ESPN’s Jayson Stark and Gordon Edes reported Tuesday afternoon that the Cardinals were interested in acquiring veteran right-handed starter Jake Peavy from the last-place Red Sox, with Stark predicting that a trade could come together quickly.
But there are few baseball beat writers who are better plugged-in to the team they cover than Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and he just tweeted this ...#cardinals looking for offense not Peavy, at this time. That’s not a match when team sees Joe Kelly about to return to rotation. #stlcards
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) July 8, 2014
Maybe that’s some form of posturing by the Cardinals front office -- a common tactic in trade talks -- but it’s true that the team doesn’t really have an open rotation spot with Kelly returning Friday to face the Brewers. Carlos Martinez, a highly-touted 22-year-old right-hander, has pitched well since transitioning from a late-relief role last month, posting a 2.45 ERA with 18 strikeouts in 18 1/3 innings over his first four starts.
St. Louis ranks second in the majors in starting pitcher ERA and second-to-last in offensive runs scored.
