The Cardinals added a fresh arm to their rotation this week by signing Dustin May. Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Cards are still interested in adding another starter, but it would likely be more of an innings-eating veteran type to provide stability.
May doesn’t fit the bill of a veteran innings eater. He’s had notable injury problems in his career. From 2019 to 2024, he never topped 56 innings in any individual season and also missed the entirety of the 2024 campaign. He was healthy-ish in 2025, getting to 132 1/3 innings, but finished the season on the injured list due to right elbow neuritis.
The St. Louis rotation is lacking in certainty overall at the moment. Erick Fedde was traded to Atlanta in July. Miles Mikolas became a free agent at season’s end. Sonny Gray was recently traded to the Red Sox. That means they’ve lost three of the five guys who gave them 100 innings or more in 2025.
The other two were Matthew Liberatore and Andre Pallante. Liberatore had a decent 4.21 earned run average in his first full season in the majors. Pallante had a decent first half but then faded and ended the season with a 5.31 ERA.
Michael McGreevy will probably get a rotation spot after he posted a 4.42 ERA in 95 2/3 innings this year but his 14.5% strikeout rate was quite low. Richard Fitts, acquired in the Gray deal, has some okay numbers so far but in just 65 2/3 big league innings. Kyle Leahy may get a rotation audition but he has been a reliever to this point in his big league career. Tink Hence and Brycen Mautz are on the 40-man but haven’t made major league debuts yet. Prospect Quinn Mathews has reached Triple-A but walked 17.5% of batters he faced at that level this year.
Mathews isn’t on the 40-man yet. Of everyone else mentioned, May and Leahy are the only two who can’t be optioned to the minors. As of right now, three spots would probably go to May, Liberatore and Pallante. If they make an external addition, that would leave one spot available for McGreevy, Leahy, Fitts, Hence, Mautz or Mathews. If Leahy doesn’t win a job out of camp, he can be in the bullpen. Anyone else who doesn’t get a job can go to the Triple-A rotation.
This is all theoretical and assuming everyone is healthy. These days, no team makes it through a season with just five starters. Injuries are inevitable and will open up further opportunities for anyone who doesn’t have a rotation spot initially. May is on a one-year deal and will likely be traded this summer if he’s pitching well. The same could be true of whichever veteran is added in the coming months. That would leave more starts for the unproven guys in the final months of the 2026 season.
As for who the Cards add, there are many possibilities. Guys like Jose Quintana, Patrick Corbin, Tyler Anderson, Tomoyuki Sugano, Nick Martinez, Martín Pérez, Andrew Heaney, Michael Lorenzen and many others are free agents.
The trade market has fewer of these types. The Cubs may look to move a back-end guy if they sign a front-end type but intra-divisional trades are always tricky to pull off. The Red Sox may be looking to flip Patrick Sandoval but he’s not exactly stable as he missed all of 2025 recovering from surgery. The Jays may be looking to get out from under the José Berríos deal but the Cards don’t make sense as a landing spot for that contract unless the Jays are willing to give up meaningful prospect talent just to make the deal go away. The Rockies may be willing to trade Kyle Freeland but they need innings themselves.
Time will tell how it pans out but it’s a sensible goal for the Cards. Their offseason to-do list is mostly about subtracting, having already traded Gray and with potential deals for Brendan Donovan, Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, Lars Nootbaar, JoJo Romero and others still possible. But they do need to get through the 2026 and have a lot of question marks in their rotation mix. They will want to have chances available for their in-house guys but having a sturdy veteran presence to keep things steady is logical.
Photo courtesy of Paul Rutherford, Imagn Images
I wouldn’t assume Pallante gets a rotation spot. He could end up in the pen.
I hope youre right! He should be long relief or spot starter
I would guess he’ll get a look in the spring, but he has some work to do to earn a rotation spot, no doubt.
Giants have a lot of internal contenders for their 5th rotation spot and Cards have Donovan.
There’s a fit there if one of these teams would just pick up the phone.
There may be a fit but Donovan is worth a whole lot more than an SP5
Thanks, for stating the obvious.
As part of a larger trade, there’s a fit there.
The Mariners have more top 100 prospects to offer but Giants have some very good ones coming. I could see SFG overpaying to get Donovan, minus their top 2 prospects.
I could see the cards taking an unwanted starter contract with prospects attached off somebodys hands. But who out there fits that profile? Or maybe a young starter comes back in one of the eventual deals they make. It will be a very interesting season
I’d love to see the Royals work something up around Lugo or Wacha plus prospects for Donovan.
Good pitchers,but they want younger pitchers. Pitching prospects.
The article talks about an innings-eater. This makes me think of a veteran, stabilizing presence for the staff. Both would fit the bill, but Lugo would provide this AND be a solid #2 or 3 on the staff. Then the younger arm could be where the prospect addition or two comes in.
OR
Take Noah Cameron for Donovan straight up?
The article maybe didn’t hit the rebuild landscape picture hard enough.
The team is playing and developing as many young players as possible for the next year or two. Dustin May as a reclamation project to flip at the deadline is what drove that deal, but he’s an outlier to the plan.
Everything is about the ’26 rebuild and probably the next year, too, for this team.
Well, Noah Cameron would be a great short and long-term addition for you all. But I think we’d only do that one straight up…if at all.
At least this post mentioned Liberatore…
Does Lance Lynn still have 100 innings left in him? 🤔
No.
Nope. The team is developing talent, not running out short-term aged (or retired) veterans.
Lorenzen would be better suited to fill their need for a right handed OF bat.
He did both for the Reds when he worked out of the pen. Actually was a better bat than a couple of the regular OF guys.
Sounds like Donovan to the Mariners for a back end starter, and a prospect to me.
Would have to be a good prospect. But yeah, there’s a potential fit.
More likely, the Cards use dollars for a meh SP (eg.German Marquez) and max out on the prospect return.
Resign Miles Mikolas!
You shut up. Shut up now.
😂 There would be a riot in the STL.
Berrios is probably available:) but he has a no trade clause.
Bad contract trade with Arenado in theory, but he wont take his jab
So many posts saying the Cardinals are a good fit with Donovan for a back-end starter… lol…the Cardinals want prospects….they are not trading their best trade chip for a starter they could sign on the cheap for one year
This is Pallante’s year. May’s too.
May, Liberatore and Pallante at the top is pretty soft though. With McGreevy and Fitts.
Are the Cards a lock for last in the NL Central?
Cards might be a lock for last in the whole league once everyone is traded.
Cardinals will be looking for low cost guys they can flip at the deadline. Corbin, Perez, Quintana, and maybe Mikolas fit that description. I could see them signing either Perez or Corbin
Rsox that’s exactly what they are looking for. They have to many young guys not quite ready yet. I like Q. He was here before and was good…
Corbin please.
Do you want very used Lance McCullers Jr.? He was good once and we will cover 14 million of the contract.
Is this a guess that they want an innings eater? It seems to be, having heard nothing from the Cards.
Development. Development. Development.
It’s a full rebuild, sir.
Cardinals need to sign a bunch of relievers because they’re not going to get much more than 5 innings from their starters