2 starting pitching trades the St. Louis Cardinals could make

These are two hypothetical trades that I think could net the Cardinals a top-flight starter.

The rotation of the St. Louis Cardinals has not offered much promise over the first few games of the season, and the team has shown it is in desperate need of an ace who can shut down an opposing team’s lineup.

On Opening Day against the Toronto Blue Jays, Miles Mikolas allowed 10 hits and five runs in only 3.1 innings. The following game, Jack Flaherty wiggled out of jams almost every inning, allowing seven walks but no runs over five frames. In the third game, Jordan Montgomery went five innings and surrendered three runs on six hits. Finally, on April 3 against the Atlanta Braves, Jake Woodford labored through 4.1 innings, allowing six runs on seven hits, including three home runs.

Overall, the starting rotation ranks 28th in baseball with a 7.14 ERA over 29 innings of work. No one should believe that the rotation will be this bad for very long, but it just highlights the concerns that fans and experts hand about this club coming into the season. It's no wonder fans have been calling for rotation improvements for months now.,

No matter how dominant the Cardinals' offense is this year, the pitching needs to have at least the occasional decent performance so that not all games end up as shootouts. A starter who can reliably pitch deep into games and avoid taxing the bullpen would be extremely valuable and provide the Cardinals some much-needed stability on the mound.