3 unexpected moves the Cardinals could make this offseason

Frankie Montas - Age 30 - SP

Would this be ironic? The Cardinals were reported to be in the Frankie Montas sweepstakes. They fortunately lost out to the Yankees who had to give up JP Sears, Ken Waldichuk, Luis Medina, and Cooper Bowman. Josh Jacobs wrote that that would have been the equivalent of the Cardinals trading away Gordon Graceffo, Michael McGreevy, Jake Walsh, and Jonathan Mejia.

In 2021 he pitched in 32 games and had an ERA of 3.37. That year he came in 6th in voting for the Cy Young Award. Something I am sure the Cardinals were looking at was the 207 strikeouts he had that year. In 2022 he pitched 144 innings and had an ERA of .249. After that, the wheels fell off. Or more to the point his arm. After surgeries and missing almost the whole time he was with the Yankees, he is now a free agent.

This time around all it would take is money. I doubt his salary would be very much and the length should be reasonable with a very high upside. I wouldn’t think the Cardinals would gamble enough to sign both Montas and Ryu but they should get one.