Fans of the St. Louis Cardinals felt an all too familiar sting on Wednesday night when Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara was named the National League Cy Young Award winner.
Alcantara made his debut with St. Louis in 2017 and was ultimately traded away in the Marcell Ozuna deal.
Alcantara is one of many recent of examples of players the Cardinals have traded away that have performed well with their new teams, joining Randy Arozarena and Zac Gallen.
This is not uncharted territory for the Cardinals, and it isn’t even the first time that they’ve traded away a pitcher who ended up winning a Cy Young, as one insider pointed out on Twitter.
Steve Carlton was the other one, and he earned his Cy Young Award exactly 50 years ago in 1972.
Former #stlcards pitchers who were traded and went on to be the unanimous winner of a Cy Young Award, either league:
Steve Carlton, 1972
Sandy Alcantara, 2022That's the entire list.#HOF #Marlins #Cardinals
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) November 17, 2022
Cards Feel Familiar Sting
Carlton of course was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, where he would win his four Cy Young Awards.
This is Alcantara’s first.
But this is some rare history that has been made by former Cardinals pitchers, and both of them did it exactly 50 years apart.
In the end, the trade did not work out all too well for the Cardinals, and to make matters worse, Gallen, now with the Arizona Diamondbacks, was part of the trade that sent Alcantara to Miami, and he finished fifth in the Cy Young voting.
Having Alcantara would certainly make things easier for the Cardinals.
Had the trade not been made, they could have had a rotation that featured him, Gallen, and Adam Wainwright at the top.
NEXT: Throwback Tweet Shows A Disastrous Past Cardinals Trade