The Cardinals have been strongly linked to starting pitching, and the club is making its final assessments in advance of the trade deadline, according to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It appears that St. Louis is aiming for a fairly impactful arm to slot into its rotation.
In addition to Cole Hamels, the club is at least doing background work on Cliff Lee and A.J. Burnett of the Phillies. (As Strauss’s colleague Derrick Goold recently reported, Philadelphia is watching the Cards’ Triple-A club.) Likewise, the Cards are performing diligence on Jon Lester of the Red Sox, Ian Kennedy of the Padres, Justin Masterson of the Indians, and David Price of the Rays — among others — according to Strauss. That does not necessarily mean that the club intends to make offers on any or all of these pitchers, of course, but at least seems to indicate the direction of GM John Mozeliak’s thinking.
Though the team’s offense has lagged at times, it seems likely at this point that the Cardinals will count on its in-house options to increase their output to put runs on the board. But with Michael Wacha and Jaime Garcia out of action, and varying degrees of uncertainty surrounding Shelby Miller and Carlos Martinez, a rotation addition seems quite likely.
As a Brewers fan we will happily go pick up Justin Masterson and pay his salary if that will be your big move.
The Cardinals can most likely get the best value for the least amount of prospects by taking a shot that a team change is all Masterson needs.
Wisdom & Petree for Masterson
Piscotty, Kennedy. Make it happen.
Would love to see that happen. I think more realistically the Padres would acquire Marco Gonzales, Grichuk and maybe a lower piece. Would give the Padres that major league ready starting pitcher they want plus an outfielder almost ready for the majors. Cardinals don’t give up they’re top 3 prospects but acquire a win now pitcher in Kennedy.
Actually a lot of people in the organization would rather keep Grichuk than Piscotty, but both are looked highly upon. Maybe a deal with Piscotty, Marco Gonzales + 2015 Comp. Balance Draft Pick for Kennedy and Benoit?
We want outfielders our bats, WHY would we need more pitching!?!? Our arms are stacked, our bats are stacked in the toilet in last place. They do have some of the best OF prospects so we should make a trade for one of those.
You obviously didn’t read that the Padres want an arm plus more. With no Gm in place they’re weary of making a big decision such as trading one of our top staters when potentially they could compete next year. Which is why they want to offset that loss with another starter plus another. But I do agree, we need more offense, pure and simple.
Lester?
Well without Taveras, Price and Hamels are probably unobtainable. So Cardinals could go after Lester or Masterson. Maybe even Tommy Milone from the A’s. I could see Cardinals making big move, as long as O.T isn’t in a trade.
Knowing the Cardinals farm system, I actually do think they could put a package together that would make me trade Hamels (or Price) without giving up Taveras. However, it would obviously make it a lot easier to include him in the deal.
I would only trade taveras if we can get price, hamels, and even lester long term.
Lester would be a great option for them and as a Sox fan, we are probably losing him at seasons end so if the front office can get a couple pieces from a strong farm then they’re better off.
I know that it is not going to happen but i would still love to see the Cards cut a deal for Price and Longoria or Zobrist. As far as pitching they need to get rid of Gracia in any way shape or form and pick up another lefty. I have a feeling if we pick up Lester he would sign somewhere else this winter. Price would stay for the long term as would Hamels and they are all worth the money they want. But we need offense, Taveras is not the star everyone expected him to be, yes he is young and he has had little time in the majors but he is not producing, nor is Allen Craig. What i think Mo and the Cards should do before the deadline is pick up an offensive threat and a starter that has proven himself but is not a Price, Lester or Hammels.
If they’re going to give up what’s necessary to land Price and Longoria, I would rather see them make a run at Price and Jennings. I doubt either Longoria or Jennings is realistic, but Jennings could fill a much greater need.
Jennings makes no sense… we have a backlog of OF’s as it is.
Sure wish they’d add a big bat instead. Allen Craig has almost disappeared and losing games by 2 runs to terrible teams is just depressing. If your starters hold a game down to 3 runs, a decent team should be able to win that.
Pitching ain’t the problem. Throw the farm at Miami for Stanton.
Not almost disappeared.. He’s long gone. He obviously needs to be put on the DL (for any reason).
The cardinals biggest need is Offense. Giving prospects for rental starters is foolish.