A torn lat muscle last March ended up costing Zack Thompson the entirety of his 2025 season, though the Cardinals left-hander was also dealing with another injury. According to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Thompson had an arthroscopic surgery on his throwing shoulder in August, described as “a cleanup procedure.” The recovery from this surgery has delayed Thompson’s mound work at the start of Spring Training, though he is playing catch and planning to ramp up his throwing.
It seems like this means Thompson will begin the 2026 season on the injured list, though the fact that he hasn’t already been put on the 60-day IL is perhaps a good sign. A 60-day IL placement prior to Opening Day automatically rules Thompson out of action until at least late May, so the Cardinals might feel optimistic that Thompson will be ready to go at some point within the season’s first two months.
The shoulder surgery adds to this extended setback to Thompson’s career. Now entering his age-28 season, the southpaw has appeared in parts of three MLB seasons since St. Louis selected him with the 19th overall pick of the 2019 draft. After not playing anywhere in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season, Thompson has played only with Triple-A Memphis and in the majors, without much success at either level.
Thompson has a 4.50 ERA over 118 innings in the Show, along with a 23.5% strikeout rate and a 9.3% walk rate. It seemed like he was making headway in his first two MLB seasons, but then struggled to a 9.53 ERA across 17 frames in 2024. In Memphis, Thompson has a 5.92 ERA, 23.94K%, and an even higher 13.9% walk rate. The lefty has worked mostly as a starter at Triple-A, but he has started only 12 of his 52 big league games.
Getting healthy is the first priority for Thompson, but once is ready to resume his career, it remains to be seen if the Cardinals will continue to utilize him as a starter or if he might be entirely slotted into relief work. Given how the Cards are in a rebuild phase, there’s not much risk for St. Louis in giving him more looks in the rotation, to see if Thompson can still be a late bloomer who factors into the longer-term plan. Thompson has one remaining minor league option, as since he spent all of 2025 on the big league injured list, he was never sent to the minors (and thus didn’t qualify for minor league free agency).
He’s not on the 40 man so no 60 day needed!!!!!
Man, at one time I had high hopes for this guy. Now I regularly forget he’s still in the organization. For his sake, I hope he can get and stay healthy.
Honestly, me, too. 🤷♂️
Ive felt alot about Thompson that I also felt about Reyes
If he can recover from the injuries he should focus on being a relief pitcher in my view
Hi Mark, I believe there are several inaccurracies in here. It says he didnt qualify for minor league free agency but he did. He elected free agency on November 6 and re-signed on January 26 to a minor league deal.
This leads into the next one which is he can be moved to the 60-day but he can’t because he isnt on the 40-man. Therefore, I am little confused as to how this is a concerning article in the first place. Seems more likely he pitches triple a until the Cardinals may have availablity but given his contract I gather that may be awhile.
From what I read when he was originally taken off the 60 day IL at seasons end they thought he was going to be a free agent. But he never hit free agency as there was a clause in the CBA which allowed the Cardinals to retain him based on his Il time without having to DFA him. He never became eligible to sign with another team based on the rule.
This is true. He was originally set to be a free agent, but there was a strange clause preventing this from happening. I believe Derrick Goold from the St. Louis Post Dispatch was the first to report on it
Either way, hopefully he can regain his form because he looked like he was either a back end starter or lefty reliever who could consistently hit mid to upper 90’s. Health has definitely robbed him
Knowledge drop, nice job fact checking the fact checker. It was a confusing stretch for his career. Zack Thompson has nasty stuff when he’s healthy. It would be cool to see him achieve some more MLB success after a few rough breaks.
Somebody got schooled
I’m convinced he should have remained a reliever once he arrived in majors.
Editors wouldn’t be a bad idea, either.