Coming into spring training, the Cardinals had a very defined starting rotation. Jack Flaherty was the team ace, and Kwang Hyun-Kim the steady #2. The returning Miles Mikolas was hopefully going to provide some stability, and Adam Wainwright was hopefully going to do a magic trick for at least one more season. If he weren’t already on the Cardinals, Carlos Martinez would be nearly a perfect one year rental bounceback candidate the Cards signed from free agency.
However well the season went, the Cardinals were always going to need a sixth starter and now it seems like it could be sooner than we like.