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The St. Louis Cardinals have a decision to make with the MLB trade deadline approaching. Will they be buyers or sellers? The organization is currently sitting at 47-42 on the year, which is good enough for second place in the National League Central.
Despite an average offense and struggling rotation, the Cardinals remain in the NL Wild Card race. On top of that, three important players are on the verge of returning from injuries in Lars Nootbar, Tommy Edman, and Ivan Herrera. The production St. Louis gets out of these three will play a part in what direction they will go on July 30th.
Via Ken Rosenthal:
“Outfielder Lars Nootbaar is expected back next week, catcher Ivan Herrerabefore the All-Star break. Center fielder Tommy Edman, out all season recovering from right wrist surgery, is on track to return after the break.”
“The big thing for the Cardinals is, will we score enough runs?” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said. “Getting Nootbaar and Edman back could change that calculus. We’ll see.”
Perhaps the biggest offensive issue for the Cardinals is the struggles of veterans Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt. While Arenado is slashing .270, he has just seven homers. As for Goldy, he's batting .226 with 11 bombs. Not good enough from either star. On top of that, Jordan Walker, who showed promise last season, is down in Triple-A and showing no signs of turning things around.
Cardinals need to pick direction
St. Louis ranks 19th in the big leagues in runs scored with only 4.1 per game. They're also just 16th in average, 18th in OBP, and 19th in slugging. The Cardinals have only slugged 84 home runs, too.
As for pitching, this is an old rotation. While the staff as a whole owns a 3.95 ERA, the starters aren't the most consistent. Sonny Gray and Kyle Gibson have ERAs under four, while Miles Mikolas and Lance Lynn have been disappointing. Andre Pallante has been a breath of fresh air though, while Steven Matz could be back in August. He was terrible before going on the shelf, posting a 6.18 ERA in six starts.
Even though the numbers do not look good, it's actually slightly impressive that St. Louis remains in the postseason mix. Mozeliak wouldn't commit to the team potentially trading for another starter because of some intriguing prospects currently in Triple-A:
“We’re not going to chase something or do something that doesn’t make sense or you have to overpay for,” Mozeliak said.
It's hard to know what the Cardinals will get from Nootbar and Edman specifically. Nootbar is hitting .234 this season with five long balls and 19 RBI. He just missed almost six weeks with an oblique strain. That's a tricky injury.
As for Edman, he was supposed to be back a lot sooner. His wrist issue lingered and as we know, that's a complicated injury for baseball players. Edman hasn't played at all in 2024.
It will be very interesting to see what the Cardinals do at the deadline. That will likely become more clear in the coming weeks.
