The Cardinals will be without left-handed reliever Ryan Sherriff for the remainder of the 2018 season and for much of the 2019 season after the southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery today. Sherriff himself broke the news in a since-deleted Instagram post, though Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets that the team has confirmed the operation took place.
Sherriff, 28, made his big league debut with the Cards last season, tossing 14 1/3 innings with a 3.14 ERA, a 15-to-4 K/BB ratio and a whopping 65 percent ground-ball rate. That impressive showing came on the heels of similar numbers in Triple-A, where he posted a 3.19 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 56.2 percent grounder rate in 53 2/3 innings.
[Related: St. Louis Cardinals depth chart]
He’s only been healthy enough to toss a combined 9 2/3 innings between Triple-A and the Majors this season, however, during which time he’s allowed seven runs on the strength of 14 hits (including a pair of homers). In a best-case scenario, he’d be available as a bullpen option late in the 2019 season.
Tyler Lyons, Brett Cecil and Austin Gomber give the Cardinals a trio of left-handed options for their big league bullpen, though Lyons and Cecil have struggled, while Gomber has just two MLB appearances (including a rough outing tonight). With Sherriff now out of the equation for the duration of the season, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Cardinals explore some depth additions in the short term, although left-handed bullpen help seemed like a possible deadline target for the St. Louis front office even before today’s news.
Chalk another one up for Matheny, I think James Andrew’s is paying him a commission
25 paragraphs defending Matheny incoming!
Looking at his usage this year, he was only used in five StL games. None were back-to-backs.
Teams should probably “equalize their innings” a bit between their leverage guys and the others, but I don’t see this on Matheny. I’m far from a fan of his pen usage.
He must be paying the Rays farm director a huge commission
fasbal1…..a tear doesn’t just happen suddenly, unless there is a traumatic injury like a fall and bracing oneself. It’s the result of years and years of throwing overhand with max effort (it’s why javelin throwers are also susceptible to TJS). Thinking that Matheny or any other manager/coach is directly responsible is misguided.
The damage done to his elbow started years ago. Muscles can strengthen, ligaments don’t. A lifetime of throwing is good for one but not the other. The reason for so many TJS now is because of the era the pitchers grew up in. Playing on multiple leagues, throwing year-round and paying too much attention to radar guns.
Thanks Matheny for destroying yet another players arm.
It’s easy to blame Matheny for Sherriff ‘s TJ Surgery, but if you were to scroll back on this site during spring training up to now, there have been numerous young players needing TJ Surgery this year that had no connection whatsoever to Matheny.
If a team has 2 or 3 games in a row where the starter can’t get out of the 2nd or 3rd inning, what’s a manager’s options?
Calling someone up from Triple-A. Sherriff hadn’t pitched back-to-back all year.
Would the Cardinals recall him and place on 60 DL to open a 40 man roster spot? Or would they be concerned about service time with him?
Player tweets his surgery? Front office confirms it after the fact? Welcome to year 7 of the demise of Cardinals baseball. Little League manager. Little League front office. Time for the sheeple from STLTODAY FORUM and game comments to start ranting against me. Enter Tommy, Jeffy, Joey etc
*Instagram
Well, that’s better, 🙂
The Sherriff could use arrest anyway
Pardon? Eviction warranted?
this just isnt a STL issue its a baseball issue. It just seems like lots of young players going down.