Cardinals reliever Jordan Walden will miss six to ten weeks with a muscle strain in his right shoulder, GM John Mozeliak told reporters including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter links). Seth Maness is set to fill in for Walden in a set-up role in front of closer Trevor Rosenthal.
Having an arm like Maness provides some consolation, but hardly makes up for a significant amount of time without Walden. The 27-year-old righty had been outstanding through 10 1/3 innings, allowing just one earned run while striking out a dozen batters and permitting only four walks. Though his average fastball velocity has been down by about 1.5 mph as against his numbers last year, continuing a general trend, he still has worked regularly in the 94-95 mph range.
Over six years of MLB action with the Angels, Braves, and now Cardinals, Walden has racked up 222 frames of 3.00 ERA pitching. He has averaged 10.8 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9 with a 41.9% groundball rate over that time.
Walden came to St. Louis as a significant secondary piece in the same deal that brought Jason Heyward from the Braves. The Cardinals wasted little time in extending their commitment to him, inking a two-year deal that bought out Walden’s final two arbitration-eligible seasons for a guaranteed $6.6MM and left the club with a $5.25MM option for 2017.
It seems that the Cards will know much more about Walden’s status in advance of the trade deadline, which should help the team assess its pitching needs. The club is already without top starter Adam Wainwright for the year, of course, which has reduced its overall flexibility in moving players between the rotation and pen.
Quick healing
Braves/Cards offseason trade doesn’t look great for the Cards right now, even though they’re still leading the division.
Cards knew what they were getting into.
I don’t think it looks bad. They have Walden until 2017 assuming they pick up the option. Heyward is showing signs of a turnaround, and even though I like Grichuk, Heyward’s defense has helped out a lot. I think the trade is still a decent one.
Makes you wonder if all his injuries result because of his non traditional mechanics.
Yea that arm sling is similar to the man we traded for him- tommy hanson
You might be right but it’s not like he’s a player with a substantial history of being injured. He’s been in the Majors for 5 years and, not counting this newest injury, only on the DL-15 3 times:
May 2014 he was on the DL-15 for left hamstring.
May 2013 he was on the DL-15 for right shoulder.
July 2012 he was on the DL-15 for right bicep.
… but he also was on the bench from Aug. 22, 2013-Sept 11, 2013 with a groin injury and maybe, if that wasn’t right when rosters expand, he would have been DL’d.
I definitely see why the Cards made the trade and it looked like a good one on paper but it sure isn’t working out so far. Shelby Miller has been unbelievable for Atlanta and with the additional years of control they definitely won the trade.
1 month in…..If Heyward signs else where, then a big loss on Cardinals part.
I think Miller needed a change of scenery regardless. I want to see him do well. If the contract projections are true for Heyward, the cardinals are not going to sign him, it would be a very bad decision.
Cardinals are getting unbelievable production out of guys like Belisle, Villanueva, and Harris out of their pen. That won’t last. Sooner or later, probably sooner, they’ll look more like the journeymen guys they really are.
Even so, if they play just .500 ball the rest of the year they are close to 90 wins.