It's the pitching losses that haunt the Cardinals the most

Sandy Alcantara, Zac Gallen, and Jordan Hicks could all be starters for St. Louis right now.

In hindsight, it was a bad deal. Maybe even so at the time of the transaction that sent Marcell Ozuna to St. Louis, and Sandy Alcantara and Zac Gallen back to the Miami Marlins. Shortly after falling short of acquiring Giancarlo Stanton, John Mozeliak and Bill DeWitt Jr. moved their eyes down the seafood player platter deli display, and picked another fish.

It’s even more cruel that Ozuna is thriving this year with the Atlanta Braves, smashing nine home runs and slugging .670 through 26 games. However, it’s not the hitters that have left St. Louis who have hurt, or haunted, the Cardinals the most. That title belongs to the stable of pitchers who are doing a better job elsewhere.

Think of Alcantara and Gallen, two pitchers that St. Louis direly needed these past few seasons. Gallen, transported quickly to Arizona in a trade, has made 121 starts since debuting in 2019 and is getting more lethal with strikeouts each season. He recorded 220 last season, following a 192 punch-out campaign in 2022.

The former arm is currently in Tommy John surgery recovery, but won the Cy Young in 2022 and was a top shelf starter before the elbow started barking. Alcantara put up an earned run average of 3.19 or better, at least 32 starts, and 200 strikeouts in back-to-back seasons for Miami. He’s 28 and has a lot of great baseball left in that arm.

Jordan Hicks stings. Here’s a guy who pledged his desire to start often when he was a Cardinal, and didn’t get to have that wish for long. Hicks made eight starts with St. Louis, saving 28 games. He was striking out hitters at a growing rate, but ran into his own T.J. injury woes. The Cardinals never gave enough time to or solved the Hicks rotation transition. However, the San Francisco Giants fixed his issue rather quickly.

The Cardinals reportedly had him throwing from a higher arm slot, something that was hurting his arm and delivery, crippling the result at the plate. They had him lower his arm angle upon release, and it has turned into a great start to the 2024 season… as a starter. Hicks has put up better stats than anyone not named Sonny Gray, which is a common alarm brought up with St. Louis.

Hicks isn’t striking out as many hitters, with his K-rate hanging between seven and eight instead of nine to ten. That’s fine, because he’s getting more outs and helping his team win games. The Cardinals had to sign two pitchers to one-year deals and hedge bets on Steven Matz lasting a full season and Miles Mikolas bouncing back to complete a rotation overhaul. Still, what they lost is what damaged them the most.

As I stated in the article last week about bad decisions, letting Max Scherzer walk on and toss a big offer at David Price screwed them up until Mad Max started showing some breakdown last season with a herniated disc. But making bad trades, desperate ones even, has cost them pitching. Sem Robberse and Adam Kloffenstein could turn into winners, but not as necessary as Hicks would be in this rotation right now.

Losing Randy Arozarena and Adolis Garcia did extend the outfield woes, but the loss of supreme starting pitching buried this team in the standings. They’ve been lacking a complete rotation for nearly a decade, about the same time it has been since their last NLCS victory. Pitching wins championships. Just don’t tell the Cardinals.