(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
The St. Louis Cardinals season has officially reached a low point.
Heading into Sunday’s series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies, they owned a record of 56-74 after falling to a season-worst 18 games below the .500 mark.
However, not all is lost as they look towards 2024.
In fact, two starting pitchers in particular have performed quite well when given opportunities.
Left-hander Zack Thompson and right-hander Dakota Hudson have both helped the Cardinals out in recent weeks, plugging holes in the rotation after the trade deadline.
On 101ESPN, a local St. Louis sports radio station, Cardinals play-by-play TV announcer Chip Caray discussed what he has been seeing from the team’s core of young starters and how they could help the team in 2024.
Health and consistency have created some separation for Hudson & Thompson from the other young arms–what is Chip Caray seeing from the #stlcards pool of potential 2024 starters?#TheOpeningDrive
Full Interview: https://t.co/VKsb5U5xPR pic.twitter.com/ABBKt729UQ
— 101 ESPN St. Louis (@101espn) August 26, 2023
Caray stressed the importance of pitchers throwing strikes and preventing walks, as walks typically come back to haunt a team.
However, Hudson and Thompson haven’t walked many batters recently since being plugged into the Cardinals starting rotation.
Caray believes this is an encouraging sign as the Cardinals assess what they have internally and who could potentially help the pitching staff out in 2024.
Hudson in particular, who has long been a ground ball pitcher, has used his slider more and been able to strike more hitters out than he used to.
Thompson was added to the rotation after Steven Matz went down with what could prove to be a season-ending injury.
The young left-hander is 3-5 with a 3.86 ERA this season in 19 appearances, three of which have been starts.
The Cardinals will have their work cut out for them this winter, but they do still have some solid internal options in the rotation if things go wrong.
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