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Having made a dramatic turnaround after a rough start to the season, the St. Louis Cardinals are shaping up to be buyers at the July 30 trade deadline.
Per MLB.com’s John Denton, the Cardinals will “likely target” starting pitchers Nathan Eovaldi of the Texas Rangers and Zach Eflin of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Eovaldi is an interesting trade candidate because it would mean the reigning World Series champions are selling. They are only five games behind the Seattle Mariners in the AL West, but their 46-51 record entering Saturday is the fifth-worst in the American League.
The Rangers are getting reinforcements in their rotation that could make it viable to potentially trade someone from that group. Max Scherzer has made five starts since returning from a back injury on June 23.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said Jacob deGrom “felt great” after a bullpen session on Friday as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery.
Eovaldi does have a $20 million vesting option for next season that kicks in if he pitches a total of 300 innings between 2023 and 2024. He’s currently at 243 innings with 65 games remaining in the regular season.
Eflin is owed $18 million in 2025, the final season of his three-year, $40 million contract signed in December 2022. The Rays are always open to trading anyone, especially a player whose salary is about to increase by $7 million next year.
Both players would be huge upgrades for a Cardinals rotation that is largely being held together by Sonny Gray. Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson have been effective, but may not be pitchers you want to rely on in a potential playoff series.
Eovaldi has a career-low 3.36 ERA with 94 strikeouts in 99 innings so far this season. Eflin owns a 4.18 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 104.1 innings across 18 starts for the Rays.
The Cardinals are 32-21 in their last 53 games after an 18-25 start, but they still have the third-worst run differential in the NL (minus-38). They are currently the No. 2 NL wild card team and trail the Milwaukee Brewers by 4.5 games in the NL Central.
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