With the 2026 MLB trade deadline now just 11 days away, the Cardinals are sitting on one of the clearest decision points in their organization: what to do with Dustin May.
St. Louis spent the offseason moving veterans out and handing the roster over to younger players, and that approach has produced a group that is among the youngest in baseball.
The Cardinals’ average age is 26.9 years old, second-youngest in the league. That youth movement has brought real reasons for optimism, too.
JJ Wetherholt has emerged, Jordan Walker has broken out, and Michael McGreevy has shown enough over the course of the season to look like a long-term rotation piece. A number of other players have also impressed, and the club has outperformed expectations enough to spark talk about adding instead of selling.
But the standings still leave the picture murky. The Cardinals are 52-49, just three games over .500, and they could still push in either direction.
If they catch fire, the conversation changes. If not, the deadline could look a lot different than some around the team might have hoped.
That’s what makes Chaim Bloom’s first deadline as president of baseball operations so important. And among all the names to watch, May stands out as the biggest domino.
May’s season has been a tale of two stretches. Overall, he has a 4.78 ERA in 19 starts, and his recent form has dragged that number down even further with a 9.92 ERA over his last five outings. That’s a far cry from where his value sat earlier in the year, when he was dealing in April, May and the first half of June.
Even so, the talent is obvious. If St.
Louis decides to move him, it would signal the club is still leaning toward the same general direction it set coming into the season. And that possibility has been part of the conversation since the Cardinals signed him.
If they keep him, though, that sends an entirely different message. Holding May would point toward a real push for a playoff spot, even if it comes with risk.
He has a mutual option for 2027, and that would be a surprise if it were exercised. Mutual options are almost never picked up, which means there’s a legitimate chance he reaches free agency after the season.
In that case, the Cardinals would be taking on the possibility of losing him for nothing.
May’s situation also affects what happens elsewhere on the roster. Quinn Mathews is dominating Triple-A, but there isn’t a clear opening for him in the big league rotation right now.
A trade involving May would create that path. Keeping him would make Mathews’ promotion much harder to justify.
So May isn’t just another name on the deadline board. He’s the move that could reveal what the Cardinals really think of this season - and the move that could determine whether another young arm gets a shot in St. Louis.
In Other News...
Cardinals Just Got A Left Field Bullpen Lifeline To Consider
A bullpen search can take on a different shape this time of year, especially for a club like the Cardinals that is always weighing short-term help against long-term cost. Dennis Santana fits that kind of conversation. He has shown enough in the past to make teams look twice, including a season with 16 saves and a 2.18 ERA, and his contract status means any club that takes a chance on him would not be tying itself down for long.
The appeal is obvious, but so is the caution. Santana has not been nearly as sharp this season, with the kind of command and contact issues that make a reliever harder to trust in a tight game, which is why the Cardinals would be looking at him as more of a low-risk flier than a sure fix. For a team trying to keep its relief options flexible, the question is whether there is enough of the old version left to justify a move now. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Face A Deadline Decision That Could Split The Fanbase
The Cardinals have spent the past two years rebuilding the kind of prospect depth that changes the way a front office can think at the deadline. Since Chaim Bloom took over before the 2026 season, St. Louis has leaned hard into trading established big leaguers for younger talent, and the result is a farm system that now sits among the best in baseball, with Rainiel Rodriguez, Liam Doyle and Joshua Bez headlining the group. For a fan base used to expecting the Cardinals to buy at the right moment, the new reality is a little different, and maybe a little more complicated.
Thats why the next move matters so much. The organization has already shown it is willing to move recognizable names in the right deal, but the current crop of prospects gives it a different kind of leverage, and a different kind of temptation. The question now is whether St. Louis stays patient and protects the premium talent it has built up, or decides the moment is big enough to push chips in for a star with years of control. [Read more 🡒]
Former Brewers Reliever Already Resurfaced With An NL Central Team
Peter Strzelecki did not stay on the open market long after leaving Milwaukee, and the Cardinals moved quickly to bring the right-hander into the fold on a minor league deal. It is the sort of low-risk bullpen add teams make this time of year, especially when they are looking for experienced arms who already know how to navigate a big league season.
Strzeleckis path has been a winding one since 2022, when he began piling up major league appearances with Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cleveland, while also spending time at Triple-A with multiple organizations. For the Cardinals, the appeal is straightforward: add another arm to the system, keep the depth chart flexible and see whether a familiar name can give the relief group another option down the stretch. [Read more 🡒]