Cardinals reliever Luke Gregerson is already on the disabled list due to an impingement in his right shoulder, but MLB.com’s Joe Trezza tweets that Gregerson also had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn right meniscus yesterday. He’ll be out for at least an additional four to six weeks following that procedure.
Signed to a two-year, $11MM contract this offseason, Gregerson has been limited to just 8 1/3 innings so far in 2018. He’s been hit hard in that time, yielding eight runs on eight hits (two homers) and three walks with eight strikeouts.
While he’s never been a flamethrower, Gregerson’s average fastball was sitting at just 87.8 mph in his limited 2018 sample — a decrease of nearly two miles per hour from last season’s average of 89.5 mph. To his credit, Gregerson’s 16.7 percent swinging-strike rate was actually the second-best mark of his career, and his 60.9 percent ground-ball rate remained considerably ahead of the league average for relievers (43.3 percent).
[Related: St. Louis Cardinals depth chart]
Gregerson is one of several Cards relievers on the shelf, joining Matt Bowman, Greg Holland, Dominic Leone and Tyler Lyons. In his absence, the Cards have leaned heavily on surprise closer Bud Norris. Young flamethrower Jordan Hicks has been the most highly used piece of a largely unproven collection of arms that have been utilized in high-leverage spots, with John Brebbia, Mike Mayers and Sam Tuivailala all being asked to pick up meaningful innings (and performing quite well in the process).
The Cardinals always used to be able to call a low-rent useful pitcher (starter or reliever) from Triple-A. Now, they’re spending more money to watch relievers wither and fade.
No solution. Merely an observation.
the problem is not spending the money the problem is spending the money on the wrong people. The problem is they keep bringing up guys that are starters and put them in the bullpen and they aren’t used to having to get warm that way and it hasn’t worked. I think they would have more success if they left the starters in AAA and brought up relievers
All of the RP on the 40 man were either always a RP, was a failed SP prospect, or was an SP who flamed out. Some SP prospects are never going to pan out as a viable starter. If they have 1 or 2 solid pitches it makes more sense to convert them into a reliever. Also….the Cards haven’t brought up 1 guy this year who was a SP in 2018 and put them in the pen. Maybe they’ve done that in previous years…but so have a lot of other teams.
mayers was a full time starter, until last year. he may be the next to hit the injury train
Gomber was a Starter in Memphis, as was Mayers, as was Poncedeleon. good point
Mayer’s was a reliever in Memphis…they moved him to te pen this year because of his success in spring training
Bigkempin are you even a real person?
Lol smh
Wasn’t Gomber a starting pitcher in AAA?
I believe Poncedeleon was a starter in AAA also
yep, in both cases
yep again
The person that needs to go and go soon is John Mozeliak!!! Michael Girsch was the one who developed the current minor league system as Asst. General Manager. Look where every Cardinal minor league finished their 2017 season. Because of his success he was, so called, promoted to General Manager. This move was made to compensate for Mozeliak’s ineptness in judging talented players with futures. Girsch actually had a deal for Machado pretty much worked out for Machado in late January or early February in which Mozeliak Nixed!!! Signed Gregerson, traded for Leone, and waited until Holland missed all of Spring Training. There is a reason other teams didn’t want these players. That’s why they were still sitting there as low hanging fruit for Mozeliak!!!
Luke Gregerson, Dominic Leone, Greg Holland, Brett Cecil….. Waste of money by John Mozeliak for the Cardinals through hanging around during free agency and waiting to see what’s left over. Then Mathaney has to deal with them because they are on the 25-40 man rosters. Mathaney makes some hard headed decisions with his bullpen use, but look what Mozeliak gives him to work with!!! When are the Cardinal owners going to figure out how much of their money Mozeliak has wasted every year on the bottom dwellers he signs during free agency??? Trades are different. He did well getting Ozuna. Trade for Machado to beef up the offense. Present him a deal with huge incentives that are too good to turn down in 2019.
Cardinals17
Although I understand what you are saying about these players Mo did not wait around on Cecil, Gregerson orLeone! Although we seem to have a lot of bad luck as far as injuries ( we’ll actually I’m not so sure our injury problems are not coming from lack of preparation on all fronts) I have said that I do feel that Mo should have to accept as much or more of the blame for the mess of the bullpen! In defense of Mo if he had not signed Cecil then fans would have been hollering that he wouldn’t spend any money! There are always gonna be bad signings but Damn we seem to be getting ur fair share along with many more it seems!!