Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright left Sunday night’s start after 4 1/3 innings due to an injury later diagnosed by the team as tightness in his left hamstring. The injury occurred when Wainwright was running the bases after doubling in the previous inning, as per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter links). Manager Mike Shildt told Goold and other media that Wainwright will miss at least one start, and the veteran righty will go to St. Louis on Monday for further tests to determine the severity of the injury.
Wainwright ended up allowing three runs to the Cubs during his abbreviated start on Sunday, giving the 37-year-old a 4.46 ERA, 7.77 K/9, and 48.8% grounder rate over 70 2/3 frames this season. He has already far surpassed the 40 1/3 innings he tossed in an injury-marred 2018 season, and while his one-year contract to return to the Cards carried a number of incentives related to relief pitching, Wainwright has been deployed solely out of the rotation.
Never a particularly hard-thrower, Wainwright’s 89.5mph average fastball velocity this season is a new career low, and his 42.1% hard-hit ball rate is far and away the highest of his 14 MLB seasons. Still, all that hard contact hasn’t hurt Wainwright to any huge extent, as his .327 xwOBA is actually lower than his .333 wOBA.
All told, Wainwright is on pace for a decent bounce-back season, though his overall unspectacular numbers are par for the course within a Cards rotation that has been pretty average across the board. If an IL stint is required, all eyes will turn to top pitching prospect Alex Reyes as a potential fill-in candidate, as Reyes is reportedly close to a return to the big leagues even though his Triple-A numbers this season leave a lot to be desired.
Genesis Cabrera or Daniel Ponce de Leon could also make spot starts, or the Cardinals could experiment with bullpen games or an opener. A decision will have to be made quickly, however, as the Cards are in the midst of a tough stretch of schedule that sees them play 18 games in as many days.
When will DeWitt wake up and realize this simple truth… Mo Must Go! Useless is too kind of word. for the Cardinal GM..
Mike Girch is the GM for the Cards not Mo. The DeWitts are the issue they run the Cardinals like they are the Royals! Why are the Cards pitching so bad right now? 2 names Matheny and Lilliquest they promoted players not ready then used them. Those guys couldn’t handle a little league pitching staff.
Yeah, all that cheapness.
Heyward offered 100MM+
Price offered 100MM+
Mikolas signed for 68MM
Goldschmidt signed for 130MM
Traded prospects for Goldy
Traded prospects for Ozuna
Signed Miller for 25MM+12MM
Signed Cecil, Gregerson
Extended Wong, Martinez, Carpenter, etc.
Did they all work? No. But you can’t blame a GM for a signing where the guy doesn’t perform. The facts clearly show you are wrong about them running the team cheaply, and only someone delusional would think otherwise.
With the exception of Goldschmidt, all those trades, signings and potential signings were all horrible. Where they screwed up was NOT making an offer to Scherzer, NOT making an offer to Moustakas, NOT making a trade for Hamels when he was with Philly, and NOT making a better offer to go after Yelich. And don’t give me this BS about Yelich wasn’t available. He wasn’t available because the trade pieces likely weren’t what Miami was wanting. Let me ask you all this. If the Cubs missed the playoffs 4 years in a row under Epstein, do you think he would still be employed?
If you can’t blame the GM, who do you blame? The fans? The manager? My grandma? The beer vendor?
And ozuna is obviously juicing. When was the Last time some tripled their numbers within a season and a half of the last. He went from 10 home runs being his career high to 30 home runs. The last time it happened was Barry Bonds.
You forgot Fowler 5/82.5 million.
His career high was 37 before this season, and he only hit as few as 10 homers in his injury-marred 2015 season. But don’t let facts get in the way of your spiel. This reply is to ElMago above, not Mikel
That’s got to be a joke, home runs are at an all time high throughout baseball because the league has been introduced balls that are easier to hit out of the park to try to generate more interest in the game.
As a life long Cards fan, Nick makes the most sense I’ve read. They have made a lot of questionable decisions and passed on some ones that should have been made. Bottom line is this core has just not gotten it done. Changes have to be made
How about blaming the PLAYERS? They’re the ones not performing. It’s so easy to look BACK and blame the front office for either doing &/or not doing certain deals. For all of the whining,griping & complaining my fellow Braves “fans” have been doing ALL season, they’re 7 games above. 500 & ONLY 1 game back of the Phillies (w 97 games left)
So we’re supposed to blame the players for underperforming, but praise Mozeliak for the ones who do perform. That my friends is the CARDINAL WAY.
So tired of this asinine response about Mo not being the GM. We all know that you dolt, but 99% of us knows who makes the decisions, and it’s not Girsch.
The DeWitts are not the issue. John Mozeliak is. He’s the President of baseball operations. DeWitt’s wallet has always been open. Look at all the talent they acquired when Walt Jocketty was GM. The problem is Mozeliak is a cheap skate who blows smoke and bring in broken down players but does just enough to keep his job. I can guarantee that if the Cardinals miss the playoffs again, he will be gone.
It’s actually Jeff Luhnow’s fault
He changed his passwords, now they don’t know what to do…
LOL
He had a 96 ERA+ before this start and nothing better than 88 the previous three years. No wonder Cardinal fans think he’s been “excellent” this year
just release him alteady. they had no business resigning him to begin with.
It takes injuries for MoTie to make changes, because if Wainwright makes 30+ starts this year, the Cards have no chance. Then again, he’s only one of about 5 or 6 problems they have.
Adam Wainwright is not the worst starter on this team. He is effective when he pitches in games after hard throwers. Before the season, I knew the Cards had a very solid pitching staff. I still think they are better than the 4.00+ ERA they’ve shown to be thus far.
My theory is that the ball is juiced this season. The Cubs have adjusted whereas the Cardinals have yet to
Adjust to a juiced ball? I’ve heard all the idiotic excuses now.
The ball has also been ‘juiced’ for years before now. It’s not exactly a secret either.
It’s fine, the next start was against the Mets, so it’s probably better this way haha.
Thanks Cards for helping us pick up some games on the Cubs.
Did you thank us the week before when we swept the Cubs?
Herzog and LaRusso had significant impact and worked well with Walt in acquiring the right talent.
Mozalik and Girsch have struggled for 3 to 4 years just creating a pitching staff. I’m not a baseball executive, but it seems the failure is due to the individuals acquiring the current players….Mozalik and Girsch
Herzog was not the manager when Walt Jocketty was here. Dal Maxvell was GM
Due to tightness in hamstring and FN whiplash. MO has got to GO!!!
The pitching staff or pitching in general should not be the Card’ biggest concern, especially thilately. The inability to score runs on a consistent basis is. Hard to know what to do. A lefty right fielder with both power and good ball to bat skills is the most likely improvement but ngthey don’t grow on trees. Another lefty reliever could help, but to be honest Webb has been better than I expected. Those are things that could be done soon. Any other moves involving the core just isn’t practical. Much to my chagrin. The guys they have just have to be better. Strangely the defense and base running hasn’t just improved but been a strength. I expect the pitching to improve and they have a number of internal options to go to, save the aforementioned move for a guy like Will Smith. Offensively I am less optimistic. Even if an impact lefty right fielder is obtained, others need to be better hitters, and I have my doubts.
I got news for you. This current starting 5 pitchers will NOT get this team to the playoffs. It is and always has been about pitching in baseball.
Not sure I know who you are referring to when you say “starting five.” Hudson has been the best of the bunch this past month, and Flaherty, while still not at his best, has still been very good. Mikolas has had a number of good outings, and some forgettable ones. Those 3 are solidly in place. I had serious doubts about Waino in the number 5 spot, but the truth is he has at least been solid there. Unless he falters seriously in his next few outings he deserves to stay there until the break. Wacha has been pretty miserable, and unless he shines tonight he gets no more chances. There are plenty of other options however. If the Red Birds could land someone of Boyd’s stature then I would champion that. But any acquisition had better be young and very good or else the internal options are just as good a choice. I sure don’t want to give up young talent for an older, average guy. If somebody steps up and fills the #4 spot, then Waino’s performance to date would be tolerable. His just OK performance looks worse when others aren’t pitching well. Reyes needs to get it going, and while he hasn’t pitched very well in Memphis, he did strike out 10 in his last outing. It is easy to complain and criticize. Harder to find answers. But it doesn’t matter how well you pitch if the offense only scores 1 or 2 runs, which has been the case to often, lately. I have a lot more faith in St. Louis’ pitching than hitting.
Have you watched the games? Hudson LEADS the staff at 3.70 ERA. Flaherty 4.08. Wainwright 4.46. Mikolas 4.54 and Wacha 6.30. You can hope, wish, project etc all you want. I understand why you do that because that’s what the idiotic front office does. This pitching, like the last 3 years, has been put together with a hope and a prayer. But good luck.
Brain trust left to Houston years ago; it’s time for Mo to go.
Mo must go break down the team and build from there
What pisses me off the most is that we trade off players or let them leave and then they are stars on some other team. For example Pham, Voit, Marco Gonzalez…etc. And yes… we never get the elite pitchers. We have to rely on either rookies that are not ready or older pitchers that no one else wants.
Team needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. I don’t see an area without problems. I’d keep DeJong, Bader, Wong, and Flaherty. Not everybody else needs to go, but most do. An aging core of Carpenter, Molina, and Waino. Molina is hitting 265/294/690. The catcher we traded for Goldschmidt, Carson Kelly, is hitting 254/333/833. Remember, the Cards were afraid Kelly wouldn’t hit? He never had a chance to hit. Keep Molina through 2020, he’s an icon and can still catch, but for crying out loud let’s develop the next catcher. Luke Voit couldn’t find a place in our lineup, blocked by Carpenter. Waino is a fifth starter at this stage and he’s blocking young players who MAY HAVE upside. But of course these young pitchers are blocked by a Cardinal great who regrettably has no more upside. Carpenter needs to go if for no other reason than we can find somebody else to leadoff. Terrible base runner leading off! Although I admit that was a real nice three-game experiment where he hit fifth or whatever. Boy I’m glad that’s over, I was starting to develop facial tics. Long story short, we need to rebuild because there is (are) no trade deadline transaction(s) that can save the 2019 Cardinals from mediocrity.