Though the 2023 MLB season has yet to get started, that doesn’t mean we can’t look ahead to 2024 season as well.
The free agency period will soon be behind us, which means we can start looking ahead to what the 2024 free agent class will look like.
There are several key starting pitchers that will be hitting the open market, and there is one team in particular that could use some starting pitching.
With Adam Wainwright retiring and three of their starters set to enter free agency, the St. Louis Cardinals may be more active in the starting pitcher’s market than they have been this offseason.
On Twitter, one Cardinals analyst suggested that Aaron Nola could be a fit.
Aaron Nola just seems like a guy who’d be a Cardinal. https://t.co/xBqdXLj3r7
— Charlie Marlow (@CharlieMarlow_) January 20, 2023
Cardinals fans certainly don’t have fond memories of Nola, as he shut them out for 6.2 innings in Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series.
The Philadelphia Phillies would win that game 2-0 and eliminate the Cards, thus ending the careers of Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina.
But St. Louis has been in desperate need of a frontline starter for several years.
With only Steven Matz under contract for next season, Nola would make sense for St. Louis.
Whether the team’s ownership will decide to adapt to the new strategy employed by other teams or stick to their roots is up to interpretation.
It seems more likely that they’ll continue to trust the usual business model.
But that doesn’t mean that Nola wouldn’t make sense for the Cardinals, nor does it mean they shouldn’t make an attempt to acquire a frontline starter.
NEXT: Four Cardinals Prospects Ranked In The Top 100