This Cardinals-Rangers trade could net St. Louis a Jack Flaherty replacement

The St. Louis Cardinals will be looking to make a trade to replace Jack Flaherty in the starting rotation and could target this Rangers pitcher.

The St. Louis Cardinals could find a perfect trade partner in the Texas Rangers to find a replacement for starting pitcher Jack Flaherty in their rotation.

Flaherty was placed on the 60-day injured list this week, making the possiblity of a return to the starting rotation impossible until at least mid-August. Combine this news with an array of concerns facing the Cardinals pitching staff, and it is obvious St. Louis must make a move or two to bolster their pitching staff.

Cardinals should trade for Martin Perez from the Rangers

One interesting option the Cards should consider is Texas Rangers lefty Martin Perez.

In 17 games, Perez is 7-2 with 106 innings in the books. While he has one complete game shutout this season, he has an ERA of 2.72 and 86 strikeouts. Perez also has one statistic the Cardinals have to love seeing. That would be a 52.4% groundball rate.

This is an attribute St. Louis admires thanks to a Gold Glove defense behind the mound in Nolan Arenado, Tommy Edman and Paul Goldschmidt. With this defense, Perez can feel confident in throwing off-speed pitches to induce those groundball outs.

Perez has several of those in his arsenal.

Perez’s most used pitch is his sinker, which averages 92.6 mph with a 22.1-inch drop and an active spin of 98%. He also implements the use of a four-seam fastball, a cutter, a curveball and a changeup.

The addition of Perez would give the Cardinals a lefty arm who will eat some innings down the stretch. While the Cards get innings from Adam Wainwright and Miles Mikolas, having the addition of Perez would be a relief for the bullpen which can find itself taxed during outings from the remainder of the rotation.

As the trade deadline looms, it will be interesting to see if the Cardinals take a chance on this move which would greatly improve their rotation.