The Milwaukee Brewers are one win from the first World Series title in franchise history, and their Game 4 starter comes with a familiar name for St. Louis: Dustin May.
For Cardinals fans, that creates a strange little knot. May spent this season in St.
Louis after signing a one-year deal designed to rebuild his value, and he did exactly that. In 21 starts for the Cardinals, he logged a 4.38 ERA across 109 innings.
Some outings got away from him, sure, but more often than not he gave the club a chance to win and revived his market in the process.
That market led to a deal the Cardinals clearly wanted to make. Milwaukee sent two top outfield prospects, Josiah Ragsdale and Alexander Frias, to land May and JoJo Romero for its championship chase. Romero has been a real weapon out of the Brewers’ bullpen this postseason, while May has worked both as a starter and a reliever.
From the Cardinals’ side, the return looks strong. They didn’t stand to gain anything by keeping May past the trade deadline, and getting the best possible haul mattered more than which contender ended up with him. By that measure, the front office did its job.
Still, it’s hard to ignore the optics. May is now in position to start the most important game in Brewers history, and that’s a weird place for Cardinals fans to land.
If he were doing this for the Rays, Guardians, or even the Dodgers, it would sting less. But helping a division rival potentially finish off a title run carries a different kind of discomfort.
The bigger picture, though, still points back to St. Louis making the right call.
The Cardinals identified a fit, got May to buy into their plan, and turned that into two prospects who are viewed by different evaluators as top 100 talents. If Ragsdale and Frias develop, this trade will look even better.
So yes, the Cardinals handled the move the way they should have. But if May winds up as the pitcher who starts the Brewers’ clincher, that’s going to be one odd line on a resume.
In Other News...
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Cardinals Head Into A Pivotal Offseason With Familiar Names At Risk
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The biggest pressure points are easy to spot: third base, catcher and designated hitter all loom as spots the Cardinals may want to address. That leaves this offseason with a familiar St. Louis feel, where the decisions are less about chasing new faces than deciding which current pieces still belong in the conversation and which ones could be moved on from. [Read more 🡒]