The Brewers just pulled off the exact move the Cardinals are afraid to make

One of the most well run teams in all of baseball just traded away a veteran starting pitcher in order to free up a rotation spot for one of their up-and-coming young arms. Oh, what I'd give for John Mozeliak to do the same thing.

The St. Louis Cardinals were the first victims of Jacob Misiorowski's incredible stuff on Friday night, as the Milwaukee Brewers' top pitching prospect no-hit the Cardinals with five strikeouts over five innings of work during his Major League debut. No, St. Louis does not have a pitching prospect the caliber of Misiorowski waiting in the wings, but they sure do have a couple of Aaron Civale-type pitchers who could be moved on from to create opportunities for young arms who are ready for the big leagues.

The Brewers traded Aaron Civale, proving the Cardinals are just too afraid to make the right decision for their organization.

Civale is a solid big league starter who can give a Major League team back-of-the-rotation production over the course of a season. Sure, when things are firing on all cylinders, he can pitch like a middle-of-the-rotation arm, but we all know what kind of arm he really is. Sound familiar?

The Cardinals have a few of those themselves in Erick Fedde, Miles Mikolas, and Steven Matz. But all offseason long and into the summer months of the 2025 campaign, they've continued to sell fans on the idea that they needed all of these veteran starters to be competitive this year, forgoing potential value in the trade market.

Well, who could have seen this coming? The Cardinals' rotation is falling apart in recent weeks, and the numbers have been suggesting that would be the case for quite some time. Fedde's expected numbers are awful (5.28 xERA and 5.08 xFIP) despite a really solid 3.54 ERA on the season. He's posting his worst K% (14.9%) since 2020 and his walking a career high 10.7% of the batters he faces.

Miles Mikolas, whom some media have clamored for fans to "apologize" to for believing he wasn't good enough to be in the rotation, has a 4.48 ERA on the year, and his expected numbers are not good either (4.40 xERA and 4.93 xFIP). Oh, but if you take out that Boston start...just kidding. I have a hard time believing the smoke and mirrors "success" he's had so far this year will continue.

Steven Matz has been a huge asset for the Cardinals this year, posting a 2.41 ERA and 1.68 FIP in his 19 games (two of which were starts) so far this season. I understand why the Cardinals want to have an arm like Matz around, but their infatuation with Fedde and Mikolas is still mind-boggling to me.

I know I'm being pretty hard on both of them right now, but I do think they — well, more so Fedde — have real value in this league for teams that desperately need starting pitching. While the Cardinals' staff has not been great as of late, there are teams that have no idea who is going to make starts for them later this week and could use the stability that a Fedde or even Mikolas could bring them.

Here's the issue, though — the Cardinals aren't that team, and I don't know why they keep trying to convince us they need Fedde and Mikolas as safety nets for them.

The Milwaukee Brewers are one of the best-run organizations in all of baseball. Not every move they make works out, but typically their thought process is one that other teams, especially the Cardinals, should be learning from. The Brewers, who currently have three starting pitchers on the injured list and have spent each of the last few seasons trying to patch their rotation together on the fly, just saw an opportunity to flip a starter like Civale for a player who could impact their long-term future, even in the midst of playoff race!

Oh, and they even made the move after Misiorowski himself had to leave his MLB debut due to cramping. It's probably a pretty minor thing, but still significant nonetheless, that the Brewers understand the value in adding to their organization elsewhere.

I get that there are differences. The Cardinals don't have a guy as good as Misiorowski waiting around. Civale asked for a trade. The Brewers have earned fans' trust in knowing how to develop pitching. All of that is true. And yet, Milwaukee made the most of a situation, while the Cardinals continue to squander similar opportunities.

The Brewers acquired Andrew Vaughn from the Chicago White Sox in return for Civale, who was the number three overall pick back in the 2019 MLB Draft. Vaughn, who has posted a -1.3 fWAR in 48 games this year and is 27 years old, has had success at the Major League level before, but now the Brewers have a chance to help him turn things around.

And on top of that, Milwaukee is creating space for one of their best young arms in Misiorowski to shine in their big league rotation. That was likely the driving factor for the trade, and now they get to see if Vaughn can provide them value in a different way now that Civale was expendable.

The Cardinals have Michael McGreevy waiting in the wings, and while he's not going to be an upgrade in the same way Misiorowski is, he surely can impact the Cardinals rotation in a positive way, or at least be a lateral move that also allows the Cardinals to stregthen their big league club or minor league depth.

I guarantee you there are teams out there that would trade for Fedde today. I doubt his trade value is the same as it was this offseason (which is a travesty that the Cardinals did not deal him then), but I'm also not so sure Fedde is going to be rebuilding his value as the deadline approaches. What if Fedde could bring the Cardinals a right-handed hitting outfielder with a little bit of control that they could really use right now? Or he could fetch some prospects that help strengthen the depth in the organization.

I've heard the arguments before: "Well, if the Cardinals' rotation has a few injuries, they are going to fall apart or rush another prospect." Well, should an injury occur and someone like Fedde is gone, the club still has Steven Matz, who can enter the picture for them. They also have Quinn Mathews waiting in the wings, who, despite not being on the same level as Misiorowski, like McGreevy, would present some upside to the Cardinals' rotation that they don't have. The Cardinals also have Drew Rom, who has been really solid for Memphis this year, waiting for chances as well.

Should the club need even more arms than that, well, their season was probably doomed anyway. And frankly, we already are seeing their starting rotation become more of a liability than an asset.

The Brewers saw their opportunity and seized it, and now it's time for the Cardinals to do the same.