The Cardinals scooped up left-hander Josh Fleming on a minor league contract, adding a 30-year-old swingman with rotation experience as St. Louis stocks up on pitching depth down the stretch. It's a quiet transaction-column move, but it's also a homecoming: Fleming grew up in the St. Louis area before the Rays drafted him during Chaim Bloom's time in the Tampa Bay front office. Bloom now runs baseball ops for the Cardinals, which makes this signing feel less random than the typical August minor league flier.
Fleming's 2026 has been a nonstop game of musical chairs. He opened the year on a minor league deal with the Blue Jays, earned a brief call-up in early April, and threw 3 innings against the Dodgers on April 6 before getting designated for assignment the very next day. From there he landed with the Cubs, where he logged 18 1/3 innings with a 3.44 ERA over 6 weeks. That stint ended in a release this week, clearing the way for the Cardinals to bring him in.
The underlying numbers explain why teams keep giving him a shot. Across his Triple-A work this season, Fleming has thrown 82 2/3 innings with a 3.16 ERA — durable, ground-ball-heavy production even if it hasn't translated into sticking on a big-league roster. He's a sinkerballer who sits around 90 mph and leans on soft contact rather than swing-and-miss stuff, a profile that fits neatly as rotation insurance rather than a difference-maker.
Fleming spent his first 6 major league seasons with the Rays, primarily working out of the bullpen and as a spot starter, and he's carried a 4.86 ERA over 257 2/3 career innings. He'll report to Triple-A Memphis as non-roster rotation depth, the kind of low-cost, low-risk addition that doesn't move the needle on its own but gives St. Louis another arm to lean on if injuries or a playoff push demand it.