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Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
CHICAGO — It felt like a moment that couldn’t even have been scripted. Just hours after the St. Louis Cardinals acquired Tommy Pham from the Chicago White Sox at the MLB trade deadline, the outfielder energized Busch Stadium in a way that hasn’t been felt all season.
In his first at-bat back with the team that drafted him in 2006, Pham got a standing ovation before he even stepped to the plate as a pinch hitter in the fifth inning Tuesday night. He earned a curtain call after he launched the fifth pitch he saw for a grand slam, helping put away the Texas Rangers in a 8-1 win.
The home run went viral, and the smile on the face of the normally intense Pham was undeniable.
“My best moment as a Cardinal,” Pham, who played parts of five seasons in St. Louis, told ESPN earlier this week. “The ovation was so welcoming. I had goosebumps with that ovation. And you can’t script the at-bat any better. I got down in the count and everything.
“I’ll remember it the rest of my life.”
So might Cardinals’ fans who — like their team — got a jolt from the front office’s trade deadline additions. Besides adding Pham, the team acquired one of the better available starting pitchers in Erick Fedde as well as veteran reliever Shawn Armstrong.
“Our shopping list was right-handed reliever, starter and a right-handed bat,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said. “We kept going down that path of [Tommy] Edman for Fedde but that’s just adding one and losing one. Never felt right. [Then] we got to the point that Pham was added to the deal.”
Eventually, Mozeliak pulled off a complicated three-way trade, sending Edman to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who also received reliever Michael Kopech from the White Sox and sent prospects back to Chicago. In the end, the Cardinals could be the big winners in the deal, considering Fedde is signed for next season — but the additions are about the here and now.
“Not everyone gets that opportunity to add pieces and get that message from up top: ‘Hey we’re making a push here,'” Cardinals DH Matt Carpenter said. “It’s such a good feeling. It energizes everyone. We responded, winning two games.”
A day after his grand slam, Pham helped his new/old team to another win, going 3-for-4 as the Cardinals blew out the Rangers again. The wins helped renew hope for a playoff spot that seemed lost a few months ago after a rocky start to the season. St. Louis had lost six straight and was just 15-24 heading into play on May 12, a date Mozeliak remembers vividly as a turning point.
“It was Mother’s Day,” he said. “Miles Mikolas was throwing a lot of pitches early in that game, but we came out on top. We’ve been much better since then.”
The Cardinals are 41-30 since that Sunday; no team in baseball has more wins during that span. That’s in no small part thanks to their rotation, which ranks seventh in ERA since that day, but their offense hasn’t been as consistent. St. Louis ranks near the bottom of the league in several run-producing categories against left-handed pitching — hence the need for a righty like Pham.
Pham, a free agent this past offseason, spent all winter looking for a major league contract. He visited the Cardinals during a spring training game in Jupiter, Florida, but left without a job. After signing a minor league deal with the White Sox in April, Pham expected to be traded at the deadline. Now back with the team that drafted him, it all feels like it has come full circle.
“It’s been a long journey this season,” Pham said. “It’s been tough. Starting with no spring training. That is so important.”
In other words, the Cardinals might just now be getting the best version of Pham, who played nearly every day in Chicago. Pham carries an intensity that can drive a contender, a trait his former and current teammates recognize in catcher/DH Willson Contreras, as well.
“Both those guys bring a certain amount of edge to the team,” Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso said. “Edge is important down the stretch, when you’re competing. Every night is needed with those guys.”
Cardinals players who were with the team last season — when they went 71-91, their first losing season since 2007 — are eager to make good on an opportunity that was far from anyone’s mind a year ago.
“Last year was no fun,” manager Oliver Marmol said.
Unlike this season, the start the Cardinals had in 2023 buried them. It led Mozeliak to take a controversial offseason route, signing three pitchers in their 30s: Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson. All have been decent contributors, though Lynn just went on the injured list with a knee ailment.
“Last year, we had a lot of things go wrong,” Mozeliak explained. “Probably the biggest mistake we made was we bet on a lot of these younger pitchers. It just wasn’t ready. We’d be down 3-0, 4-1. That’s always demoralizing. So this year, we flipped the script. We got veterans that understand what 162 looks like, what 32 starts look like. The bad start [this year] didn’t snowball.”
The Cardinals righted the ship in May and June, so when July came around, the front office was thinking about adding to the roster instead of subtracting. The clubhouse sensed it.
“Our front office has always been very perceptive,” Mikolas said. “We struggled last year, putting ourselves in a position to be sellers at the deadline. But we knew that wouldn’t be the case this year.”
Third baseman Nolan Arenado added: “When the front office helps like that, you feel the energy down here in the room. It gives such a boost.”
The Cardinals are far from a lock to play postseason baseball — they’re currently two games over .500, 2½ games out of a wild-card spot. They endured a heartbreaking loss in Game 1 of their weekend series against the Chicago Cubs, when All-Star closer Ryan Helsley blew a 4-2, ninth-inning lead, then the Cubs ruined Fedde’s debut on Friday. Still, the organization is happy to be in the mix again. For a team that prides itself on never needing a full-on rebuild, meaningful games in August and September are enough right now.
“The trade deadline came and went,” Mikolas said. “We got some good pieces. We’re right there in the thick of the race. We’re at that time of the year where every pitch, every foul ball, every ground ball, every step is going to matter. That’s what those additions are all about. It gives us a chance.”