At the buzzer, Cardinals send Dylan Carlson to Tampa Bay for reliever Shawn Armstrong (2024)

In the minutes before the trade deadline, the Cardinals finalized a deal sending outfielder Dylan Carlson to Tampa Bay for a veteran reliever, according to a source.

The deal, which was later announced by both clubs, makes it possible to activate newly acquired outfielder Tommy Pham for Tuesday's game.

In exchange for Carlson, the Cardinals acquired right-hander Shawn Armstrong, the team announced shortly after the 5 p.m. St. Louis time deadline for trades.

A free agent after this season, Armstrong is 2-2 with a 5.40 ERA through 38 games with the Rays. He struck out 50 in 46⅔ innings. In his previous 107 innings pitched for the Rays before this season, he struck out 115 while carrying 2.52 ERA. His upside is missing bats. In 2023, he was in the 96th percentile for chase rates and 98th percentile for expected ERA because of the mix of strikeouts and soft contact.

This season those stats have experienced whiplash, dipping to 64th percentile and 5th percentile.

Of the 28 earned runs he's allowed this season, six came in one outing, during which he got only one out. Otherwise his ERA is 4.27 in the other 46 1/3 innings pitched.

Armstrong joins former teammate Andrew Kittredge in the Cardinals' bullpen.

A few years after Tampa Bay acquired future ALCS MVP Randy Arozarena in a trade centered around a reliever, Carlson will be with a Rays team that visits St. Louis during the next homestand. This is also the second time in the past year the Cardinals have sent an outfielder to the Rays for a reliever. The Rays acquired Richie Palacios before the season for Kittredge.

Carlson is under team control through 2026.

Ahead of adding Pham to the active roster, the Cardinals continued to talk with teams interested in the switch-hitting outfielder Carlson, as the Post-Dispatchpreviously reported they would. The former first-round pick's role with the team has been reduced with the rise of Michael Siani in center field and the arrival of Pham, who is set to get starts as the right-handed bat vs. lefties that Carlson has recently had.

The Washington Nationals, a club that has long had interest in Carlson and has not wavered from it, and the Los Angeles Angels are two of the clubs with which the Cardinals have engaged in talks about Carlson, according to sources. The list of teams with which the Cardinals discussed Carlson are not limited to those two.

At 25, Carlson has hit .198/.275/.240 this season for a .515 OPS. The start of his season was abruptly disrupted by a collision in center field that left him with a shoulder injury. He had just won the Cardinals' everyday and opening day center field job. By the time he returned and tried to play through soreness to contribute, others had moved ahead of him for playing time.

The 33rd overall pick in 2016, Carlson spent most of his career with the Cardinals as their top outfield prospect, if not their top position player prospect. In 2021, at age 21, he had a .780 OPS, hit 18 home runs and finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting. The Cardinals declined trade overtures for him and made moves elsewhere in the coming years to clear playing time for him.

This past offseason, the Cardinals announced Tommy Edman would be their starting center fielder, which moved Carlson into a fourth outfielder role until Edman was not ready during or through spring training.

Fedde will join the team on Thursday at Wrigley Field and debut as the starter Friday.

The Cardinals have a series of transactions they'll have to make for their active roster, and they're adding one to the mix. Post-Dispatch baseball writer Lynn Worthy confirmed that the team plans to promote Michael McGreevy from Class AAA to start Wednesday's series finale against the Rangers. McGreevy, 24, is 5-7 with a 4.45 ERA for Triple-A Memphis.

The Cardinals' first-round pick and 18th overall selection in 2021 will be making his his major league debut with the start.

The Cardinals are also exploring whether there is a trade to be completed for Giovanny Gallegos that offsets some of the salary owed him for the remainder of the season. If they cannot complete one before Tuesday's 5 p.m. (St. Louis time) deadline, they'll likely release him and pay out the remainder of his $6 million salary and a $500,000 buyout for 2025.

This story will be updated as the trade market continues to move.