ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Crunch time is upon the St. Louis Cardinals front office, as the team's pitching depth – specifically starting pitching – has been shrinking and the Trade Deadline market is not yet in full swing.
President of baseball operations John Mozeliak gave some insight into how the team is looking to restock its rotation.
"I think right now the mindset of the front office is to be more exploratory on what might be outside the organization to try to add depth and create some leverage at the Major League level even in the short term," Mozeliak said before Thursday's game.
Key pitchers Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas and Jordan Hicks are all likely not going to be ready to play again until after the All-Star break and "best-case scenario" for them is an August return, Mozeliak said. St. Louis has reliever Andrew Miller back as he came off the injured list, while Tyler Webb was designated for assignment – the pitcher with the worst ERA in all of baseball at 13.22 in 22 appearances.
So where do the Cardinals go? There are options in free agency, which we have looked at earlier this week with former aces like Rick Porcello, Cole Hamels, Jeff Samardzija and others available. But Mozeliak said there's "no quick answer" for them.
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"It's not really practical for us to go out and have to have someone spend a month to ramp up at this point, because by then you're looking at the true Trade Deadline period, and you could likely acquire someone that's ready to go then," Mozeliak says. "It's a little bit unfortunate when you look at the injuries we have too and taking a look at when the best chance is for them to play."
A quicker option, you would assume, would be calling up your next-best arm from the minors. But that doesn't appear to be in Mozeliak's plan.
"I just want to be very careful that we don't try to just do something as a knee-jerk reaction to what's happening here at the big league level," Mozeliak says when asked about calling up prospects.
Mozeliak said bringing up the Nos. 1 and 2 pitching prospects in Matthew Liberatore, 21, and Zack Thompson, 23, doesn't sound like an option at this time. Liberatore is getting a "great growth opportunity" with Team USA currently trying to qualify for the Olympics, Mozeliak said, knowing the more difficult decision will come next month if USA does qualify for the Olympics.
"With all candor, I've got to always side with the Major League organization," Mozeliak said. "Based on how we're trending, it would seem like it'd be a really difficult decision for us."
You can see more of what Mozeliak had to say in the video at the top of this page.
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