ST. LOUIS — As the trade deadline approached, the Cardinals had their eyes open for starting pitching at what they considered the right price and the awareness they might use the deadline to tune their roster a little bit.
In twos deal they got elements of both.
The Cardinals added veteran lefties Jon Lester and J.A. Happ in separate trades close to Friday's deadline. The team announced the Happ deal, and a source confirmed the Lester deal shortly after the deadline passed. The Cardinals sent reliever John Gant as part of the deal to get Happ, and they reportedly sent Lane Thomas to Washington for Lester.
In the Cardinals' first trade of the day, announced 30 minutes before Friday's deadline, the Cardinals sent lefty Evan Sisk with Gant to the Twins. Minnesota included cash in the deal to cover some of Happ's remaining salary.
Lester, an October rival of the Cardinals with Boston and the Cubs, was 3-5 with a 5.02 ERA in 16 starts for the Washington Nationals. He has a 1.593 WHIP this season, but in his career has been a quality start monster and a veteran able of shouldering the kind of consistent workload the Cardinals have craved for several months.
Lester is at the end of a one-year, $5-million deal with the Nats. Most of that salary was in a signing bonus.
Gant, a starter at the beginning of the year, had been moved into a bullpen role recently, though the Cardinals had moved Ryan Helsley and T.J. McFarland ahead of him when dealing with traffic on the bases or needing a groundball. With one more year of control and arbitration, Gant's salary was set to rise beyond his with the Cardinals, and they have used the deadline to flip such players in that spot before.
Their need for innings is also real, and they acquired Happ, a veteran lefty coming to the end of a one-year, $8 million deal, to address some of that. Happ has struggled this season. He averages around 5 1/3 innings per start and his WHIP is greater than Gant's, 1.586 to 1.572.
In July, Happ has a 9.22 ERA and he's been thumped twice by Detroit for a total of 16 runs allowed in 10 innings pitched.
Sisk, 24, has a 3.31 ERA in 26 relief appearances this season. He's spent most of the year with Class AA Springfield. A 16th-round pick by the Cardinals in 2018, Sisk has 46 strikeouts in 32 2/3 innings. He has four saves.
