The Cardinals have traded Jack Flaherty to the Orioles for three prospects

After an up-and-down career with the Cardinals, Jack Flaherty is now a Baltimore Oriole

St. Louis Cardinals v Chicago Cubs
St. Louis Cardinals v Chicago Cubs | Quinn Harris/GettyImages

Story amended after the reported inclusion of Zack Showalter

The St. Louis Cardinals, in the final minutes of the MLB trade deadline, have traded RHP Jack Flaherty to the Baltimore Orioles for INF Cesar Prieto, LHP Drew Rom, and RHP Zack Showalter.

I talked about the Orioles' interest in Flaherty this morning, and they have finally pulled the trigger on making it happen. The Cardinals were not able to package Dylan Carlson with him to get a higher return.

Cesar Prieto is the Orioles' 16th-ranked prospect and has torn it up at Double-A and Triple-A this season, posting a .868 OPS and garnering a lot of attention amongst the Baltimore brass.

Drew Rom was also a part of the Orioles Triple-A affiliate and has posted a 5.34 ERA over 86 innings of work with 100 SO. His high strikeout rate is going to be of major interest to the Cardinals, but he needs to regain his command in order to compete at the big-league level.

Zack Showalter is a 19-year-old in Class-A who has posted a 2.37 ERA across 9 starts in Rookie and Single-A this season. I do not have much information on his right now, but Kyle Reis, who breaks down Cardinals' prospects, seems to be high on the inclusion.

Jack Flaherty is about as polarizing of a starter as the Cardinals have had in some time. He reached heights few others have (his second half of 2019 is one of the best of all time), and also struggled with injuries and inconsistency afterward that have significantly halted his development and career overall.

He'll finish his Cardinals career going 41-31 with a 3.58 ERA in 633 innings over the course of seven seasons. There was always hope that Flaherty would settle into the ace role, but it just never happened. Fans, the team, and Flaherty himself will no doubt look back on this as disappointing.

That wraps up the Cardinals' 2023 trade deadline. We'll have plenty of reactions and coverage over the coming days here at Redbird Rants.

Check out my weekly podcast "Redbird Rundown" on Spotify or Apple Podcasts as well as follow me on Twitter @joshjacoMLB for more Cardinals content

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