The St. Louis Cardinals have entered a rebuild this season. It began when they let a slew of veteran pitchers walk away in free agency. Then, the Cardinals let veteran first baseman Paul Goldschmidt leave in free agency and he's thrived in his role with the New York Yankees. St. Louis would proceed to shop players like Nolan Arenado on the trade market.
They're seemingly still in the midst of this rebuild and they're likely to trade players like Ryan Helsley, Erick Fedde, Sonny Gray, and the aforementioned Arenado. All four of these players will net some kind of return on the trade market while clearing a lot of money off St. Louis' payroll.
But among the current players on the roster, the Cardinals need to cut ties with one specific pitcher, or else fans might begin to riot.
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Cardinals fans would cut Miles Mikolas if they could
The biggest weak link on the Cardinals' pitching staff is pitcher Miles Mikolas and he's also making the second most money this season among Cardinals pitchers.
Mikolas is set to be paid $18.5 million this season before entering free agency at the end of the year. Not only is he eating a lot of the Cardinals' money, but he's been a net-negative player this season, despite a hot stretch over the last few games. Mikolas has been worth -0.1 WAR with an ERA+ of 88. He hasn't posted an ERA+ of over 100 since his tremendous 2022 campaign.
Mikolas has tossed a few solid starts this season, but it shouldn't be enough to keep him on the roster. While some may argue that he's thrown well enough to stay on the roster, I'd argue he's thrown well enough to garner a little trade attention. It's unlikely the Cardinals can find a suitor for the righty, but if anybody in the league is willing to take a risk on him, the Cardinals could eat a chunk of his salary to get him off the roster.
The underlying bonus here would be the fact the Cardinals would clear a spot in the rotation for a prospect to get consistent innings. St. Louis has a lot of talented pitching prospects who need work in the big leagues, but they're blocked by a player with no future on the team.