Cardinals left-hander Jordan Montgomery was forced to leave yesterday’s game after 4 1/3 innings due to a right hamstring injury. The problem arose on the 65th of Montgomery’s 66 pitches, as “I just kind of slipped on the mound and I guess my body tried to catch myself,” the southpaw told reporters, including Lynn Worthy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. After making one more pitch as something of a test, Montgomery left the mound.
More will be known about Montgomery’s status after he undergoes testing, and with the All-Star break looming, Montgomery could have as many as nine days of rest before his next start. That would essentially serve as a skipped start without technically missing any action, allowing Montgomery some extra recovery time with the possibility of avoiding the injured list together. If a 15-day IL stint is deemed necessary, the All-Star break still helps limit the time lost, as Montgomery would miss two starts if he is able to return in a minimal amount of time.
Of course, there is another prominent timing issue at play in the form of the August 1 trade deadline. With the Cardinals floundering to a 36-52 record, it is looking increasingly likely that St. Louis will be sellers in some regard on deadline day. MLBTR recently ranked Montgomery and fellow St. Louis starter Jack Flaherty fourth and fifth on our list of the top 50 deadline trade candidates, as both are set for free agency this winter. Montgomery is the more valuable of the two since he is having a much more consistent season than Flaherty, yet this hamstring injury could obviously change the equation significantly.
Over 18 starts and 103 innings, Montgomery has a 3.23 ERA and a solid 6.3% walk rate. His SIERA is a less impressive 4.04 and his Statcast metrics are more middling than good, but the lefty has been trending upwards, with a 1.70 ERA over his last 47 2/3 innings. Montgomery has posted generally solid numbers over his seven MLB seasons and he has already been part of a headline-grabbing deadline trade. It was just last August that the Yankees sent Montgomery to St. Louis in a one-for-one swap for Harrison Bader.
Montgomery’s 2023 trade value is already somewhat limited since he’s a rental player, and naturally a serious injury would likely prevent St. Louis from dealing him whatsoever. A more nebulous recovery timeframe wouldn’t necessarily preclude a trade — for instance, if Montgomery does hit the IL and is projected to miss a month of time, a team might still be willing to roll the dice on a trade if they would still get Montgomery in the rotation by early August.
That said, the Cardinals will issue Montgomery a qualifying offer this winter, and in the very likely circumstance that Montgomery rejects the QO, St. Louis would get a compensatory draft pick if he signed elsewhere. As such, the Cards aren’t likely to trade the left-hander unless they get an offer they believe is superior to the value of a compensatory pick, and if offers are diminished in the event of a Montgomery injury, the Cardinals might prefer to just keep him.
An ill-timed injury to a premium trade chip might be just another setback in what has been an increasingly nightmarish season for the Cardinals. The perennial contenders are on pace for their worst season in over a century, leaving the Cards in the unexpected position of having to gauge just how big of a retool is needed at the deadline. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak has already ruled out a full rebuild, but “some changes” are certainly coming as the Cardinals try to get back on track for 2024.
Slap a QO on it and walk it off.
cardinals probably really dont mind this, trade value was pretty much in line with that QO pick, and he could land within range of 2/35 or 3/50 on the open market
A healthy Montgomery is getting at least something like the 4/70-ish T. Walker and J. Taillon got last winter.
i guess i thought this current injury was more serious, and had tampered my original expectations. health permitting, that is more likely.
When Jordan gets injured, do they send him to the Montgomery Ward?
“I just kind of slipped on the mound and I guess my body tried to catch myself,” the southpaw told reporters
How do you slip on the mound?? THERE’S NO ICE!!!
And why’s he sound so unsure of what happened?
“I guess I kinda got abducted and they ran those usual cattle prod tests again but this time when I woke up, my leggy starts hurtin’”
We walk upright therefore we are prone to folly.
Understood, but just tell it like it is—
Somebody threw a banana peel on the mound and you slipped. It happens to everybody
Only cultured men would apply Mario Kart strategery to their innocuous fibs… guess Monty is a bogan!
AMPUTATE!!!!!
Lol. He’s a nice trade piece and this injury ain’t gonna help
Owie
With the Cardinals being so desperate for starting pitching, I don’t understand why they didn’t offer Montgomery an extension during the off season to begin with.
Who says they didn’t? It takes both sides to reach an agreement.
It is likely they did, or at least tested the waters to see if Boras had a moment of insanity. No way Monty was going to be extended, FA all the way.
But everyone has a price. If you’re not going to fork out the money it takes to keep Monty, who are you going to get? I would feel more comfortable overpaying for Monty than overpaying for some unknown (see Contreras, Willson). I have serious concerns that Mo believes this year’s change in organizational pitching philosophy will start to bear fruit next season. Therefore he may feel confident that nothing needs to be added. We could enter next season with a rotation of Mikolas, Matz, Liberatore, Graceffo, Woodford/unknown. He will say fans need to trust the process, just like with Jeff Albert.
IF that would actually happen, all of us should prepare ourselves mentally for another miserable season, likely to be even worse than this year. I’m keeping my fingers crossed nothing like that happens.
You should be preparing for that anyway. This team needs a lot now and even more next season and even more for 2025. They can’t get all of that from deadline+off-season. On the brightside, they are likely to get top 5 first round picks for ‘24 and ‘25. If they hit on those two players, they would be set up with two superstars for ‘27 and beyond.
That’s not true. I’m as doom and gloom as anybody with regard to this team, but there is enough talent to win right now. A new management team could be competitive right now. Look at our record in one run games. If we were even .500 in those games the season would feel much different. Add in two league average starting pitchers to replace Waino and Matz/Liberatore and we would likely be leading the division. Mo/ Marmol/Blake need to go. If that happened we could get back to winning pretty quickly.
Jeff Albert raised them from a decade being the 14-15th ranked offense in baseball to 5th. His system raised the Cardinals minor league system that had been mired in the low 20s for a decade to top 10.
They didnt. He inquired and the cards didnt respond at all. Now he has a chip on his shoulder and wont talk about it.. per John Denton. he will be a free agent and make the cards compete or may not consider them . No cards discount thats for sure.
The next time Denton is right about something will be the first time. We’ll see I guess.
I think they should try to re-sign him before the deadline. If they can accomplish that he is a good piece to build next years rotation around. Trade Flaherty, Donovan, and Carlson for additonal pitching help. Potential value in Dejong with Mason Winn knocking on the door of the show.
The nightmare continues.
They will trade him back to the Yankees for three inexpensive prospects and he will then remain on the DL until September.
Sigh. Tough year here. For both team’s fans,
The Yankees are a game out of a playoff spot in a very deep division and are 11.5 games better than the Cardinals. I wouldn’t call that a tough year for the NYY.
When it rains it pours. Cards have been LONG overdue for a season like this.
As a Crew fan, I wholeheartedly agree! What a great record of success over the years…
At least we waited until the last possible minute so that we gathered as much information as possible. Now we can say with scientific certainty that we won’t receive maximum value in return for Monty. I feel better.
Because Mo likes to wait until the very last second so he can feel confident about his bad decisions.
I agree. As a long time Chicago baseball fan seeing the Cardinal’s having a really rough season is like an alternate reality. Though not a Cards fan. I have always been impressed and admired the organization. The last time they had a loosing record was 2007. I just keep waiting for this team to go on a crazy winning streak.
Just got done watching the White Sox, my favorite AL and overall favorite team, and the Cards, my favorite NL team. The Sox won Friday 8-7 and today St. Louis won 3-0. The Sox are done so I’m hoping the Cards win this series. It’s hard watching them have such a down season. Everyone’s waiting for them to have a hot streak. They better have one soon.
This has the potential to be a CEI. It has happened to people in the past.
Mo gonna run it back next season after he discovers nobody’s buying what he’s selling this deadline. Giddy up.
Oh, there will be plenty of buyers, but none of them will pay what he wants.