Cardinals Loosely Linked To Trio Of Upcoming Free Agent Stars As Club Looks To Rebound

St. Louis could make a major splash this upcoming offseason

The St. Louis Cardinals likely are going to be one of the busiest teams in baseball when free agency rolls around. 

While it's certainly too early to start thinking about the offseason for many of the clubs in the big leagues right now, the Cardinals have turned their focus to the 2024 campaign. St. Louis was sellers ahead of the 2023 Major League Baseball Trade Deadline and now will have plenty of holes to fill. Starting pitching is the Cardinals' biggest question mark and the club will have to fill three rotation spots at least after dealing away Jordan Montgomery and Jack Flaherty and the impending retirement of Adam Wainwright. 

While there's so much time until free agency and anything can happen, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Ben Frederickson took a look ahead and suggested San Diego Padres star Blake Snell, Philadelphia Phillies hurler Aaron Nola, and Los Angeles Dodgers starter Julio Urias as three possible free agent targets. 

"Well, the second-biggest table. Beating the game’s biggest spenders to hand out a record-shattering contract for two-way international superstar Shohei Ohtani doesn’t really sound like the Cardinals, does it? Where they absolutely do belong, though, is at the front of the pack of non-Ohtani starting pitching pursuits," Frederickson said. "Pending free agents Aaron Nola (4.43 ERA) and Blake Snell (2.50 ERA) have as many quality starts as Ohtani does this season and both rank in the league’s top 15 since 2021 in strikeouts. Pending free agent Julio Urias, despite struggles due to a hamstring injury this season, has a 3.01 ERA and a 4.47 strikeout-to-walk ratio since 2021. He’s just now about to turn 27."

It's way too early to speculate what the Cardinals will do in free agency, but the very fact that there are sure to be plenty of viable starting pitchers available at least should be good for St. Louis. The Cardinals are going to have their work cut out for them filling out the rotation and maybe one of these three stars could end up with the club.

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