The St. Louis Cardinals had a very successful trade deadline this year as sellers, sending Dustin May and JoJo Romero to the Milwaukee Brewers and Lars Nootbaar to the Arizona Diamondbacks. They also acquired left-hander Caleb Ferguson from the Cincinnati Reds.
Chaim Bloom was busy in his first trade deadline at the head of Cardinals‘ baseball operations and set the Cardinals up well for the future. But to make room for some of these new players, the Cardinals had to make some roster moves.
On Tuesday, the team announced that Ferguson had been activated to the 26-man roster while left-hander Quinn Mathews was sent back down to Triple-A Memphis. St. Louis also recalled infielder Cesar Prieto from Triple-A.
St. Louis Cardinals Activate Caleb Ferguson in Flurry of Roster Moves
Ferguson was acquired in exchange for $250,000 in international pool money. He has appeared in 26 games with the Reds this season, winning his only decision, recording a save and even making a start.
The 30-year-old owns a 4.01 ERA this season and a 3.69 lifetime ERA. With Romero on the injured list, the Cardinals were down to just one left-hander in their bullpen in Justin Bruihl.
Now that Romero is not coming back, the Cardinals needed another left-handed presence in their bullpen that can be used in high-leverage situations, so it was important for Chaim Bloom to make this move to try to get St. Louis through the rest of the season and improve the bullpen.
Mathews made his major league debut on Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays. He unfortunately took the loss, but he only allowed two runs over five innings pitched. Chances are that Mathews will be back up with the major league club sooner rather than later.
Perhaps with May gone, Mathews could slot into the rotation and allow the Cardinals to improve it from within rather than having to go out and make any other moves. The left-hander is St. Louis’ No. 8 ranked prospect courtesy of MLB Pipeline.
The Cardinals are fortunate to now have a little more pitching depth in their system, which has them set up nicely for the next several years, and it shouldn’t be much longer before Mathews is a regular part of the Cardinals’ starting rotation.
St. Louis acquired Prieto at the 2023 trade deadline. He has made a few trips up to the big leagues but has not been able to stay for long.
St. Louis Cardinals Could Play Spoiler Down the Stretch
Even though St. Louis added Ferguson via trade, they were still sellers at the deadline. They are four games out in the National League wild card race, so getting to the postseason is highly unlikely now that they are below .500.
However, St. Louis can still impact the playoff race in a different way. Perhaps they could play spoiler against contending teams. They have matchups with the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox down the stretch, all of whom are playoff hopefuls.
The Cardinals’ future does look a little brighter after the deadline.
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