St. Louis Cardinals: 3 roster holes that need to be addressed by the trade deadline

The St. Louis Cardinals are in a really tough spot so far in 2023. Despite having two of the best offensive players on Planet Earth in Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado and some really interesting young players on the roster, they find themselves way below .500 and lurking at the bottom of one of the worst divisions in baseball (although, in fairness, the AL Central is probably the actual worst). 

In fact, things have gone so badly that it is hard to see how the Cardinals could logically approach the trade deadline as buyers beyond this short winning streak of late. Sure, there are absolutely going to be players available that would help the Cardinals' big league roster and yes, they have the prospects to get a significant deal done even if multiple biggish trades might be getting too ambitious. However, at some point they can only make up so much ground and trade deadline roster retooling can only do so much, right?

As it turns out, the Cardinals do, in fact, still seem to think that they can turn things around for the moment. While team executives are almost never going to publicly throw in the towel this early, it sure seems like St. Louis, at least for now, is looking to try to be buyers at the deadline this year.

Given the state of the NL Central, one cannot really blame them for not being very intimidated by the teams ahead of them, but they have a lot of work to do. While they have been able to string together some wins lately, this is a roster that needs some love and soon.

With all of that in mind, here is a look at the holes on the Cardinals’ roster they really need to address at the deadline if they are going to have any hope of turning the season around.

Rotation, rotation, rotation

No one, I repeat, no one should be surprised that starting pitching is at the top of the Cardinals’ needs heading into the trade deadline. if they choose to be buyers. The Cardinals rotation has consistently ranked in the bottom half in the league by most metrics and that is just not going to work over the course of a long season.

Some of this can be chalked up to some crummy luck as the BABIP against Cardinals’ pitchers is among the highest in the entire league. Combine that with the rotation with having the most innings pitched in the National League and having some talent deficiencies and you have a rotation that is unlucky, probably staying in games too long, and not particularly good.

One thing that is particularly troublesome for St. Louis is that the rotation as a whole doesn’t miss bats nearly enough as they have one of the worst strikeout rates in all of baseball. Miles Mikolas and Jordan Montgomery have been the Cardinals’ best pitchers this season and neither are big strikeout guys. As for Adam Wainwright, well…lets just say that he is pulling the Cardinals’ numbers down a good bit in the K department as well. In short, too many balls in play is a recipe for problems especially when you are a bit unlucky on balls in play.

Fortunately, there are some options that theoretically should be available at the trade deadline to help out. Shane Bieber is a guy that should be available as a guy with a bit of team control at the deadline. Getting him could be pricey, though, and his strikeout numbers have dropped significantly this year. He does at least have a previous track record of missing bats, though.

Michael Kopech is another option that has big time stuff, even more team control than Bieber, and is on a White Sox team that is also underperforming and who should be in the mood to sell at the deadline. Other options could include Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, and Eduardo Rodriguez as well as an assortment of rental types that could provide a boost.