Pair Of Ex-Cardinals Shining With New Teams After Departing From St. Louis

The St. Louis Cardinals' first half of the 2023 season was horrendous and the club was forced to be sellers at the trade deadline -- largely due to failures from the pitching staff.

Household names were traded and the Cardinals spent the latter half of the year riding it out, hoping they could retool their decimated pitching staff.

Fortunately, Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak successfully replenished the team's pitching arsenal this winter but there's a pair of hurlers he probably wishes he re-signed.

Former St. Louis right-handers Jack Flaherty and Jordan Hicks recently received votes from Major League Baseball executives as two of the top free agent signings from this past offseason, according to MLB.com's Mark Feinsand.

Flaherty has posted a 3.86 ERA with a 56-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .236 batting average against and a 1.05 WHIP in 42 innings pitched for the Detroit Tigers so far this season.

The 28-year-old is throwing like he did early on in his career with St. Louis and likely made the Cardinals' front office regret their decision not to re-sign him when he threw arguably the best game of his career against them last week -- recording 14 strikeouts on two hits and one walk in 6 2/3 innings pitched.

Hicks is off to the best season of his career -- posting a 2-1 record with a 1.89 ERA, 30-to-14 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .187 batting average against and a 1.03 WHIP in 38 innings pitched for the San Francisco Giants.

The flamethrower has dominated as a starting pitcher with the Giants and is performing much better with them as a starter than he did with the Cardinals -- where he predominately pitched as a reliever.

It would be nice to have Hicks and Flaherty excelling back at Busch Stadium but luckily, pitching is not much of a problem for the Cardinals this season -- it's the hitting.