The St. Louis Cardinals are in an interesting spot as the trade deadline approaches. They are in the race, but it's not clear whether they will buy or sell.
Perhaps they could do both. They hold the third National League Wild Card spot as of Wednesday and are just four games back in the NL Central.
If they do any buying, it might be wise for them to target a starting pitcher or two.
Thomas Gauvain of Redbird Rants proposed the idea of St. Louis trading for Kansas City Royals right-hander Seth Lugo.
"Since joining the Royals, Lugo has done nothing but excel at pitching. He finished second in American League Cy Young voting last year thanks to a 3.00 ERA across 33 starts and 206.2 innings. He's picked up right where he left off this year," Gauvain wrote.
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Lugo is a proven innings-eater and has done well in the postseason as well. This season with the Royals, he is 5-5 with a 2.74 ERA and 2.7 WAR in 15 starts.
He has a player option for 2026, but with his success, he'll likely decline that option and become a free agent, so any team acquiring him would be doing so as a rental.
The Cardinals could benefit from having the former All-Star in their rotation. They haven't gotten much out of Erick Fedde and Miles Mikolas lately, so adding a third starter capable of pitching in the postseason would give them a chance to go deep if they make it.
St. Louis already has Sonny Gray and Matthew Liberatore, but it wouldn't hurt to add one more piece to the mix. Lugo could be that missing piece that turns them into World Series contenders.
It will be interesting to see which direction St. Louis will take at the deadline.
More MLB: $15 million Cardinals starter named team's top trade candidate