The Cardinals have removed Michael Wacha from their rotation for the second time this season, Wacha told Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other reporters. Daniel Ponce de Leon will now take Wacha’s spot in the rotation and start on Wednesday against the Pirates.
Wacha had been originally slated to start on Tuesday, then Wednesday as the Cards juggled their pitching staff coming out of the All-Star break. After back spasms forced Adam Wainwright out of a scheduled outing last Friday, Ponce de Leon pitched well in spot duty, earning him a longer look as a starter. Ponce de Leon now slots in alongside Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty, and Dakota Hudson in the starting five.
This leaves Wacha as the odd man out, continuing what has been a frustrating season for the 28-year-old. Injuries have plagued his ability to become a consistently productive member of the St. Louis rotation in recent years, though while Wacha had a brief IL stint due to a knee problem in April, his biggest problems have been a huge spike in home runs allowed (2.1 HR/9) and a continued decline in fastball velocity. After averaging 95.1 mph on his heater in 2017, Wacha saw that total drop to 93.5 mph last season, and 92.6 mph this year. While Wacha has never been a big strikeout pitcher, his 7.31 K/9 is a career low, while his 4.6 BB/9 is a career high.
The result is a 5.54 ERA over 76 1/3 innings for Wacha this season. After a rough start on May 22, the right-hander was first shifted into the bullpen, where he made two relief appearances before returning as a starter on June 10. While Wacha has a 4.10 ERA over his last five starts, the inconsistency has continued, as he was hit hard in two outings while posting quality starts in the other three. Despite the role change, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt left the door open for Wacha to potentially start again, saying that the righty will work out of the pen “until another need arises.”
That said, Hummel raised the possibility that Wacha could be nearing the end of his time with the organization, and could be on the move before the July 31 trade deadline. Wacha doesn’t project as a long-term piece of the Cards’ future given that he’s a free agent after the season, and while his current struggles don’t make him a premium trade chip, St. Louis could add him into a larger package or simply swap him in a more low-profile trade. Rival teams could have interest in seeing if a simple change of scenery is required for a pitcher who has generally been a pretty solid rotation arm when healthy.
Working as a spot starter and reliever, Ponce de Leon has shown some intriguing stuff in his two MLB seasons, posting a 2.37 ERA, 9.6 K/9, and 2.88 K/BB rate over 64 2/3 career innings. Opposing batters have managed only a .243 xwOBA in 31 2/3 innings against Ponce de Leon this season. With the Cardinals fighting to stay close in both the uber-competitive NL Central race and the NL wild card hunt, the team decided it was better to go with a hot hand in Ponce de Leon than continue to give Wacha time to get on track.
he will finish the year on the IL and then be signes by the Astros in the off-season and win comeback player of the year next year.
nope, going to the rangers to team with lance lynn
Guess they got sick of Wacha his pitches sailing into the bleachers.
Just wait. When Wacha and Corbin Burnes get back into the rotation both teams will take off like rockets. Just you wait
Like the Challenger rocket did back in ‘86?
Classless.
columbia needs to be added to make it, rockets
Too soon
Hey, moron. Americans died on that day. Ply your interpretation of humor elsewhere.
That was not nice doug…..
Dang that was just a joke not trying to offend anybody sorry.
Holy Dougy…I’m not sure how you sleep at nite man…
They’ll be giving up rockets lol
I was wondering why they weren’t giving that Ponce de Leon kid more of a look. The Cardinals seem to wait way too long before making any changes to their rotation.
What is wrong with Wacha? He showed so much promise when he came up and turned into nothing special.
shelby miller 2.0
The shoulder injury happened. They changed his delivery to try and compensate for it and the results haven’t been there.
He’s got some weird shoulder condition where his bones rub together more than they should so he can’t keep himself healthy. The rest of his injuries are likely due to compensations he has to make in his delivery to try to prevent his shoulder problems.
Yeah when he first came up he had the downward trajectory on his fastball creating a lot of ground balls. But as mentioned, his injury forced him to alter his delivery, and he hasn’t been the same since. He never has been able to develop a decent breaking ball to augment his stuff. His cutter has helped, but he is inconsistent with controlling it and when he misses the pitch gets hammered. With both Ozuna and Wacha unlikely to re-sign, maybe a package of the two, or even include Tyler O’Neill, and bring back a left-handed corner outfielder with thump.
What seller is interested in acquiring 2 rental players for their LH OF with thump?
Yeah, I remember when Joe Buck was drooling over him during his first playoff run. He picks one player every postseason to anoint the next baseball legend
Someone’s gonna get him on a one year deal next year to boot his stock and they’re gonna get real good value out of it.
Cards need to package Wacha and Carpenter for a decent 4th string catcher
I have actually thought these 2 could work in Houston. Not sure to get much back, but both are from Texas, Wacha can be a decent 5th guy still, and Carpenter can take advantage of the shorter left field.
Did Daniel Ponce de Leon choose his last name a la Ted Clubber Lang?
Finally someone is pointing out the ridiculous nature of his last names. I pluralized for obvious reasons.
Although part of me hopes he does last a while in the league just so hack-y sportswriters and anchors can break out the “clever” Fountain of Youth headlines.
Cards have not had a lot of luck developing pitchers. True, a few have had their moments, but they either eventually fizzle out or get hurt: Reyes, Miller, Lynn, Martinez, Rosenthall, Hicks, M. Gonzalez, Wacha, J. Garcia etc.
Even Flaherty is struggling this year after being very impressive last year. Jury is still out on Hudson, although not allowing more than 3 runs in 17 of 18 starts, even with a low K/9IP rate, is nothing to sneeze at.
Cards are still my pick to win the NL Central. Need to get Goldie and Carpenter smashing and mashing like they both have in the past. And, of course, we need Ozuna back ASAP.
BTW, what’s up with Bader? After what I saw in about 350 at bats last year, I really thought he was gonna break out big time in 2019. Now? He barely sees the field.
I wouldn’t regard Hicks, Gonzales, Garcia, and Reyes as failures, injuries can happen to anyone and that doesn’t really have much to do with the development process outside of them being irresponsible, and with the frequency of injuries in the majors now, no red flags are really raised. Heck, Gonzales is a very successful starter now. Martinez you figure would mature and get his focus, but he never did. Not much can be helped there from their standpoint.
Flaherty is definitely not a failure, he will be the ace in two years, maybe less. He’s slumping right now but will get there.
By the same token you could point to Brebbia, Weaver, Gallen, Alcantara, Gant, as great successes, and those just recently. And it’s early but Hudson, Helsley, and Woodford show promise as well.
I agree with you about Goldy. He is the key. I’ve been saying it for a while now, you have to get him going and he will get the rest of the team going. Starts with him.
Bader is becoming Wong a bit, great D that you can swallow the offense, but not when you aren’t hitting. They need offense in the game and he can’t provide it right now.
Brebbia and Gant are the next TJ candidates. Schildt is abusing them.
Lance Lynn is just fine, and Bader is Peter Bourjos 2.0, except had multiple injuries and Mike Matheny that derailed him.
Another fabulous outing by Waino!
Yay! Give him an extension. Maybe he’ll stay healthy enough to start 20 games next year? Or maybe just make him a Mike Shannon. Only work home games. I would offer him the same deal as Mikolas.