Cardinals continue youth movement with Deadline deals for prospects

NEW YORK – Chaim Bloom, the Cardinals’ president of baseball operations, made it known since Spring Training that the team will be getting younger.

Before Monday’s Trade Deadline, Bloom fortified the farm system by acquiring outfield prospects Alexander Frias (Brewers' No. 11) and Josiah Ragsdale (No. 13) for veteran pitchers Dustin May and JoJo Romero.

Minutes before the clock struck 5 p.m. CT, and a little over an hour before they faced the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, the Cardinals traded outfielder Lars Nootbaar to the D-backs for right-hander Daniel Eagen, left-hander Sandro Santana and a player to be named later.

The Cardinals then acquired veteran pitcher Caleb Ferguson from the Reds for $250,000 in international bonus space.

TRADE DETAILS
Cardinals receive: OF Alexander Frias (Cardinals' No. 4 prospect), OF Josiah Ragsdale (No. 10)
Brewers receive: RHP Dustin May, LHP JoJo Romero

TRADE DETAILS
Cardinals receive: RHP Daniel Eagen (Cardinals' No. 17 prospect), LHP Sandro Santana (No. 22), player to be named
D-backs receive: OF Lars Nootbaar

TRADE DETAILS
Cardinals receive: LHP Caleb Ferguson
Reds receive: $250,000 in international bonus space

“I’m telling you, we are talking about a minute – maybe – when those last two trades actually went in and got confirmed,” Bloom said. “If there are any steps that you skipped or missed both in the decision stage or the Xs and Os of getting the deal into an [MLB] official, you don’t have a deal. There are some interesting things that unfolded in those last five, 10 minutes. I’m just really proud of our [front office].”

Frias (now the Cardinals' No. 4 prospect according to MLB Pipeline) is expected to provide power from the left side of the plate. He started the season with the Rookie-level ACL Brewers and was on fire before his promotion to Single-A Wilson. In 32 games in the ACL, Frias had a slash line of .441/.518/.678 with 34 RBIs. With Wilson, he was hitting .236 but had 28 RBIs in 28 games.

“This is his first year in the States in pro ball,” Bloom said about Frias. “He has all the upside in the world to be a middle-of-the-lineup hitter. He can play all three outfield positions. There is a lot of development left to be able to capture that type of upside.”

Ragsdale (St. Louis' No. 10 prospect) is another left-handed bat with pop. The New Jersey native has been consistent in the batter’s box while playing for High-A Wisconsin and Double-A Biloxi this season, hitting a combined .316 with 19 homers and 51 RBIs in 86 games.

“He brings every tool to the table,” Bloom said. “He has a good feel for hitting. He is coming into some power now. He can run, and that could play on the bases and the field. By all accounts, he is a great kid.”

Frias and Ragsdale join Joshua Báez, Tai Peete, Emanuel Luna, Ryan Mitchell and Won-Bin Cho as the Cardinals’ top outfield prospects.

Eagen, the No. 5 prospect in Arizona’s organization, has a lot of swing and miss in his game, striking out 109 batters in 87 1/3 innings in 2026 while going 5-8 with a 4.95 ERA. Santana, the D-backs' No. 26 prospect, had a combined 2.14 ERA while saving four games for High-A Hillsboro and Double-A Amarillo.

Ferguson is an eight-year veteran who has pitched for the Dodgers, Yankees, Astros, Pirates and Mariners before signing with the Reds before this season. In 26 games for Cincinnati, Ferguson had a 4.01 ERA with one save. He will replace Romero as one of two lefties in the bullpen, joining Justin Bruihl.

While they were able to get younger, the Cardinals were able to send May and Romero to a playoff contender in Milwaukee.

May’s time in St. Louis got off to a rocky start, but after a pair of poor starts to open 2026, his next dozen produced a sterling 2.54 ERA. May averaged 6.19 innings per start over that stretch, demonstrating his ability to take the ball and cover quality innings.

May’s checkered injury history was put to the test on a couple of occasions in the summer as he endured back tightness during a rough start in Kansas City on June 21, but all indications from the club are that May feels as good physically as he ever has.

On Monday, May was seen packing his bag and saying goodbye to his teammates. Bruihl was heard saying to May, “Enjoy Milwaukee.”

Right-hander Michael McGreevy is one guy who is going to miss May. But McGreevy understands why the Cardinals made the move.

“We kind of knew that coming into the year, given the plan Chaim laid out,” McGreevy said. “We stuck to it perfectly. The trades were the trades. It sucks. Before I met Dustin May, I hated him because I grew up a Padres fan when he was a Dodger. Then I get to meet Dustin May and he is like one of my favorite teammates of all time.”

Since arriving in St. Louis from Philadelphia in a trade for Edmundo Sosa in 2022, Romero has been a late-game relief mainstay for the Cardinals from the left side. Romero has experience handling the toughest lefty lanes an opposing lineup can provide, and he has compiled ERAs below 3.40 in each of his past three seasons.

Romero has been on the 15-day IL since July 17, but he played catch last week and should be ready to pitch for the Brewers by the end of this month, a source said. The Cardinals had not yet offered a firm timeline for his return to baseball activities, but Romero has been at the ballpark and around the team as he moves toward a return to the mound.

Nootbaar started the season on the 10-day injured list because of his surgically repaired heels. He returned to the field on June 5 and had a slash line of .234/.333/.354 with three homers and 16 RBIs. He was initially in the starting lineup hitting fifth against the Yankees but was replaced by Bryan Torres.

“The team is very similar in the sense of, we have a bunch of guys that we have to make sure they get better,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “We are going to build this the right way. We are not going to take any shortcuts. There will be times where it’s frustrating. There are going to be times where it’s going to be a lot of fun. The whole goal is to make sure we build it properly.”

The Cardinals have been a pleasant surprise for most of the season. Entering Tuesday’s action, they were 56-57 and only four games behind the Phillies for the third and final National League Wild Card spot.

“We always want to win, and our expectations for this group were a bit higher than maybe some of the noise,” Bloom said. “Understanding that, we are young and we understand where we are at. I said it early in the fall: We know where we want to be. It’s not where we are. That remains the case. We came into spring with a lot of optimism for what these guys can do. Spring Training built that optimism.

“There have been ups and downs. We are sitting here today under .500. This is not where we want to be, but we felt that the culture that was building, the talent we have in the room, the way these guys were going about their business, they were really picking up where we wanted them to in terms of competing relentlessly – never conceding anything.”