News of Adam Wainwright’s potentially season-ending Achilles injury has already led to speculation about the Cardinals trading for an ace like Cole Hamels. But GM John Mozeliak says the team’s first move will be to try to replace Wainwright from within, according to Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “If you get into May and early June and you don’t feel like the internal options are the solution you were hoping for then you might have to look outside,” says Mozeliak. Triple-A pitchers Tyler Lyons, Tim Cooney and Zach Petrick could all be short-term options to fill Wainwright’s spot in the rotation. Marco Gonzales and Jaime Garcia, who are both hurt, could help later on.
Mozeliak adds that he’s not optimistic about Wainwright’s injury. “I don’t like to speculate until you have the full information, but if you ask me how I feel … not good,” he says. “All those rumors floating around seem to have some validity to them.”
It makes sense that the Cardinals would turn first to internal depth options, if only because it’s relatively rare for teams to make major trades so early in the season. Using their own pitchers for the next month or two would allow the Cardinals time to assess how much those pitchers can help and how strong their team is. Lyons, Cooney and Gonzales, at least, do have track records that suggest they can help in the short term, while Garcia is a wild card due to his injury history.
A big loss to the Cardinals rotation, Wainwright is one of the best pitchers of my generation, Outside of kershaw he’s the best in the national league the last three years imo, but if they can’t find options from within, I wonder if they do go out and make a big trade.
Cardinals official website won me over on a possible John Danks trade. Makes sense and would be cheaper to trade for than Hamels.
I remember when cliff lee was healthy, they said the cardinals could look at him
Danks is 10-7 with a 3.09 ERA in 25 interleague starts. That includes a 3.25 ERA in 10 starts during the last four seasons, when stacked AL lineups in Detroit, Boston and Texas have pounded him. He’s not going to replace Wainwright but he’ll provide innings and get results beyond what his 5.64 ERA suggests.
I’m watching MLB Now, Mark Derosa just said instead of Hamels or others, he said how about Kazmir
I like that idea. Would love to stay internal too.
Better get Cole now , before price goes up .
The Cardinals will not deplete their system by trading for Hamels out of desperation. Amaro would want 3 of the Cardinals top 5 prospects. Cardinals haven’t done what they have done over the years by making unsensible deals like that
the cardinals would’t do that, knowing amaro he would ask for martinez and john mozeliak would hang up real quick.
Probably can’t afford to hang up too often or for too long. Aaron Harang might prove more in line with Cards’ needs if it’s just filling a spot in the rotation. That or Kyle Lohse, whom they know well.
Harang would fit well for the cards
Fighter…..would think you get Lohse rather cheaply, even though within division, Brewers would surely want a pitching prospect.
The reason Hamels didn’t move this off-season is because all potential trade partners agreed the Phillies simply wanted too much. Now that Wainwright is hurt, my guess is that any attempt by the Cards to inquire about Hamels now, would be perceived as desperate, and therefore cause the Phillies to jack up the price higher than it was during the off-season. My guess is the Cardinals won’t go there at all.
They couldn’t move hamels all because Amaro asked for way too much, and next years free agent pitching class is really deep, but I don’t blame Amaro. One team I could see making a play for hamels is the dodgers, ryu is still on the dl and Mccarthry just went on the dl
Not likely to happen. They are lucky they had more than 6 arms competing in spring. Hopefully Garcia or Gonzales eats a bunch of quality innings. Where this hurts the most is October with young arms on innings caps.
Even if they did have plans to look externally, I don’t think they would come right out and say so, at least not just yet. These comments really didn’t bring on any major revelations
Just my pure unprofessional speculation, but I think the Cardinals are playing it safe right now because they probably want to see how they do over the next 2 months with what they have. This is a big loss, especially to a team that relies so heavily on pitching and defense vs hitting. If they keep winning with what they have, you may see a deal to acquire some mid rotation/back rotation help.
Now on the flip-side – if this team isn’t able to keep pace for the division or the wildcard, they might become sellers and we might start seeing names like Heyward and Holliday mentioned as trade chips. I mention these two specifically because Heyward is in a walk year and Holliday’s walk year is next season unless his option gets picked up. Both valuable players and both can fetch a pretty decent return in terms of prospects. Holliday would be tougher to trade because he has a full no-trade clause that he’d have to waive, but you’d have to speculate that the team would at least approach him if in fact the Cardinals became sellers. Hopefully it doesn’t get to that point.
I can’t imagine a realistic scenario where the Cards would become sellers. They’ll always try to put a winning team on the field. Hopefully at least one of the internal options willl work out. Still gotta be favorites for the division I would think.
Favorites for now, but the Cubs are creeping in.
They might of lost Wainwright but they still have a great team, the cubs and pirates will be able to make up ground though.
Before its all over Pirates will be more dangerous than Cubs.
Probably , the pirates have a good pitching staff , but if lester turns it around then the cubs will be dangerous
Cardinals are one of the top quality organizations in MLB. Their history is that guys no one was paying attention to come out and make an impact.
Last offseason I wrote here that the Cards young players need to grow, they were going in circles in 2014. This year I’m happy to see Carlos finally in the starting rotation and doing well so far, as well as Wong getting key hits and playing strong defense.
Sure, Heyward gets moved if they are out of the race, but I don’t see that happening right now. If they can just replace half of Wainwright’s production, I see the rest of the team stepping up for the difference. It’s the Cardinal Way.
Mark Derosa said they should go after Kazmir
Interesting. Kazmir would be a nice replacement – easily gets 50% of Wainwrights production. But if the A’s are in a pennant race, do they give Kazmir up now? And the Cardinals gave up some young prospects for Heyward, who will probably leave at the end of the season. So now they’re going to give up more for another guy in his walk year?
If you look at the Cardinals history, they don’t do the “All In” thing where they give up the future for one year, and then go into a massive rebuild / restructuring as the A’s did last year and this. Their style is to draft and grow their own players, then add missing pieces such as a Holiday in trade. They are into being perennial contenders, not to compete in cycles. While Kazmir is the sort of pitcher that would fit with the Cardinals (high baseball IQ), I can’t see them adding him unless they agree upon a 2-4 year extension – and I have my doubts that the Cardinals can fit that into their projected budget for the next few years. They still have a lot of good young pitchers both on the roster and in the high minors, and if they follow Yadi’s lead they can be successful – as Shelby Miller and Michael Wacha did in 2013.
But if Kaz comes over in trade, I’ll find you to give the kudos to.
They have to be missing Shelby Miller about now, Jenkins is dealing in the minors too. I don’t think Hamels is the place they look. I think they will go back end options and move everyone up so someone like House who is struggling but could improve in the NL.
They could look at Garza, Lohse or maybe Harang or Danks
Steven…I think Brewers would be willing, Garza would probably be a little more expensive at least 2 prospects, Lohse is 37, could get him very cheaply.
I don’t see a trade happening, at least not until we are near the trading deadline. No way we get Hamels, after what I’ve read they are wanting for him. Lyons will serve as a stop-gap until either Marco, who damn near made the rotation out of ST, or Garcia is ready. Either one (or both, with one in the pen) could do well in the No. 5 spot. And I also like Cooney, too. I’d almost prefer him in the No. 5 hole over Lyons.
Looking outside of the organization would be a mistake considering how close Marco is, and Garcia. There are a lot of possibilities internally, one of my favorite possibilities include Cooney. No sense in trading away what little we have in the farm right now for a big name. Hamels is not happening. Danks is not a realistic solution, at least not for a few months.