{"id":559053,"date":"2026-02-07T04:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/559053\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T04:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:22:18","slug":"two-last-second-predictions-as-cardinals-wrap-up-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/559053\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Last-Second Predictions as Cardinals Wrap Up Offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">The St. Louis Cardinals will kick off Spring Training next and fortunately, the club doesn&#8217;t have a lot of moves left that they need to make. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6h\">Chaim Bloom has taken care of business. The Cardinals traded Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Brendan Donovan brought back a handful of prospects and opened up space for the young guys on the roster to have consistent opportunities, like potentially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/cardinals\/onsi\/st-louis-cardinals-news\/cardinals-jj-wetherholt-lands-lofty-prediction-from-expert-pat3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">JJ Wetherholt<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">If you like our content,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">The Cardinals arguably are very close to completing a near-perfect offseason. It&#8217;s not ideal for any club to ever have to trade a few of their veterans, but the Cardinals have needed to rebuild and it is exactly what the team has done. With that being said, there is a bit left to do.  <\/p>\n<p>The Cardinals have work to do<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/01kgv1wpvnwtkcj8xn3c.jpg\" alt=\"Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito\" title=\"Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito\" width=\"4904\" height=\"2758\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"70\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sep 12, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito (54) delivers a pitch during the second inning against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images | Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"74\">Here are two last-second predictions for the Cardinals:<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">Cardinals sign one more veteran starter (Lucas Giolito)<br \/>St. Louis is loaded with pitching, but there isn&#8217;t a starting pitcher on the roster who is 30 years old at the moment. With all of the young guys, it wouldn&#8217;t hurt to add one more starter with experience to then try to flip at the trade deadline. Lucas Giolito springs to mind. There&#8217;s no reason why he is still available. He&#8217;s 31 years old and had a 3.41 ERA in 26 starts in 2025 for the Boston Red Sox. The Cardinals are loaded with young guys, but it would be nice to bring someone in, like Giolito, to show them the ropes. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7a\">Cardinals add one more right-handed bat (Randal Grichuk)<br \/>The Cardinals have been open about a need for one more right-handed bat. It makes sense with Arenado and Contreras out the door. With Lars Nootbaar up in the air for Opening Day, it specifically makes sense to go after an outfielder. Randal Grichuk has experience playing in St. Louis and is a career .251 hitter with 212 homers. At this point in the offseason, you really can&#8217;t ask for much more. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">More MLB: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/cardinals\/onsi\/st-louis-cardinals-news\/cardinals-flamethrower-could-push-for-mlb-debut-in-2026-pat3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cardinals Flamethrower Could Push for MLB Debut in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. Louis Cardinals will kick off Spring Training next and fortunately, the club doesn&#8217;t have a lot&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-559053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-st-louis","12":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","13":"tag-stlouis","14":"tag-stlouiscardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116027441700892472","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}