Last winter, the Cardinals and Red Sox made two significant offseason trades with one another. On November 3, 2026, the two clubs made another trade, as left-hander Eduardo Rivera, who pitched very well in 2026 after a good 2025 season, was shipped to St. Louis.

Cardinals get left-hander

St. Louis traded for left-hander Eduardo Rivera from the Red Sox for pitcher Juan Garcia.

Rivera made a name for himself in 2026, working with Team Puerto Rico in the 2026 WBC before what was a really good season for the 23-year-old left-hander. He struck out 71 over 55.2 IP, and worked 10 innings at the MLB level with Boston as well. The new Cardinal has starting experience but worked most of 2026 as a reliever.

He was, primarily, a three-pitch pitcher in the Minors with a low-to-mid-90s fastball that capped at 97 MPH, a slider, and a changeup. Rivera induced a significant amount of swing-and-miss off his changeup, which sat in the low-to-mid-80s.

Tigers get back Petit

The Tigers received RJ Petit back from the Rockies on November 3.

Petit was the top pick in last year’s Rule 5 Draft but didn’t pitch in a game with the Rockies, as he spent the season on the IL. He would have still had to be retained on the Rockies’ roster for 2027 for the club to have kept his rights in full.

With that move, only two players taken from the 2025 Rule 5 Draft by a team are still with that team. Those two are Roddery Munoz, who was DFA’d and outrighted by the Astros in April, and Blue Jays pitcher Spencer Miles.

Contract selections

Here are some of the other contract selections we didn’t get to on November 2:

• P Alexander Alberto (Rays)
• OF Luis Gutierrez (Padres)
• P Roddery Munoz (Astros)
• OF Jack Suwinski (Rays)

As noted above, Roddery Munoz was a Rule 5 pick last year. So, perhaps his being protected shouldn’t be a shock.

The same can be said for hard-throwing reliever Alexander Alberto, who was taken by the White Sox last December before being returned in the spring. He was one of two protected players by Tampa Bay, alongside former Pirate Jack Suwinski.

Other notes

The Marlins released pitcher Bradley Blalock.

PJ Poulin, Richard Lovelady, Ken Waldichuk, Tyler Zuber, Sandy Leon, Kolby Allard, Eric Wagaman, Pavin Smith, Geoff Hartlieb, Ji-Hwan Bae, and Domingo Acevedo all elected free agency.

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