Cardinals dream Opening Day rotation after free agency: New era begins in St. Louis
Building the Cardinals dream rotation for 2025
After a few seasons in denial of an eventual rebuild, St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak is finally biting the bullet and committing to a full scale rebuild in his last season with the job.
Part of this rebuild will be the complete tearing down and rebuild of the starting pitching rotation. Last season, the Cardinals trotted out veteran after veteran from Miles Mikolas to Erick Fedde to Sonny Gray to start games for them. In 2025, it'd be shocking if more than one of these veterans is left in St. Louis.
The Cardinals have already seemingly cut ties with Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn this offseason. Gray, though he has a no-trade clause, is going to be shopped to whichever teams he would agree to a trade to. Mikolas may be making too much money for a team to want to trade for him, but I can't help but believe that St. Louis will try to get him out of town.
This could result in one of, if not the youngest rotations in all of baseball. And honestly, after years of nothing but veterans, it would be a dream for the Cardinals to trot out five starters of the future.
What would the Cardinals dream Opening Day starting rotation look like in 2025?
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Cardinals dream Opening Day rotation after free agency
Rank | Pitcher |
|---|---|
1 | Erick Fedde |
2 | Roki Sasaki |
3 | Andre Pallante |
4 | Michael McGreevy |
5 | Tink Hence |
Top prospect Tink Hence replaces free agent Kyle Gibson in the rotation
The Cardinals have let Gibson go in free agency and they need to replace him in the rotation. Rather than looking at some of the free agent starting pitchers, the best place for St. Louis to upgrade their rotation is through their own farm system.
Top prospect Tink Hence was ridiculously dominant in 20 Double-A starts a year ago. He posted a 2.71 ERA and allowed just 59 hits in 79.2 innings while striking out 109 hitters. With another offseason under his belt by Opening Day, there's no reason why he shouldn't be a candidate to skip Triple-A completely and begin the season with the Cardinals.
This is, obviously, barring injury or any kind of setback. Assuming Hence develops well this winter and has a successful Spring Training, he should find himself in the backend of the Cardinals young pitching rotation.
Cardinals sign Roki Sasaki and trade Miles Mikolas to make room
St. Louis needs to find some way to get Mikolas out of town. They're expected to trade just about every player that other teams are interested in including Ryan Helsley, Sonny Gray and Nolan Arenado. If they can attach Mikolas to one of these deals, they would be set up much better in 2025 than with him on the roster.
Replacing Mikolas in this dream scenario would be international free agent Roki Sasaki.
While St. Louis likely won't aggressively hit free agency as they look to rebuild, Sasaki is quite the exception. Coming over from Japan as a 23-year-old means he's only eligible for a minor league deal. If the Cardinals can sway him to sign with them, he would be a huge building block of their big-league rotation.
Cardinals trade Sonny Gray and elevate prospect Michael McGreevy to St. Louis for good
Veteran ace Sonny Gray has a no-trade clause, but with the Cardinals looking to rebuild, it's doubtful that Gray will decline too many trades out of town. His interest will likely be in winning and he won't be doing too much of that with the Cardinals.
If St. Louis moves Gray this winter, it clears a path for prospect Michael McGreevy to remain in the big leagues for good. Last season, McGreevy made four big league appearances where he went 3-0 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 innings. Across those 23 innings, he allowed just 16 hits and two walks while striking out 18 batters.
He's a top ten prospect in St. Louis' organization for a reason and it's going to be tough for them to leave him in the minor leagues for any longer. Assuming that St. Louis clears room for him and that he has a good offseason and Spring Training, there's no way that McGreevy begins the 2025 season in Triple-A. And he absolutely should stick in the big leagues.
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