The St. Louis Cardinals are surprisingly off to a solid start. They entered a 'reset' last offseason but didn't accomplish much in the way of rebuilding, nor improving their roster. However, their offense has been clicking early on thanks to new hitting coach Brant Brown, which has led to them starting out 4-2.
One area that is uncertain is the pitching staff. It has performed well thus far, but teams can never have too much pitching. It's good to have a surplus of options. They have been linked to the Mariners as a potential trade partner in the past, though if they do target pitching, it needs to be young, cost-controlled pitching, not a veteran starter.
They could potentially look to the Mariners for help, as they have a plethora of young arms and not enough spots for every one of them, including Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo and Emerson Hancock.
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Cardinals could pursue Mariners pitchers to boost rotation
Granted, St. Louis already has a few promising pitchers in their system. Quinn Mathews and Tink Hence are knocking on the door, Michael McGreevy and Gordon Graceffo have already tasted the Major Leagues, and Sem Robberse and Tekoah Roby have high upside.
But why not add more pitching? If the Cardinals stay in the race, they could make a contender-to-contender swap with the Mariners, potentially trading one of their young bats to Seattle to bring in more pitching but also help the Mariners fill their offensive needs.
Cardinals would be wise to call the Mariners for starting pitching
A trade between these two teams would make sense, and it would give the Cardinals so many more options to go with their burgeoning class of pitchers. They could potentially be set in that area for years to come.
They already have a lot of position players on their Major League roster who are fighting for playing time, and they also have Thomas Saggese and JJ Wetherholt who aren't far behind.
Of course, a lot can change between now and the trade deadline. St. Louis could fall out of contention and end up being sellers just as they were in 2023. But if they don't, then they have a few options they can pursue when it comes to improving the team for the stretch run.
It will be interesting to see if the Cardinals can keep up their hot start. If they can, it might make sense to look into a potential trade with the Mariners. They'll be an interesting team to follow at the deadline.