Hudson’s start reflects Cardinals surge. But does it change their deadline strategy?

Two months ago, Dakota Hudson was fairly confident he could see where things were headed. Toiling in Triple-A with an earned run average hovering around six, his family was relocating from their home near the Cardinals’ complex in Jupiter, Florida to his wife’s hometown near Kansas City.

It wasn’t clear whether Hudson, after all, would have much reason to head back to Florida, given his career trajectory. He let go of one of the things tying him down a specific path; what if he considered letting go of others?

“It is what it is,” Hudson said Wednesday after opening the game which closed out a sweep of the Miami Marlins. “Either I’m gonna do it, or I’m not. But I’d rather take my shot and see what I can do in baseball and see how long I can do it.”

That ethos, as it turns out, is a perfect encapsulation of the team writ large. Wednesday’s victory not only marked the first sweep of the season at Busch Stadium and just the second overall, but it also extended the club’s winning streak to a season-long five games.

Following Monday’s sobering press conference in which the team’s decision makers turned the focus fully to 2024, the 2023 Cardinals suddenly look like the team they were expected to be for months.

They’re pitching well enough to allow a potent offense to bludgeon opponents into submission. By not playing from behind every night, heads aren’t staring at the ground as they drag up and down the dugout steps in the game’s first third. There’s legitimate life that’s been missing since as early as the season’s second week when chasing the game became a daily occurrence.

“It’s not the first half that’s the end of the story,” Hudson mused.

No, but it might be close.

On Wednesday and Thursday the Cardinals signed veteran pitchers Jacob Barnes and Casey Lawrence to minor league deals.

Those moves follow Monday’s admission by president of baseball operations John Mozeliak that the team didn’t have sufficient innings coverage in house (at the time) to make it through the end of the season given their trade deadline plans.

The wins are pouring in, but it feels like too little, too late. Wednesday’s win which checked so many empty boxes on the season’s scoresheet left the Cardinals with eight wins in their last 10 games. It also moved them to 10 games below .500, lifting them out of last place in the NL Central for the first time since May 28. They got to nine games under with a win in Chicago Thursday, placing them within weekend’s reach of third place.

What happens next is largely out of the control of the players because they didn’t handle what happened before.

“There’s still a lot of baseball to be played,” Hudson added. “I’m not saying (write) anything down about October, but each day that we come in here, it’s just about putting out the right product.”

The right product and the best product can all too often act as each other’s enemy. Hudson described a mental block to his process earlier in the season that was feeding his failure to throw strikes; looking around the room at teammates, first in spring training and then in the minors, he felt his competitiveness turned outward. He wanted to be perfect, and he nibbled in its pursuit.

That wasn’t working. Try something else. The adjustment became maximizing himself – “look in the mirror versus around the room,” he explained.

“I’ll be honest, it’s an ongoing thing,” he said. “I don’t think it’s just mentality.”

Instead, it’s active work with coaches and teammates to trust himself, his skills, and his ability to contribute. It’s stepping back from screwing his head into the ground to let himself trust the process.

It’s the same thing a foundering team can stand to do when all seems lost; sometimes it seems like there’s very little left to lose, for player and team both.

Mozeliak acknowledged bluntly Monday that there was little to nothing the team could do in the week and a half remaining before the trade deadline to change his path, and this week’s additions clearly signal preparation in that direction.

Jordan Montgomery’s strong Tuesday start should have settled any concerns about his sore right hamstring, and with Jack Flaherty, they remain perhaps the most potent duo of starters available for trade of any team on the sellers’ end of the market.

Similarly, it’s not clear whether Hudson will pitch himself back into a future with the Cardinals over his remaining opportunities this season. Getting back to the big leagues is a start, but sustaining success there must come next. The team intends to bring in a bevy of arms to secure spots as soon as next season; plenty more competition is coming.

For now, there’s no harm in, “letting it eat,” as Hudson framed things. Everyone already knows what happens when they play tight. Might as well try something else.

This story was originally published July 21, 2023 at 12:57 PM.

Jeff Jones

Belleville News-Democrat

Jeff Jones is a freelance sports writer and member of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He is a frequent contributor to the Belleville News-Democrat, mlb.com and other sports websites.