It’s likely that the St. Louis Cardinals’ entire offseason will be a consistent practice of tinkering.

The Cardinals are firmly entrenched in an organizational rebuild that has seen them build assets for the future of the team, at the expense of trading away many of their better and more established veterans.

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Outside of the players dealt, several of the veterans who saw their contracts expire at the conclusion of this past season who didn’t fit with the organization’s plans ended up walking. One of those players was long-time right-handed starting pitcher Miles Mikolas.

On Wednesday, the 37-year-old righty signed a one-year major league deal with the Washington Nationals.

Mikolas spent eight years with St. Louis from 2018-25. The Cardinals took a chance on Mikolas, who was coming off a three-year stint in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (2015-17) after he was released by the Texas Rangers in 2014.

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Mikolas immediately rewarded St. Louis’ faith by leading the National League in wins in ’18 and making his first career All-Star game the same year. His second All-Star selection was in ’22.

Mikolas’ first season with the Cards in ’18 was arguably his best as a major leaguer. He had a 2.83 ERA and struck out 146 batters in 200.2 innings across 32 starts.

Mikolas finished out his tenure with the Cardinals with a 4.16 ERA and 833 strikeouts across 1,161 innings pitched in 204 appearances (203 starts).

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Last season, Mikolas had a 4.84 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 156.1 innings pitched across 31 starts.

Mikolas will be the de facto veteran on a Washington starting rotation that will be relatively younger in 2026.

According to FanGraphs’ roster resource, the rest of the Nationals’ rotation will be comprised of Cade Cavalli (27-years-old), Brad Lord (26-years-old), Josiah Gray (28-years-old) and Foster Griffin (30-years-old).

Based on FanGraphs’ roster projections, Mikolas will be the only hurler on the major league pitching staff, including the bullpen, who will be older than 31 when Opening Day begins.

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As for St. Louis, it will enter ’26 with a re-tooled (and young) starting rotation that FanGraphs projects to be: Matthew Liberatore (26-years-old), Dustin May (28-years-old), Andre Pallante (27-years-old), Michael McGreevy (25-years-old) and Kyle Leahy (28-years-old).

The Cardinals will begin the regular season with a game against the Tampa Bay Rays at 4:15 p.m. ET on March 26 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

St. Louis will face off against Washington and Mikolas in a three-game series from April 6-8 at Nationals Park in Los Angeles.

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