3 STL Cardinals who won’t survive the trade deadline and why

Jack Flaherty could be pushed out if the STL Cardinals trade to upgrade pitching

The notion of trading Jack Flaherty is a tricky one, but that also doesn’t mean it’s completely unlikely either.

Injuries had plagued the 27-year-old starter for the three seasons prior to the 2023 campaign, limiting him to just 35 total starts over those three years, though one of those was the COVID-abbreviated 2020 season.

Now healthy, though, Flaherty hasn’t been necessarily the same guy. His velocity has dipped alarmingly and he hasn’t been performing well either, posting a 5.29 ERA with a 1.59 WHIP over 10 starts this season, a far cry from even when he flashed when healthy in 2021. And in recent weeks, Flaherty hasn’t exactly taken well to criticism of his stuff on the mound.

The question with Flaherty, though, is that the Cardinals starting pitching has proven to be one of the primary issues behind their awful start to the year and, as such, trying to bounce back from that. So that could limit the trade market for the right-hander who did flash dominance earlier in his career.

At the same time, though, if he’s a malcontent on a roster that’s buying into a surge back into contention during the summer and there is a pitching-desperate team willing to part with either a utility player or prospect the Cardinals like, then Flaherty would make sense as a trade chip to float out there to get a deal done. He’s certainly not helping St. Louis with what he’s been giving them right now, but dealing him might ultimately serve that purpose in the long run.