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Willson Contreras Expected To Miss About 10 Weeks

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Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras underwent surgery to stabilize the fracture in his forearm on Wednesday of this week. Manager Oli Marmol tells the Cardinals beat that the surgery went as expected, and Contreras is expected to miss around 10 weeks of action. He’s hopeful of returning shortly before the All-Star break (via John Denton of MLB.com and Katie Woo of The Athletic on X). Contreras suffered the fracture this week when Mets designated hitter J.D. Martinez struck his left forearm during a swing.

Subtracting Contreras from an already struggling Cardinals lineup is a gut-punch. Veteran stars Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado have both underperformed this season (the former, in particular), while injuries have kept Tommy Edman off the field entirely and limited Lars Nootbaar’s time on the field (and arguably his productivity as well).

The Cards are batting just .217/.296/.339 as a team. They rank 29th in the majors in home runs (27), 29th in runs (127), 28th in batting average, 27th in on-base percentage and are tied with the Marlins for 27th in slugging percentage. As longtime Cardinals reporter and St. Louis radio host Bernie Miklasz points out on X, the trio of Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman and Dylan Carlson have astonishingly combined to go 0-for-48 since the calendar flipped to May.

Were it not for an eye-popping start to the season from Contreras, those team totals and rankings would be far worse. He’s been far and away the team’s best hitter, batting .280/.398/.551 with six homers in 128 plate appearances. Contreras’ six homers lead the club, and he’s also pacing the team in doubles (11), walks (18) and wRC+ (171).

In his absence, the Cardinals will turn catching duties over to the tandem of Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages. Herrera has long been a touted catching prospect who looked ready for an audition as a big league regular, but between iron man Yadier Molina and the team’s signing of Contreras, that opportunity hadn’t presented itself — until now. The 23-year-old is out to a slow start in 76 plate appearances this year, hitting just .232/.276/.377. However, he slashed .297/.409/.351 in 13 games with the Cards last year in addition to posting a huge .297/.451/.500 line (147 wRC+) in 83 Triple-A contests (375 plate appearances).

Pages made his big league debut this month. He’s appeared in six games but has just eight plate appearances and has yet to log his first major league hit. The 2019 sixth-round pick is considered a glove-first catching prospect but did post a quality .267/.362/.443 slash (142 wRC+) in 497 Double-A plate appearances last season. He was 4-for-18 with a homer and two doubles in Triple-A prior to his call to the big leagues.

The 15-22 Cardinals have lost five straight games and eight of their last ten. Their -41 run differential ranks 25th in the majors and 12th in the National League.

Cardinals’ Drew Rom Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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Cardinals left-hander Drew Rom underwent arthroscopic surgery on his throwing shoulder last week, manager Oli Marmol told the team’s beat (X link via Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat). Marmol said the team is still hopeful that the 24-year-old could return at some point this season.

Rom was one of three players whom St. Louis acquired from the Orioles at last year’s deadline in the Jack Flaherty trade. As an upper minors starting pitcher, Rom was a logical target for a team that wanted to reload on the pitching staff and push for contention. St. Louis called him up for his major league debut three weeks after acquiring him. He took eight turns through the rotation but didn’t perform well enough to put himself in the mix for an Opening Day job in 2024.

The 6’2″ southpaw was tagged for an 8.02 ERA over 33 2/3 innings. He had a modest 18.8% strikeout rate, walked more than 11% of batters faced, and gave up seven home runs. While it’s clearly not the way Rom wanted to start his major league career, he entered 2024 as a depth starter who’d likely have factored into the MLB staff at some point throughout the season. Rom has logged 134 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level going back to 2022. His 4.75 ERA in that time isn’t great, but he has punched out an above-average 26.6% of opposing hitters.

Injury will keep that from happening, at least for the near future. Rom battled what was initially announced as biceps tendinitis during Spring Training. He opened the season on the injured list and was transferred to the 60-day IL when St. Louis selected Kyle Leahy onto the MLB roster last week. The team revealed at the time that Rom was visiting a specialist and that surgery was on the table. He’ll clearly be out well beyond when he’s first eligible to return at the end of May. Rom will collect major league service and be paid the $740K MLB minimum salary for whatever time he spends on the injured list.

Paul Goldschmidt’s Toughest Stretch As A Cardinal

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The Cardinals are back at the bottom of the NL Central through six weeks. At 15-21, they're ahead of only the Marlins and Rockies in the National League. St. Louis viewed their 2023 last-place finish as an anomaly. They invested in their rotation to try for a quick turnaround, but their current 68-win pace is below where they ended last season.

Their problems aren't quite the same as they were in 2023. Last year, the biggest issues were a starting rotation that couldn't miss bats and a defense that was surprisingly the worst in MLB at turning batted balls into outs. The Cards haven't been great in either area thus far in 2024, but the slight improvements they've made in those facets have been negated by a lifeless offense. At the center of those struggles: Paul Goldschmidt, who is amidst what is by far the worst stretch of his time in St. Louis.

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Willson Contreras Suffers Arm Fracture, Will Undergo Surgery

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May 8: The Cardinals have formally placed Contreras on the 10-day injured list (though he’ll obviously be out well beyond that 10-day minimum). Pages has indeed been recalled from Memphis, the team announced.

May 7: Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras has been diagnosed with a fractured left forearm, the team announced. The club didn’t provide an immediate recovery timeline, but he’s obviously in for a lengthy absence.

Contreras suffered the injury in tonight’s game against the Mets. He took a direct hit on a J.D. Martinez swing as he went to receive a Miles Mikolas offering (video provided on X by MLB.com’s John Denton). Contreras was in obvious pain immediately and testing quickly revealed the broken bone. Contreras told reporters after the game that he’ll undergo surgery and expects to miss six to eight weeks (X link via Denton). Contreras is shooting for a return around the All-Star Break.

In a lineup where almost everyone has underperformed, Contreras has been the Cardinals’ bright spot. He’s hitting .280/.398/.551 through 128 plate appearances. Among catchers with 100+ plate appearances, only Ryan Jeffers has been narrowly better by measure of wRC+. Contreras has also been by far the best player in the St. Louis lineup, handily leading the team in on-base percentage, slugging and home runs.

Young backstop Iván Herrera will step into the primary catching job. The former top prospect is hitting .215/.264/.369 over 72 trips to the plate. Pedro Pages is the only other catcher on the 40-man roster. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets that Pages was pulled midway through his game in Triple-A, suggesting he’ll be recalled tomorrow.

Contreras is in the second season of a five-year free agent deal. He’s a .266/.366/.481 hitter in a little more than 600 plate appearances as a Cardinal.

Cardinals Select Chris Roycroft

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The Cardinals announced that they have selected right-hander Chris Roycroft to the roster. In corresponding moves, they placed righty Giovanny Gallegos on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder impingement and transferred infielder/outfielder Tommy Edman to the 60-day IL. Roycroft’s promotion was hinted at earlier by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Roycroft, 27 next month, graduated from Aurora University in 2019. The 6-foot-8 righty pitched for the Joliet Slammers of the independent Frontier League in 2021 and 2022, but signed with the Cardinals midway through the latter campaign.

He reported to Single-A and tossed 32 innings in 2022, with a 4.50 earned run average. Last year, he went through Single-A and Double-A and Triple-A with a 5.86 ERA. His 21.8% strikeout rate and 13.9% walk rate were both subpar, but he generated ground balls on about half of balls in play.

This year, he has continued to keep the ball on the ground. He has logged 13 innings over 11 Triple-A appearances so far in 2024. His 16.7% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate are again not great, but 67.6% of balls in play have been pounded into the dirt. That’s helped him post a 1.38 so far this season. He won’t be able to maintain a .237 batting average on balls in play nor a 95.9% strand rate, but the Cards are encouraged by the results nonetheless.

The Cards did a sort of bullpen game yesterday, with Steven Matz recently landing on the IL. Matthew Liberatore took the start but isn’t fully stretched out since he’s been working out of the bullpen this year. He threw 3 2/3 innings but the club then used four other relievers to get through the game. Three of those threw more than an inning and the other was Gallegos, who is now hurt. Roycroft will give the team a fresh bullpen arm and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.

As for Edman, he underwent arthroscopic wrist surgery in October and was still experiencing pain in Spring Training, forcing him to start the season on the injured list. He’ll now be ineligible to be activated until 60 days from his initial IL placement, which was backdated to three days before Opening Day. In other words, he could rejoin the Cards in late May if he’s healthy by then. He still hasn’t yet begun a rehab assignment, so it doesn’t seem like he has a strong chance of being ready by then, which allowed the Cards to use his roster spot on Roycroft.

Cardinals Activate Dylan Carlson From Injured List

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TODAY: The Cardinals have officially announced Carlson’s activation. Pages was optioned to make room for the center fielder on the club’s active roster.

May 4: The Cardinals are set to activate outfielder Dylan Carlson from the 10-day injured list tomorrow, according to The Athletic’s Katie Woo. Catcher Pedro Pages is expected to be optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move. Woo also relays that left-hander Matthew Liberatore is expected to move from the bullpen to the rotation to take the ball in tomorrow afternoon’s game against the White Sox.

Carlson, 25, appeared poised to enter the season as the everyday center fielder in St. Louis until a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder sidelined him just before Opening Day. In his absence, the Cardinals have scuffled to a 15-18 start that leaves them just half a game out of last place in the NL Central. Much of those struggles can be attributed to a lack of offense from the club’s lineup, which has posted a collective 86 wRC+ that ranks sixth from the bottom in the majors. That figure has been dragged down by brutal offensive production from the club’s outfield mix, which to this point in the season has consisted of a combination of Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, Jordan Walker, Alec Burleson, Victor Scott II, and Michael Siani. With Donovan’s 92 wRC+ leading the pack, Cardinals outfielders have combined for a paltry slash line of .188/.268/.294 with an NL-worst wRC+ of 66.

Given those significant struggles, Carlson’s return to action is welcome news for fans in St. Louis even as he himself is far from a sure thing offensively. The club’s first-round pick in the 2016 draft, Carlson was a consensus top-20 prospect in the sport when he reached the majors during the shortened 2020 season and earned a third-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting during his first full campaign the following year. While he hit a solid .266/.343/.437 in 149 games that year, he’s struggled to repeat that production over the past two seasons. Since the start of the 2022 campaign, Carlson has slashed just .230/.316/.364 with a below-average 94 wRC+ in 204 combined games. Still, those numbers are at least decent for a center fielder and would represent a major upgrade over the club’s current production at the position, where is hitting .182/.280/.227 with a wRC+ of 56.

As for Liberatore, the 24-year-old has performed admirably in 12 appearances out of the bullpen this season with a 2.76 ERA in 16 1/3 innings, but a lackluster 16.4% strikeout rate and a much higher 4.18 FIP suggest that the lefty’s solid results have benefited from good fortune. While those questionable peripherals aren’t necessarily a reason for the Cardinals to avoid using him in the rotation, starting Liberatore is nonetheless a confusing choice given the lefty hasn’t thrown more than 38 pitches in a game since March and has struggled badly in the role throughout his major league career with a 5.72 ERA through 18 starts.

It’s not yet clear if Liberatore’s move to the rotation is a sign that he’s the club’s long-term replacement for veteran lefty Steven Matz, who is reportedly expected to miss at least “a couple of weeks” with a lower back strain, or if Liberatore’s start tomorrow will merely be a spot start before he passes the baton to one of the club’s other options, such as southpaw Zack Thompson or prospect Sem Robberse. Thompson made two starts for the club earlier this season but was optioned to Triple-A after allowing ten runs in 3 1/3 innings of work following a move to the bullpen, while Robberse has dominated Triple-A to the tune of a 1.77 ERA in six starts but has yet to make his major league debut.

NL Central Notes: Brewers, Middleton, Friedl

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The Brewers announced a handful of roster moves prior to this afternoon’s game against the Cubs, most notably of which saw the club place outfielder Joey Wiemer on the 10-day injured list with left knee discomfort. Infielder Andruw Monasterio was called up to replace Wiemer on the roster.

What once appeared to be a glut of outfield talent has quickly evaporated due to injuries in Milwaukee with Wiemer now joining Christian Yelich and Garrett Mitchell on the shelf. Wiemer had been scuffling at the time of his injury, with just four hits to his name in the majors this season, although those struggles came in a microscopic sample of just 24 trips to the plate. Between his career .269/.296/.492 slash line against southpaws and his strong glove in the outfield, Wiemer figured to be a strong fourth outfielder for the Brewers while Mitchell and Yelich were on the shelf.

Now, however, Wiemer is headed to the shelf without a return in sight. While Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relayed that the outfielder underwent an MRI that revealed no ligament damage, he added that Wiemer had “no idea” when he’d be able to return from the strained muscle in his left knee. Sal Frelick, Jackson Chourio and Blake Perkins figure to handle the outfield on a regular basis in Wiemer’s absence, though behind that group only Jake Bauers has played even an inning on the outfield grass this season of the players currently on the roster. Youngster Chris Roller currently stands as the Brewers’ most experienced outfielder on the 40-man roster, though he has yet to make his big league debut and has struggled to an 89 wRC+ at Triple-A this season.

More from around the NL Central…

  • Cardinals reliever Keynan Middleton appears to be making good progress in his bid to return from a forearm strain that sidelined him during Spring Training, as he told reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat) that he hasn’t felt any discomfort in his arm since receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his elbow last month. Per Jones, Middleton expects to pitch off a mound twice more on Tuesday and Friday before heading out on a minor league rehab assignment if all goes well during those outings. The return of Middleton, who dominated down the stretch with the Yankees last year to a 1.88 ERA with a 30.4% strikeout rate, would bolster a St. Louis bullpen that ranks just middle-of-the-pack with a 3.81 ERA despite an excellent xFIP of 3.30 and a strong 25.6% strikeout rate.
  • Reds outfielder TJ Friedl is doing well in his recovery from a right wrist fracture suffered prior to the start of the season, with MLB.com’s Injury Tracker noting that manager David Bell told reporters yesterday that the 28-year-old is on a “fast track” toward returning to the big league club. Friedl began a rehab assignment earlier this week and, according to Bell, will return to the majors “whenever we feel he’s gotten enough at-bats” in the minor leagues. Friedl enjoyed something of a breakout season last year as he slashed an impressive .279/.352/.467 in 138 games as the club’s everyday center fielder and should provide a big boost to a Reds club that has relied on Stuart Fairchild and Bubba Thompson in center in his absence.

Cardinals Place Steven Matz On Injured List Due To Back Strain

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The Cardinals announced that left-hander Steven Matz has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 1, due to a lower back strain. Right-hander Kyle Leahy was recalled in a corresponding move.

The Cards signed the southpaw to a four-year, $44MM deal going into 2022 but they’ve gotten little return on that investment so far. Matz battled shoulder issues for much of 2022 and only tossed 48 innings with a 5.25 earned run average. Last year, he struggled out of the gate and got moved to the bullpen. He got in a good groove and retook a rotation spot as they played out the string on a lost season, finishing strong enough to have a 3.86 ERA by season’s end.

The club was surely hoping he could carry some momentum from that solid finish into 2024, and he did for a brief moment. After three starts, Matz had allowed just three earned runs and had a 1.80 ERA. But he’s allowed 16 earned runs in his three most recent outings, swelling his ERA to 6.18 for the year.

Per Katie Woo of The Athletic (X link), an issue cropped up with Matz’s back after his April 23 outing. The club had an off-day on April 25 and then a rainout April 29, which meant Matz got some extra rest before taking the ball again on April 30. It was hoped that the extra time would help him get beyond the back problem, but that didn’t come to pass. His velocity was down in that last start and he was pulled after allowing four earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. He was sent for an MRI yesterday, per Woo on X, and it seems the club has decided to put Matz on the shelf for at least a couple of weeks.

That will leave the club with Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson and Miles Mikolas as healthy starters, but they will need a fifth at some point. As of today, the Cards are playing 13 games in a row before their next off-day.

Drew Rom was recently transferred to the 60-day injured list and won’t be an option. Matthew Liberatore could be considered but he’s been in the bullpen and isn’t stretched out. Zach Thompson was in the big league rotation before being being moved to the bullpen and then optioned to the minors. He tossed 3 2/3 innings in his most recent Triple-A start.

Sem Robberse and Adam Kloffenstein are each stretched out at Triple-A on on the 40-man, though Kloffenstein has a 5.93 ERA this year. Robberse is in much better form with a 1.77 ERA through six Triple-A starts, though he just started last night and likely wouldn’t be called up before Tuesday. Prospects Gordon Graceffo and Michael McGreevy are also stretched out in Triple-A, but neither is on the 40-man and they both have worse results than Robberse so far.

Cardinals Select Kyle Leahy

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The Cardinals have selected the contract of right-hander Kyle Leahy and added him to the active roster as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader against the Tigers, reports Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. Lefty Drew Rom has been transferred to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move.

Leahy, 26, made his big league debut last season but pitched just 1 2/3 innings, yielding four runs in that brief look. The Cards passed him throughout outright waivers unclaimed following the season and retained the right-hander, whom they selected in the 17th round of the 2018 draft.

The Cards moved Leahy from a starting role to the bullpen in 2023 but didn’t get the desired results; he posted a 6.26 ERA in 83 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level (four starts, 42 relief appearances). He’s posted a similarly unpalatable 5.84 mark through his first 12 2/3 frames this year, but Leahy is sporting much-improved strikeout and walk rates of 26.4% and 7.5%, respectively. He’s already been tagged for four long balls, but if he can curtail that trend, the blend of missed bats, strong command and an above-average 45.5% ground-ball rate is interesting.

This is the second of three option years for Leahy. He has a good bit of work to do in order to carve out some staying power on the 40-man roster, but he’ll get his first opportunity of the 2024 season to do so today. If he ends up sticking on the roster, he’d be controllable for at least six seasons.

As for the 24-year-old Rom, he’s been sidelined by a biceps issue all season. Jones reported last week that the southpaw was ticketed for a visit with Dr. Keith Meister to further assess the injury. The results of that visit haven’t been made clear just yet, but given that he was still seeking additional opinions in late April, Rom’s move to the 60-day IL shouldn’t come as a major surprise. He’s still clearly feeling discomfort, so even if that visit revealed no additional injuries of note, the southpaw likely isn’t close to returning. His original IL placement was retroactive to March 25, and the “60-day” term includes all the time already spent on the shelf. He’ll be eligible to return in late May.

The Cardinals acquired Rom, Cesar Prieto and Zack Showalter from the Orioles last summer in the deadline deal sending Jack Flaherty to Baltimore. Rom made his MLB debut with St. Louis in the second half of the ’23 season but was rocked for 30 earned runs in 33 2/3 innings across eight starts. The former fourth-round pick has a career 4.75 ERA in 134 2/3 Triple-A frames. If healthy, he’d have been among the Cardinals’ depth options in the rotation to begin the season, but it’s not yet clear when he’ll be a realistic option for them.

NL Central Notes: Imanaga, Pirates, Brewers, Carpenter, Reds

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Before the Cubs signed Shota Imanaga to a four-year, $53MM deal, the other finalists for Imanaga’s services were the Red Sox, Pirates, and Brewers, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.  Boston’s interest in Imanaga was well-known, and Pittsburgh had also been linked to Imanaga’s market, even if the Bucs’ traditional lack of spending makes it somewhat surprising to learn that they apparently came relatively close to landing the southpaw.  Of course, “finalist” is a bit of a nebulous term, and it isn’t known just how close the Pirates might’ve come to Chicago in the bidding.  For instance, the Red Sox offered Imanaga two years and $26MM in guaranteed money according to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, with two more vesting years covering the 2026 and 2027 seasons.

The Brewers are also a surprise entry, as it wasn’t publicly known that they were in on Imanaga at all, let alone one of the last four suitors in the running for his services.  Milwaukee also often operates with a limited payroll (albeit not as limited as the Pirates’ budget), and it’s interesting to speculate on what the team might’ve offered Imanaga, or whether signing the Japanese star might’ve kept from the Crew from any of their other winter business.  For instance, if the Brewers had signed Imanaga, would they have still had enough spending capacity to bring back Brandon Woodruff and/or Wade Miley, or would any further pitching additions would’ve been strictly of the lower-cost or minor league variety if Imanaga had been the team’s big offseason strike.  As Nightengale observes, any of Imanaga’s other suitors might have some regrets given how the left-hander has gotten his MLB career off to such a great start.

Some other notes from around the NL Central…

  • Matt Carpenter recently received a cortisone shot to deal with the oblique strain that has kept him on the injured list for almost four weeks, MLB.com’s John Denton writes (X link).  The shot led to a shutdown, and it isn’t clear when Carpenter will be ready to begin a minor league rehab assignment, though he has been able to take batting practice.  Carpenter reunited with the Cardinals on a one-year deal this past winter, but played in just three games before suffering his oblique problem.
  • X-rays were negative on both Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Tyler Stephenson after the Reds duo were each hit on the hand by pitches in Saturday’s game.  Encarnacion-Strand might be the slightly more serious situation of the two, as Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that the infielder’s X-ray revealed a small previous fracture in the same spot that CES was hit on Saturday.  Encarnacion-Strand said he had “no clue” about the origin of the older injury, and he hadn’t felt any discomfort prior to this most recent HBP.  It isn’t yet clear if Encarnacion-Strand will get an MRI to further explore the injury, but he hoped to return to the lineup within a day or two.
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