The St. Louis Cardinals are a team that may soon be in need of some starting pitching reinforcements.
While their rotation is likely set for 2023, featuring names such as Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty, Jordan Montgomery, and Steven Matz, only one of those five is under contract for 2024.
Wainwright is set to retire at the end of the season, and Mikolas, Flaherty, and Montgomery are all in the final year of their contracts.
The Cardinals will certainly try to extend at least two of their impending free agent starters before the offseason.
But even if they don’t accomplish this, there will be plenty of strong starting pitching options in next year’s free agent class.
Cardinals writer Derrick Goold commented on the state of the pitching staff and next year’s free agent class, noting that several pitchers may be of use to the team.
And here the #stlcards are with as many as three, maybe four openings in the 2024 rotation. So … https://t.co/JEeqq7iePx
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) February 26, 2023
In addition to Flaherty, Mikolas, and Montgomery, there will be some big-name starters available such as Shohei Ohtani, Julio Urias, Max Scherzer, Sonny Gray, Luis Severino, Lucas Giolito, Blake Snell, and Clayton Kershaw.
Ohtani is likely to be well out of the Cardinals’ price range, but names such as Giolito, Severino, Gray, and Kershaw could be fits.
Former Cardinal Michael Wacha may even end up finding himself back on the market by the end of the season.
Scherzer is a native of St. Louis and could be an option.
They lack a true ace in their rotation, but Scherzer could provide that for them.
Of course, the offseason is months away, and we’ll have to wait and see what takes place during the season.
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