The Cardinals need help in the rotation, and Boston has the kind of arms that could make sense as trade targets again.
St. Louis is heading into the winter ahead of the 2027 season with some clarity at the top and plenty still unsettled behind it.
Kyle Leahy, Andre Pallante and Michael McGreevy should be viewed as locks for the rotation right now. Quinn Mathews also flashed enough down the stretch to give himself a real shot, though that still sounds like a spring training decision.
Matthew Liberatore belongs in that same competition. After that, the picture gets murky fast.
The organization does have some high-end young pitching on the way, with Liam Doyle, Tanner Franklin and Jurrangelo Cijntje all in the pipeline. But there’s no guarantee any of them will be ready to break camp with the major league club. That leaves the Cardinals in the market for a veteran starter, and the Red Sox fit the profile.
These two clubs already did business plenty last winter. Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray both ended up in Boston, and there were even rumors that the Red Sox had interest in a third Cardinals deal involving Brendan Donovan. The connection is there, and Boston has two starters who could be worth a look: Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford.
Houck is the more intriguing name because the ceiling is higher, even if he comes with just one more season of control. His last fully healthy year was 2024, when he made the All-Star team and put together a 3.12 ERA across 30 starts and 178 2/3 innings.
In 2025, he was clearly dealing with something before making only nine starts, and in 2026 he missed the entire season except for the regular-season finale. Now he’s healthy again, a year further removed from the injury, and 2027 is a contract year.
He has every reason to re-establish himself.
That makes Houck a classic buy-low swing. He shouldn’t cost a ton, but if he gets back to the pitcher he was in 2024, he could matter in two ways for St.
Louis: as rotation help and as a possible trade-deadline chip. The Red Sox, meanwhile, are a club that needs power, which is why Nolan Gorman gets mentioned as the kind of piece that might get their attention.
Crawford is a different kind of gamble. He posted a 4.36 ERA in 33 starts in 2024, which led the league, but he hasn’t appeared in a big league game since then. His trade value would be close to nothing right now, but if he’s healthy and resembles that 2024 version, he’d help stabilize the back end of the rotation.
The fit is pretty plain: St. Louis needs pitching, Boston has some to spare, and the two teams already have a recent history of working together. With that kind of track record, a new deal this winter wouldn’t come out of nowhere.
In Other News...
Cardinals Bullpen Questions Just Got Bigger Around One Key All-Star
The Cardinals spent the trade deadline reshaping their roster and their future, dealing veteran pieces such as Dustin May, JoJo Romero and Lars Nootbaar to stock the farm system. Through it all, Riley O'Brien stayed put, even with his name floating through trade chatter as one of the clubs most valuable bullpen arms after a season that included an All-Star nod and a share of the National League saves lead.
Kyle Gibson has only added a new wrinkle to that conversation by suggesting on a podcast that O'Brien could surface as a trade candidate this offseason. St. Louis does control the closer through 2030, which gives the club plenty of leverage, but it also leaves the Cardinals facing another familiar bullpen question: whether to keep building around a proven late-inning arm or use his value to help accelerate the next phase of the roster shuffle. [Read more 🡒]
Albert Pujols Suddenly Feels Closer To A Surprising Managerial Opening
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There is also another Cardinals connection in the mix. Randy Flores, St. Louis assistant general manager, is viewed as a candidate for the Angels front-office job, which only adds to the possibility that this search could wind up circling back to familiar names for Cardinals fans. Pujols has been considered for other managerial openings before, and with the Angels now under Stan Kroenkes ownership, the tie to St. Louis sports makes this one feel a little less far-fetched than it might have a few months ago. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Could Be Near A Tough Nolan Gorman Decision
Nolan Gormans future is one of the more interesting decisions sitting in the Cardinals offseason pile, because the club can keep him around without committing major money, but it also has to weigh whether the fit still makes sense. Since 2023, he has hit below .205, and his .184 average in 2026 only sharpened the questions around a player who once looked like a long-term piece in St. Louis.
The Cardinals also have internal options at third base, which gives them some flexibility if they decide the roster is better served by moving on. Gorman still has two years of team control left, and his arbitration salary is projected around $3.4 million, so tendering him a contract would not be a major financial burden. Even so, the more likely path may be to keep the door open while exploring trade possibilities this winter, leaving the club with a decision that is practical on paper but tougher in reality. [Read more 🡒]