try to grab him from the Cardinals on deadline day.

Mikolas somehow has a full no-trade clause and is owed $17.6 million this year, so finding a trade partner for him would be very complicated. Mikolas has expressed a desire to remain in St. Louis, and he lives in Jupiter, Florida during the offseason, so the list of places he would be open to going to, if any, is likely small.

The San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers, Mikolas' former teams, could be plausible destinations for the veteran right-hander, and even though the Miami Marlins are looking to trade away Sandy Alcantara and Edward Cabrera for maximum value at this deadline, they are in the playoff race as of now and may want to backfill those moves with a guy like Mikolas. Other contenders could emerge as well who frankly just need innings, but Mikolas will have to approve of the deal, and the Cardinals may need to eat some money.

Mikolas owns a 4.83 ERA in 21 starts this year, but has seen more success on the mound in his last two starts, allowing just two earned runs over 11 innings of work. The Cardinals would be clearly looking to just move off the remaining salary in a trade and free up a spot in their rotation for a young arm, so no, there's not a return to be excited about.

We'll keep you updated on if something happens with a Mikolas trade, but at the very least, the Cardinals seem to be active on other fronts on deadline day.