Retooling the rotation has been the St. Louis Cardinals’ top objective this summer after losing three of their best starting pitchers, Adam Wainwright, Jack Flaherty, and Jordan Montgomery.
The Cardinals have filled the voids in the rotation after keeping right-hand pitcher Lance Lynn and adding Sonny Gray and Kyle Gibson this summer.
It appears that the Cardinals are happy with their current roster and won’t be searching elsewhere for upgrades, despite rumors that the newest players added to the rotation won’t be sufficient for St. Louis to recover next season.
The pressure is on St. Louis’ rotation to perform well coming into next season after they concluded the previous campaign with a 43-64 record, 5.07 ERA, 653-to-289 strikeout-to-walk ratio,.289 batting average against, and 1.49 WHIP.
The Cardinals batted reasonably effectively in the previous season, tying for 13th place with an OPS of.742, and if St. Louis were to pursue a trade for starting pitching, they would probably have to give up key members of their lineup.
The Cardinals still have time to chase another free-agent starter, like Blake Snell or Yoshinobo Yamamoto, even though a deal for starting pitching is unlikely to happen. St. Louis is not a major contender, though.
The Cardinals are now focused on improving the bullpen, which could use some depth and a couple high-leverage arms.
With the bullpen, St. Louis should be able to make the same kind of progress as they have with their rotation this offseason.
