It has been quite the rollercoaster season for the St. Louis Cardinals, which could take yet another turn in the coming weeks.
At 47-42, third-place in the NL Central, and 1.0 games back of the NL’s third wild card a lot, the Cardinals will have a lot of evaluating ahead of them to determine which direction they should take at the trade deadline.
Per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals could take it down to the wire in terms of which direction the club will choose.
“I do feel like when you look at where we are that week leading up, the 72 hours leading up to the trade deadline, that may effect how we make our decisions,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said, per Goold. “Ultimately, I feel like if we just use today as a point in time, we have been able to create a lot of opportunity for the guys we wanted to see play. And then we’ve also had some consistent starting pitching. We’ve had a lot of churn in the bullpen. It’s been consistent and effective.”
According to Goold, Miles Mikolas, Erick Fedde, Ryan Helsley, Steven Matz, and Phil Maton are all free agents after this season, which could entice how the team navigates the deadline, especially with rookie Michael McGreevy awaiting a full-time spot in the starting rotation.
“The Cardinals believe that rookie Michael McGreevy is ready for a spot in the big-league rotation,” Goold said. “They could be moved to trade a pitcher who would clear an opening for McGreevy in the final two months of the regular season.”
Just outside the playoff picture currently, if the Cardinals remain in the hunt, it is likely that they’ll be aggressive at the deadline to make a playoff push. The next couple of weeks will be very telling for the club as they enter arguably the most important stretch of the season.