The St. Louis Cardinals suddenly find themselves facing a serious problem in their starting rotation. What once looked like a manageable pitching situation has quickly turned into an innings crisis following injuries to Andre Pallante and Hunter Dobbins.
The timing could hardly be worse.
St. Louis has already leaned heavily on its Triple-A pitching depth this season, and the organization made another important decision at the trade deadline when it moved Dustin May. With two more starters now sidelined, the Cardinals have fewer reliable internal options available to absorb the additional workload.
That could force the front office to get creative.
Rather than continuing to stretch its existing pitchers beyond their limits, St. Louis may have to look outside the organization and take a chance on a veteran starter who is available on the open market. At this stage of the season, there are not going to be many attractive choices. Most available pitchers will come with significant questions, poor recent numbers, injury concerns or some combination of all three.
Still, the Cardinals do not necessarily need a perfect pitcher.
They need innings.
St. Louis recently signed veteran left-hander Josh Fleming to a minor-league contract, giving the club another potential option if the organization believes he can provide meaningful innings at the major-league level. Fleming has experience working in multiple roles, which could make him particularly useful for a team attempting to stabilize a battered pitching staff.
There is also plenty of intrigue surrounding Cooper Hjerpe. The 2021 first-round pick has been impressive this season while returning from Tommy John surgery, but the Cardinals have understandably been cautious with his workload. Turning him into a full-time major-league starter right now would represent a significant jump, particularly given the amount of innings he has been allowed to throw during his comeback.
Hjerpe could eventually become an important piece of the Cardinals’ rotation, but he does not appear to be the obvious answer to their immediate problem.
Kyle Leahy presents another complication. He is already working under an innings restriction, meaning St. Louis cannot simply rely on him to suddenly carry a heavier workload. That leaves Michael McGreevy, Quinn Mathews and Matthew Liberatore as some of the other pieces the Cardinals can work with.
But they need someone capable of taking the ball every fifth day and working relatively deep into games.
That is why the free-agent market deserves attention.
There are several veterans available who could potentially give St. Louis enough innings to survive the remainder of the season. None should be viewed as a guaranteed solution, but when a team is dealing with a rotation shortage this late in the year, the goal is often to find the pitcher with the best chance of exceeding expectations.
Here are five free-agent options the Cardinals could consider.
Lance McCullers Jr.
If a pitcher is going to be brought in as a reclamation project, Lance McCullers Jr. might offer the most intriguing upside of the group.
There are certainly reasons to be skeptical.
McCullers was released by the Milwaukee Brewers after the club acquired him at the trade deadline, and his career has been defined by both impressive stretches and frustrating injury problems. During his time with the Houston Astros, he showed flashes of being a legitimate frontline starter, but injuries repeatedly prevented him from establishing the consistency many expected when he first arrived in the majors.
His 2026 numbers have not been encouraging.
McCullers has posted a 6.55 ERA through eight starts and 10 total appearances. On the surface, that number makes him look like an unlikely solution to the Cardinals’ rotation problems.
However, there is another side to his profile.
He has continued to miss bats at a respectable rate, striking out 9.82 hitters per nine innings while producing a 27.9% whiff rate. That kind of swing-and-miss ability is difficult to find among pitchers available this late in the season.
For the Cardinals, that makes McCullers an interesting gamble.
If the organization believes its pitching coaches and performance staff can identify a mechanical or pitch-selection adjustment that unlocks some of his old form, the potential reward could be significant.
Among the available options, McCullers probably has the highest ceiling.
Of course, the downside is obvious. There is no guarantee that St. Louis can fix what has gone wrong, and his injury history makes him an inherently risky investment.
But considering the alternatives, the Cardinals could reasonably decide that the upside is worth the gamble.
Michael Lorenzen
Michael Lorenzen represents another veteran option, although his recent production leaves plenty to be desired.
The Colorado Rockies recently released Lorenzen after he endured the worst season of his career. At 34 years old, he has struggled badly, recording a 7.08 ERA across 25 starts and one relief appearance.
Those numbers are difficult to ignore.
However, there are at least a few indicators that suggest his performance may not be quite as disastrous as his ERA indicates. His 5.23 FIP is considerably lower, while his velocity remains relatively consistent with what he has produced in recent seasons.
The bigger issue is that Lorenzen simply has not generated many strikeouts. His 14.6% strikeout rate leaves very little margin for error, especially when opponents are making quality contact against him.
His .331 batting average against is another major red flag.
If St. Louis were to sign him, the objective would probably not be to turn Lorenzen into a strikeout pitcher overnight. Instead, the Cardinals would need to figure out how to limit hard contact and get him to produce more routine outs.
There is at least some evidence that his environment played a role in his struggles.
Lorenzen posted a 5.61 ERA away from Coors Field compared with a 9.12 ERA in Denver. That is still not good enough to inspire tremendous confidence, but moving away from one of baseball’s most hitter-friendly environments could help.
At this point in the season, though, the free-agent market is not going to offer many pitchers coming off strong campaigns.
If the Cardinals pursue Lorenzen, their player-development and performance departments would have to believe there is something they can unlock.
Miles Mikolas
This is the option Cardinals fans probably saw coming.
Miles Mikolas and St. Louis have a long history, making him perhaps the most familiar name on this list. Bringing him back would also feel like the kind of move that could easily come from a front office seeking a known quantity during a pitching emergency.
But familiarity does not necessarily make it the right decision.
Mikolas made 11 starts and 25 total appearances for the Washington Nationals this season before being released. He worked 116 innings and posted a 5.82 ERA.
His -1.0 fWAR tells an even more concerning story.
The veteran has previously demonstrated an ability to give a team innings, which is precisely what the Cardinals need right now. However, simply eating innings is not enough if those innings consistently put the team in difficult positions.
There are certainly connections between Mikolas and St. Louis that make the idea easy to imagine. The Cardinals know him, he knows the organization, and he would presumably require little adjustment to the team’s environment.
But this should be viewed as a fallback option rather than a priority.
If St. Louis has a choice between Mikolas and another available veteran with more upside, the Cardinals should probably pursue the alternative.
The rotation crisis is real, but that does not mean the organization should settle for a familiar name simply because it knows what it is getting.
German Márquez
German Márquez is another intriguing possibility, particularly because he could benefit from pitching in a much friendlier home environment.
Márquez recently signed a minor-league contract with the Minnesota Twins, but depending on the terms of that agreement, there could potentially be an opportunity for him to opt out and pursue a major-league opportunity elsewhere.
That could put the Cardinals in position to make a run at him.
His first season away from Colorado has not gone according to plan. Márquez posted a 5.26 ERA in 10 starts and three relief appearances with the San Diego Padres before being released and subsequently joining Minnesota.
One of the biggest concerns is his home-run rate. He has struggled to keep the ball in the park, which has contributed significantly to his poor results.
That is where Busch Stadium could become an interesting factor.
St. Louis plays in a ballpark that has historically done a good job suppressing home runs and extra-base power. A pitcher who has been hurt by the long ball could potentially see his results improve simply by moving into a more favorable environment.
There is also reason to believe Márquez may still have something left.
At Triple-A this season, he has posted a 3.32 ERA across five starts and seven total appearances. His underlying numbers are less convincing, with his expected ERA and FIP suggesting that some regression may be coming, but the results are at least encouraging enough to warrant consideration.
For the Cardinals, Márquez would be another reclamation project.
But unlike some of the other options, there is a reasonable path toward him providing useful innings if the organization believes it can help him regain some of his previous form.
Marco Gonzales
The final name on the list is perhaps the most familiar to Cardinals fans.
Marco Gonzales was originally selected by St. Louis in the first round of the 2013 MLB Draft. The Cardinals eventually traded him to the Seattle Mariners in the deal that brought Tyler O’Neill to St. Louis.
Since then, Gonzales has carved out a respectable major-league career.
He has made 162 starts and 173 total appearances while posting a career 4.14 ERA. However, his current situation is far less encouraging.
Gonzales has made 17 starts at Triple-A this season and has struggled badly, carrying a 7.70 ERA.
That number alone makes him a difficult recommendation.
Still, there is at least a small reason for the Cardinals to consider him. Gonzales recently opted out of his contract with the Texas Rangers, and when he received opportunities to pitch in relief for their major-league club, he showed signs of effectiveness.
The problem is that asking him to return to a starting role would be a much bigger gamble.
At this point, signing Gonzales would essentially be a “cross your fingers and hope for the best” move.
That does not mean it would necessarily fail. Veteran pitchers sometimes find something late in their careers, particularly when placed in a familiar organization or given a specific role. But the Cardinals would need to believe their coaching and performance teams could make meaningful adjustments quickly.
Fleming or Pete Hansen could represent comparable alternatives, and neither should necessarily be ruled out. Still, a veteran such as Gonzales could provide another option if the Cardinals decide they need experience more than upside.
The Cardinals need innings now
The biggest takeaway from St. Louis’ current situation is that the organization cannot afford to wait too long.
Injuries to Pallante and Dobbins have created a genuine shortage of available innings, while Leahy’s workload restrictions further complicate the situation. The Cardinals have already used much of their internal depth, and the trade deadline removed another potential option in May.
That leaves the front office with a difficult choice.
They can continue shuffling young pitchers through the rotation, potentially exposing them to workloads they were not prepared to handle, or they can take a calculated gamble on a veteran free agent.
None of the five names above represents a perfect answer.
McCullers offers the most upside but also carries considerable risk. Lorenzen has experience but has struggled badly. Mikolas is familiar but has shown little this season. Márquez has an intriguing home-ballpark fit and some encouraging Triple-A results. Gonzales brings extensive experience but has struggled at the minor-league level.
In other words, there is no obvious solution.
But the Cardinals do not necessarily need an ace. They need someone who can take the ball, provide five or six competitive innings and prevent the bullpen from being overworked every night.
If St. Louis can identify the pitcher whose underlying numbers suggest a turnaround is possible, that player could become a surprisingly important addition.
The margin for error is getting smaller.
With injuries mounting and internal options being stretched, the Cardinals may have no choice but to look outside the organization. And if they are going to take a gamble, they should prioritize the pitcher with the greatest chance of giving them something they desperately need right now: reliable innings.
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