Facing a quickly cooling pitching market, the Cardinals pulled off their first trade with the rival Brewers in more than a decade. They shipped Dustin May and JoJo Romero to Milwaukee for 22-year-old outfield prospect Josiah Ragsdale and 18-year-old outfield prospect Alexander Frias.
Dustin May, who pitched two of his best games of 2026 against the Brewers, must have opened some eyes in the Milwaukee front office about his potential as a dominant starter over the rest of the season and in the playoffs.
May, 28, was traded from the Cardinals to the Brewers – along with left-handed relief specialist JoJo Romero – on Monday less than three hours before the MLB Trade Deadline.
The Cardinals got Minor League outfielders Alexander Frias and Josiah Ragsdale in return for May and Romero. Frias, 18 was the No. 11-ranked prospect in the Brewers’ highly rated system, while Ragsdale, 22 was No. 13.
Ragsdale started his college career at Iona before transferring to Boston College. He has a 1.022 OPS this season while splitting time between High-A and Double-A this season. As for Frias, a $350,000 international free-agent signee out of the Dominican Republic in 2025, he compiled a .980 OPS in the Rookie Leagues and Class A in 2026.
The Brewers have the top-ranked Minor League system in MLB, per Baseball America. The Cards were unable to pry any of Milwaukee’s five Top 100 prospects, per MLB Pipeline, away in a trade: No. 1 Jesus Made (19 years old), No. 18 Luis Pena (19), Mo. 64 Luis Lara (21), No. 76 Jett Williams and No. 87 Josh Adamczewski (21).
It is the first time that the two National League Central Division rivals have made a trade in more than 10 years. The last deal between the Cards and Brewers came on July 31, 2015, when the Brewers shipped right-handed reliever Jonathan Broxton to the Cardinals for Minor Leaguer Malik Collymore.
The Cardinals saw May’s market take a hit when the Rays (Freddy Peralta), Cubs (Kevin Gausman), White Sox (Luis Castillo) and Braves (Bailey Falter and Tyler Mahle), Blue Jays (Jose Soriano) and Phillies (Brooks Raley) filled their starting and relief pitching needs elsewhere.
May, who signed a one-year, $12.5 million contract with a mutual option for 2027 with the Cards last January, has had a wildly inconsistent year in 21 starts. He’s 5-7 with a 4.38 ERA and 106 strikeouts in 109 innings of work.
However, he pitched exceptionally well against the Brewers earlier this season. In Milwaukee on May 26, May took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and eventually allowed just two hits and one earned run in seven innings of work. In that game, May struck out nine and didn’t walk a batter.
Then, in a shortened outing as he was returning from back pain, May allowed just four hits over a scoreless 4 2/3 innings of work. Again, he didn’t walk a Brewers batter and struck out seven.
The average velocity on May’s four-seam fastball in 2026 has been at 96.8 mph, good for the top 84 percentile in MLB. However, that velocity hasn’t led to high strikeout numbers. His whiff rate (22.4 percent) and strikeout rate (23.1 percent) aren’t in the top 50 percentile in MLB. Meanwhile, the hard-hit rate (46.1 percent) from foes ranks in the bottom five percentile and the average exit velocity (90.1 mph) is in MLB’s bottom 19 percentile.
In what was clearly designed to be his final outing with the Cardinals on July 29, May limited the Cubs to one hit over five scoreless innings of work. He threw his sweeper more than his four-seam fastball and struck out three and was pulled after just 70 pitches.
Romero, 29, has not pitched since July 12 after suffering an appendicitis during the break for the MLB All-Star Game. Romero is 1-3 with a 3.35 ERA over 44 games in 2026. He has been one of the Cardinals’ most dependable relievers for the past four years, largely because of his success against left-handed hitters. However, he has some uncharacteristic struggles versus lefties in 2026 – something that might have damaged his value on the trade market.
Could Cards actually deal Burleson, Nootbaar?
Teams searching for left-handed bats have reached out the Cardinals about Alec Burleson and Lars Nootbaar, but those players would come at dramatically different price points. Burleson, a Silver Slugger winner in 2025, has had a tremendous year in 111 games, slashing .284/.347/.458/.805 with a team-best 27 doubles and 15 homers and 71 RBI.
A Cards club that still has an outside chance of earning a Wild Card slot in 2026 would have to be "completely blown away," to deal Burleson, according to a source.
Nootbaar, who has struggled with injuries and an inability stay healthy for years, underwent surgery on both heels last October to remove small, bony growths near his Achilles tendons. After several months of rehabilitation, the corner outfielder returned to the Cardinals on June 5 and smacked a game-winning homer in his second game back. However, he’s struggled to muster much power at all in the slumping Cardinals offense. He’s slashed just .234/.333/.354/.687 with only eight doubles, three homers and 16 RBI since returning.
The Astros and Yankees are the top two teams interested in acquiring Nootbaar, with Houston showing the strongest interest, per sources.
Both Burleson and Nootbaar are in the Cardinals' starting lineup for Monday night's game in New York against the Yankees. May, who was pulled after 70 pitches last Wednesday against the Cubs, had his next start purposefully pushed back until after today's deadline. The Cardinals have right-hander Michael McGreevy scheduled to start tonight against the Yankees, but they haven't named starting pitchers beyond tonight's game.
