Latest Cardinals trade creates competition for 2026 starting rotation

After I had been clamoring for a trade of some kind, the one I personally did not want to see happened. The St. Louis Cardinals jumped into the first base trade market and dealt Willson Contreras to Boston, where he will join Sonny Gray as the Red Sox aim for another postseason run.

There is a full-blown rotation competition brewing in St. Louis.

As was the case in the Gray trade, the Cardinals will get a major league capable pitcher in return as well as minor league arms who may or may not pan out in the future. When Richard Fitts made his way to St. Louis in Chaim Bloom's first offseason trade, he fully inserted himself into a starting rotation that is full of young question marks. Fitts just turned 26 and he has 15 major league games to his credit with a 2-5 record and mediocre peripherals through his small sample size. The Cardinals may be welcome to having Fitts start in the minors, but they surely would like major league returns from the first major trade of the rebuild.

While Fitts seemed to slot right into the back end of the rotation alongside Kyle Leahy and/or Andre Pallante, things got more crowded when the Cardinals tapped into big league free agency and signed Dustin May to a one-year deal (with an opt-out) for May to prove his value to the rest of the league. That transaction once again had a direct impact to the 2026 rotation and could easily lead to one of the former pitchers mentioned being shoved out of the starting five. As the inactivity grew around the Cardinals, it looked like the team was going into the new year with a starting five of May, Matthew Liberatore, Michael McGreevy, Leahy, and Pallante/Fitts.

Just as we were gearing up for the holidays and getting ready to continue the trade chatter until January, Bloom struck again, once again calling on his old employer and sent Contreras to Boston for three more pitchers. The major league pitcher headlining the return to St. Louis is Hunter Dobbins, who actually profiles similarly to Fitts as a right-handed contact pitcher. Dobbins, a former eighth-round pick during Bloom's Boston era, made his major league debut last season, but tore his ACL covering first base in July. According to Dobbins' Twitter page, he is progressing through his recovery and hopes to be throwing on a mound this month. If that timeline holds true, then that enters another pitcher into the starting rotation competition.

After acquiring Dobbins, there are seven pitchers on the current roster for five starter spots, and that does not even count the prospects knocking on the door, like Quinn Mathews. The Cardinals also added Jared Shuster on a minor league deal on Monday, and he has spent most of his professional career working as a starter. A former first-round pick, Shuster was eventually moved to the bullpen for the White Sox, and the Cardinals could be viewing the lefty as a bullpen replacement if and when JoJo Romero is dealt.

With a few more major league players remaining on the trading block, it is possible that the St. Louis Cardinals could look different than it does today. The entire rotation, besides May, has multiple years of control and are all in their 20s, so the Cardinals may opt to supplement their mid-rotation arms with some higher ceiling pitchers or minor league hitters nearing the majors.