Cardinals reliever Brett Cecil left Wednesday’s spring training game after injuring his hamstring while covering first base, Anne Rogers of MLB reported on Twitter.
Cecil will go for tests tomorrow to see what caused the “pop” he felt in his leg. The lefty said he was feeling good about how his spring was going before the incident. “That was the best I’ve felt in a long time,” he told Rogers. “Cutter was cutting, sinker was sinking, ball was good. See how it looks tomorrow and go from there.”
Another injury would further dent what has been a disappointing tenure in St. Louis for Cecil. Before the 2017 season, the Cardinals signed the southpaw to a four-year deal that guaranteed him $30.5MM. At the time, Cecil was coming off a four-year run of quality out of the Blue Jays bullpen, with a 2.90 ERA and 11.5 K/9 over that stretch.
However, since swapping one ornithological jersey for another, the results have not been nearly as positive. In 2017, the first season of his deal, Cecil’s stats regressed somewhat, as he mustered a palatable 3.88 ERA but with a paltry 8.8 K/9, by far his lowest since becoming a full-time reliever. 2018 came with shoulder issues and saw Cecil’s effectiveness dip even lower, to an ERA of 6.89 and a 5.2 K/9. And he couldn’t even make it onto a major league mound in 2019, going on the IL on March 28th. Cecil had carpal tunnel surgery in April and never made it back onto the roster. The Cardinals will pay him $7.25MM in 2020, the final year of the deal.
Though St. Louis surely would have welcomed Cecil returning to form, they would not have been relying on him to make significant contributions based on his recent track record. Although with fellow lefty Andrew Miller also currently on the shelf, that leaves the Cardinals with only inexperienced southpaws for their bullpen, such as Tyler Webb and Genesis Cabrera.
Hated sauce!!!!
Shocking. Molina wants extension and Cecil hurt. Groundhog Day in St. Louis
Trolling again
Cecil probably won’t want to collect the entire set of ornithological jerseys.
While we’re having fun with words, regressed doesn’t mean the same thing as declined. It means what it means, which is trending towards a mean. If Cecil pitches better this year he will have regressed.
If his pitching this Spring has been his best, he doesn’t have a place on the roster anyways. I don’t think it will be surprising to anyone when it’s IL stint or cut from here on out
“Come on and take a free ride”
Ornithology = How High the Moon
Tell me something I couldn’t predict.
I think that “pop” he heard was DeWitt smacking Mozeliak for being so smitten with this guy and signing him to this four year contract lol
If only DeWitt was that smart.
I am certain the Cards will beat out the Pirates for 4th place and will stink it up hard. Old guys and broken down pieces are going to have a say.
And you base that on absolutely nothing.
Holidayfever here you go, straight from ESPN-
” St. Louis Cardinals (84-78)
As usual, the Cardinals will be just good enough to stay in the playoff hunt. Unfortunately for them, they’ll be joined by at least two of their division rivals.
4. Milwaukee Brewers (83-79)”
Time to release him!!
Who in the world would had suspected that Brett Cecil would come ou with an injury????? Guess he’s preparing to sit out the 4th year of his Multimillion Hillary contract just as he did for the previous 3 years.
And to think I was optimistic about him potentially being a small trash can fire instead of a dumpster fire this year
They were expecting zero and will get zero, I guess we can say oh well. But what about Fowler, I know spring training doesnt count technically, but if we do count it, guys hitting 111 in his last 240 at bats, yikes. Looks absolutely lost, should they cut bait and see if they can trade him while paying 80 percent of his salary and receive almost nothing in return? I say yes, what does everybody else think? I know taking a myers contract for a Fowler contract may not be the smartest, but at least myers can still kind of hit and maybe San Diego would throw in something to cover the 25 mil difference.