At the trade deadline, the Cardinals traded away one of their starting pitchers — a guy they had traded for at last year’s deadline — and three relief pitchers. Pretty sure that tells most of the story here.

For more on the Cardinals, here’s Heather Simon, manager of our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva el Birdos.

The Iliad of I-55

[The stage is set: a crumbling amphitheater beneath the Gateway Arch. The sky is tinged with late-summer melancholy. A chorus of robed Cardinals fans enters, clutching foam fingers.]

CHORUS: O Muse of Midseason, sing of the deadline! Of prospects gained and legends lost, Of deals struck not in triumph, but in reckoning. For the front office, once bold with banners, Now barters in futures, not flags.

CHORISTER 1: Mozeliak, high priest of roster fate, Did cast o

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