ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - About 90 minutes after the MLB Trade Deadline passed St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak spoke with media about his feeling on the Cardinals two moves:
• Adding LHP J.A. Happ and cash considerations from Twins in trade for RHP John Gant and minor league LHP Evan Sisk
• Adding LHP Jon Lester from Nationals in trade for OF Lane Thomas
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"We really went into this trying to land some pitching that would give us some stability and some experience," Mozeliak said. "We also wanted to try to do it in a way that we wouldn't be giving up a lot of future talent ... Needless to say, obviously, today we felt like we took a couple of steps forward without having to sacrifice our future. So overall we still want to compete and hopefully, we can get on that run and make a little noise still in the central."
You can listen to the full press conference that was held via Zoom in the audio at the top of this page. Below are a few other questions and answers:
How will Happ and Lester be used?
"It adds immediate depth to our rotation, obviously, both guys will be given the chance to start ... The thought was just bringing some people in that can give us those innings and hopefully that allows us to stretch out that bullpen to where we're not putting too much pressure on them day in and day out."
"I also think it's two guys that can take advantage of this pitcher-friendly ballpark ... Ultimately when you look at where we were a month ago or a month-and-a-half ago and (our starting pitchers) were having trouble getting into the second or third inning and that was putting an enormous amount of stress on different areas of our club. And we hope not only can they give us those innings but it also brings a veteran leadership as well into that clubhouse."
Close to making any other deals?
"When we got in this morning I thought for sure we were going to end up with someone and it didn't happen." (Mozeliak clarified that the player was not a position player).
"One of the things that we were focused on was if there was something we could key in on for 2022 or beyond, but as you could see that wasn't really something that was available. There were a couple of players that were moved that had that type of control, but I think you saw what the price was to get that type of player and for us, it just didn't make sense."
Asked specifically about shortstop Trevor Story of the Colorado Rockies...
"Not talking about specific players, but clearly when you're talking about premium talent, what was being asked for in the market, it was just not something where we were looking to give up one of our top-5 prospects ... It's our responsibility to touch base with lots of teams and make sure we understand what the ask might be and then internally we decide if it makes sense or not. From A to Z we try to make contact with people."
What must this team do to get on a winning streak?
"This club has struggled to find that sustained success or that long run, really since April. So I think what we've seen over the last couple weeks is that when we've had quality starting pitching we ended up with a more positive outcome. From an offensive standpoint, you're finally seeing the outfield that was envisioned last off season finally playing together and their production looks like it's going in the right direction. I think overall it just comes down to playing good baseball."
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