The Cardinals are shopping right-hander Dustin May, a realistic candidate to end up on the move before Monday’s trade deadline. An array of teams have shown interest in May, according to Derek Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Rays and Phillies each had a scout on hand to watch his most recent start, per Goold.
May last took the ball on Wednesday and held the Cubs to five scoreless, one-hit innings in a 3-2 win. The soon-to-be 29-year-old lowered his season ERA to an unspectacular 4.38 over 109 innings and 21 starts, though metrics such as FIP (3.14), xFIP (3.88), xERA (3.91) and SIERA (3.95) suggest he has deserved better. May is averaging 96.8 mph on his fastball, which ranks in the league’s 84th percentile, and has posted slightly above-average strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates of 23.1%, 7.6% and 43.1%, respectively.
May, who debuted in the majors with the Dodgers in 2019, was once among the game’s most promising young arms. He was fifth in the National League Rookie of the Year race in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but various injuries have cut him down since then. He set a career high with 132 1/3 innings between the Dodgers and Red Sox during an injury-shortened campaign in 2025. May is on track to establish a new personal best this season, having stayed healthy thus far.
The Cardinals added May in free agency on a $12.5MM guarantee last winter. The deal includes a $500K buyout on a mutual option for the upcoming offseason. While May has lived up to the contract, the Cardinals are losing ground in the playoff race and seem likely to ship him out.
Despite beating the Blue Jays on Sunday, the Cardinals are just 4-12 since the All-Star break and 55-57 overall. St. Louis is an insurmountable 15 games back of Milwaukee in the NL Central. The club is a much more manageable 3 1/2 games out of Wild Card position, but it will have to jump a few teams to earn a playoff berth. So, unless president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom wants to give May a qualifying offer worth approximately $23.1MM before free agency, he may join a team closer to contention by Monday.
While Tampa Bay scouted May, the team might not be a fit anymore after acquiring Freddy Peralta from the Mets on Sunday. Philadelphia looks like a different story, though, as the club is in obvious need of a back-end starter to slot in behind the outstanding trio of Cristopher Sanchez, Zack Wheeler and Jesus Luzardo. Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter pitched well in their most recent starts, but both righties have endured rough years.
The Phillies are also weak in the outfield, which they could address by trading for another Cardinal: Lars Nootbaar. They and the Yankees are among “several” clubs that have asked the Cardinals about Nootbaar, Goold reports. The Astros have also eyed Nootbaar, who would be more than a rental for an acquiring team. The 28-year-old is playing on a reasonable $5.25MM salary in 2026 and will make one more trip through arbitration over the winter.
Since debuting in 2021, Nootbaar has slashed a solid .241/.341/.402 (109 wRC+) over 2,140 plate appearances. Nootbaar slipped to a 96 wRC+ in a career-high 583 trips to the plate last year, but he fought through multiple injuries and had to undergo surgery on both heels in the offseason. The recovery process kept him from returning to the bigs until June 5 this year.
Nootbaar recorded a terrific .872 OPS in June, but his production has fallen off dramatically since the calendar flipped to July. Overall, he is hitting .234/.333/.354 (95 wRC+) with just three homers in 183 plate appearances. Nootbaar’s .335 xwOBA is 27 points higher than his actual wOBA (.308), though, and he has logged above-average strikeout and walk percentages of 21.9% and 13.1%, respectively. Those strikeout and walk numbers are right in line with Nootbaar’s career norms. On the defensive side, Nootbaar has typically drawn good defensive marks while primarily lining up in the corners. That has continued this year, as he has been credited with 2 Outs Above Average and 2 Fielding Run Value.
The Phillies, who are 1 1/2 games up on a Wild Card spot, have a current outfield mix that includes three lefty hitters (Brandon Marsh, Justin Crawford and Gabriel Rincones Jr.) and a pair of righties (Bryan De La Cruz and Derek Hill). Considering their outfield as a whole ranks toward the bottom of the majors in fWAR (27th) and wRC+ (28th), it would not be a surprise to see the Phillies acquire Nootbaar and/or other help in that area. Alex Call, Daulton Varsho and Taylor Ward are a few other names reportedly on their radar.
The Yankees’ outfield ranks a much better fourth in wRC+ and eighth in fWAR, but the injured Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger have done most of the damage. Manager Aaron Boone has been platooning rookie Spencer Jones and Max Schuemann in left since Bellinger went on the 10-day IL with a hamstring strain on July 26. Jasson Domínguez has gotten the lion’s share of starts in right since Judge went on IL with a rib fracture on June 2. Judge and Bellinger will not return imminently, leaving New York as a potential fit for Nootbaar or other outside options to line up next to center fielder Trent Grisham.
The Yankees beefed up their offense when they acquired first baseman Luis García Jr. from the Nationals on Sunday. It remains to be seen if that will be general manager Brian Cashman’s only move to upgrade an attack that has struggled mightily since it lost Judge. The 63-49 Yankees have a 6 1/2-game cushion on a Wild Card spot, but they are 2 1/2 back of the Rays in the AL East.
Photo courtesy of William Purnell, Imagn Images
