Adam Wainwright

Cardinals Notes: Leone, Mikolas, Wainwright

By Steve Adams | May 5, 2018 at 12:50pm CDT

The Cardinals will place setup man Dominic Leone on the 10-day disabled list with what the team is calling a nerve issue in his right biceps, per Joe Trezza of MLB.com (Twitter links). The team didn’t have enough time following today’s diagnosis to call up a replacement for him, however, so a formal move won’t be made until tomorrow. The St. Louis ’pen already had nine relievers in tow, so the pitching staff won’t be especially short handed even if Leone is unavailable.

As Stu Durando of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch explains, Leone was called upon for a relief appearance last night but felt something unnatural in his biceps while throwing his warmup pitches. After immediately calling for a trainer, he exited without throwing a pitch. “It was something I hadn’t felt before and I was concerned,” said Leone. “I didn’t want to put a bad product on the field. I didn’t want to mess with it and potentially hurt myself worse or be ineffective.” It’s not yet clear how long Leone will be out of action at this time, though the Cards figure to have further updates before the weekend is up.

Here’s more out of St. Louis…

While many Cards fans were skeptical of the team’s two-year, $15.5MM deal with righty Miles Mikolas this offseason, but the 29-year-old has gone a long way toward proving his doubters wrong with a 2.70 ERA and a 31-to-2 K/BB ratio through his first 40 innings back in the Majors. Mikolas chatted with the Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold about the Cardinals’ offseason pursuit of him, revealing that the division-rival Cubs were also in pursuit of his services before they “cooled of” and eventually struck up a deal with Tyler Chatwood. “I guess they didn’t want me that bad,” said Mikolas of the Cubs. “I guess they thought it would be more fun facing me than having me on their staff. They figured they’d take their chances.”
Adam Wainwright tells reporters that he’s lined up to make a rehab start with the Cardinals’ Double-A affiliate on Monday (Twitter link via Trezza). The veteran has been out since April 22 with inflammation in his right elbow but could seemingly return to the club in the near future if all goes well in Springfield. The 36-year-old posted a 3.45 ERA in 15 2/3 innings to open the season but also turned in an ugly 12-to-8 K/BB ratio and hit a pair of batters in that time, demonstrating questionable control. That said, with both Wainwright and top prospect Alex Reyes nearing returns from the disabled list, the Cardinals are on the verge of adding some significant depth to the pitching staff.

Cardinals Notes: Wainwright, Mikolas, Martinez

By Jeff Todd | April 24, 2018 at 10:10am CDT

The Cardinals are off to a solid start to the year, though the NL Central is shaping up to be quite the battleground in 2018. Maintaining health throughout the season could end up being a major factor in deciding the division race. The long view is what motivated Cards righty Adam Wainwright to go on the DL at this point, as MLB.com’s Joe Trezza reports. His elbow has flared up a bit, though the 36-year-old suggested he’s confident that he’ll be able to return in relatively short order. The hope is that some rest and minor mechanical tweaks will allow Wainwright to take most of his scheduled starts in the final season of his contract. Of course, even if the veteran hurler is down longer than expected, the team has plenty of options, as Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch explores.

Here’s more from St. Louis:

Another key hurler for the Cardinals, recent signee Miles Mikolas, has thrown well upon his return to the majors. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch documents some of the ways in which Mikolas has thrived. In particular, he has been one of the most efficient starters in all of baseball, due in no small part to the fact that he has issued just a pair of walks in 26 innings. Goold traces this element of Mikolas’s game back to his successful stint in Japan, during which he gained mental and physical control of his pitching. It’s early, to be sure, but the two-year, $15.5MM pact Mikolas signed over the winter has looked like a bargain.
Cardinals fans will also want to check out two other recent pieces from the Post-Dispatch on the team’s pitching staff. Jose de Jesus Ortiz offers a look at staff ace Carlos Martinez, who says he believes he is pitching better than ever. That the 26-year-old has found another gear is certainly a scary thought for the rest of the league. And Goold examines the intriguing case of Bud Norris, who is now closing out games and sporting a career-high 15.3% swinging-strike rate. It’s a worthwhile read that goes well beyond the field of play.
On the position-player side, the Cards appear to have unearthed another hidden gem in first baseman Jose Martinez. The late-blooming 29-year-old has done nothing but hit in the majors and is off to a .329/.409/.526 start to the current campaign. Trezza penned an interesting look at Martinez’s unlikely path to the majors. The St. Louis scouting department and front office aptly identified and targeted the burly slugger, eventually snagging him from the cross-state rival Royals. Of course, the results have outstripped even the most optimistic expectations. “We were confident he could be a good right-handed hitter off the bench,” says Cardinals GM Mike Girsch. “That’s what we thought we were getting. Since then, he’s been raking.” While he’s currently performing like a mid-prime star, Martinez won’t even reach arbitration eligibility until 2020.

NL Injury Notes: Wainwright, CarGo, Rendon

By Connor Byrne | April 22, 2018 at 11:26am CDT

The latest injury news from the National League:

The Cardinals have placed right-hander Adam Wainwright on the 10-day disabled list with elbow inflammation, Joe Trezza of MLB.com tweets. The move is retroactive to April 20, and it’s already the second DL placement of the season for the 36-year-old Wainwright, who missed the start of 2018 with a hamstring injury. The arm issue is certainly more alarming in this case, especially considering Wainwright missed significant time last year with elbow problems and then underwent arthroscopic surgery early in the offseason. Wainwright has tossed 15 2/3 innings over three starts this year and managed a 3.45 ERA, despite subpar strikeout and walk rates (6.89 K/9, 4.6 BB/9). His roster spot will go to reliever John Brebbia, whom the Cardinals recalled from Triple-A, though the Redbirds figure to bring righty Jack Flaherty back from the minors next time they need a starter.
The Rockies have sent outfielder Carlos Gonzalez to the 10-day DL (retroactive to April 19), per Jenny Cavnar of AT&T Sportsnet (Twitter link). Gonzalez suffered a hamstring injury on Wednesday and hasn’t played since. Before that, he got off to a slow start with a .235/.264/.426 line in 72 plate appearances. His injury could open up playing time for outfielder David Dahl, whom the team recalled Sunday. Dahl’s a former highly regarded prospect who impressed as a rookie in 2016, but he hasn’t taken the field in the majors since after missing last season with a rib cage injury.
Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon hasn’t played since April 13 because of an injury to his left big toe, which remains “pretty sore,” manager Davey Martinez told Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com and other reporters Saturday. As a result, the Nationals will “re-evaluate” Rendon, according to Martinez, who was unsure whether the star could be headed to the DL. The Nationals would only be able to backdate a DL stint to Thursday, Zuckerman notes, so Rendon wouldn’t be eligible to return until April 29.

NL Central Notes: Greene, Wainwright, Holland, Pham, Brewers

By Steve Adams | April 4, 2018 at 7:45pm CDT

Reds prospect Hunter Greene, the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft who wowed scouts with triple-digit velocity in addition to his potential as an infielder, will begin the season exclusively as a pitcher, Cincinnati director of player development Jeff Graupe tells Jon Morosi of MLB.com (Twitter link). However, while the ballyhooed 19-year-old won’t be hitting to begin the year, the organization is not “closing the door on developing him offensively,” Graupe adds. Virtually every scouting report heading into the draft suggested that Greene’s upside on the mound was higher anyhow, though there was nonetheless some thought to developing him as a two-way player at least in the early portion of his career. Greene made three starts in Rookie ball last season and appeared in seven games as a DH.

Here’s more from the division…

The Cardinals announced that Adam Wainwright will be activated from the 10-day disabled list on Thursday and start the team’s game against the Diamondbacks. In a corresponding move, top prospect Jack Flaherty has been optioned to Triple-A Memphis. Wainwright opened the season on the shelf due to a strained left hamstring. He’ll be looking to bounce back from an uncharacteristic season in which he struggled to a 5.11 ERA in 123 2/3 innings.
Cardinals general manager Mike Girsch spoke with Mike Ferrin of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM about the team’s late signing of closer Greg Holland (Twitter link, with audio). While the Cards were in touch with agent Scott Boras about Holland as far back as the GM Meetings, nothing between the two sides became serious until late in camp. “It really wasn’t until the last week or 10 days of Spring Training when it became more apparent that there might actually be a possibility of finding some common ground,” said Girsch. “…His expectations were changing, and our willingness to find someplace that we could make something happen made it so we could actually get something done.” Notably, Girsch said that Luke Gregerson’s injuries didn’t play much of a role in the decision to add Holland, as he’s not dealing with arm troubles and is only expected to be out for a few weeks. More important, it seems, was the length of the contract. Girsch notes that the Cards have some younger arms “who are future back-of-the-bullpen arms” that aren’t far from big league readiness.
Tommy Pham chatted with MLB.com’s Bill Ladson about his rise to prominence and his ongoing battle with keratoconus — an eye disorder characterized by the progressive thinning of the cornea. Interestingly, Pham said he gives a huge amount of credit to current Astros GM Jeff Luhnow, who, during his days in the Cardinals front office, was the first to set up the initial test that diagnosed Pham with his condition. “He just always believed I was too good of an athlete to struggle in this game,” said Pham. “…I hit a lot of home runs, but I struck out a lot, and Jeff thought it was my vision rather than my actual swing. … sure enough, he was right.”
Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel provides a host of updates on some injured Brewers (all links to Twitter). Veteran lefty Wade Miley, who signed a minor league deal last month, is playing catch but likely a month away from returning from the groin injury that sidelined him. Both Miley and lefty Boone Logan, who is dealing with a triceps injury, are hoping to begin throwing off a mound next week. Ace Jimmy Nelson, meanwhile, is hoping to throw from a mound by the end of the month. As for catcher Stephen Vogt, he hopes to throw by the end of the week after recently being cleared by doctors, but he’s still a few weeks from returning. When he does, the Brewers will have to make a call on what to do with Vogt and Jett Bandy, as both are out of minor league options and behind Manny Pina on the depth chart.

NL Notes: Tomas, Wainwright, Padres

By Connor Byrne | March 25, 2018 at 11:14am CDT

A few notes from the National League…

The Diamondbacks announced that they’ve optioned outfielder Yasmany Tomas to Triple-A Reno. With a $10MM salary, Tomas ranks among the D-backs’ highest-paid players, which makes this an especially notable move. Despite both Tomas’ price tag and starting oufielder Steven Souza Jr.’s injury, the former still wasn’t able to win a roster spot this spring. It’s the latest negative development in what has been a disappointing major league career for Tomas, who parlayed stardom in Cuba into a six-year, $68.5MM guarantee with Arizona heading into 2015. Still just 27, Tomas has been worth minus-1.4 fWAR in the majors, where he has batted a mediocre .268/.307/.462 in 1,169 plate appearances and been borderline unplayable in the outfield (minus-30 Defensive Runs Saved, minus-23.3 Ultimate Zone Rating).
The Cardinals scratched Adam Wainwright from his start Sunday, and president John Mozeliak told reporters (including Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) that the right-hander is dealing with a hamstring injury. Consequently, Wainwright will start the season on the disabled list, and righty Jack Flaherty will replace him, Joe Trezza of MLB.com reports. The 36-year-old Wainwright was on the shelf for a large portion of last season because of elbow problems, and he managed some of the worst run prevention numbers of his stellar career during the abbreviated campaign. Across 123 1/3 innings, the former ace pitched to a personal-high 5.11 ERA, though he did post a 4.29 FIP with 7.01 K/9, 3.28 BB/9 and a 47.2 percent groundball rate.
Padres outfielder Franchy Cordero will begin the season on the disabled list because of a groin injury, per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. Cordero, 23, had been in the running for a big league roster spot, but that bid’s now on hold. As a result, it’s likely Hunter Renfroe and one of Matt Szczur or Travis Jankowski will open 2018 as the Padres’ reserves behind starting outfielders Wil Myers, Manny Margot and Jose Pirela, Cassavell suggests.

NL Notes: Brewers, Scherzer, McCutchen, Cards, Dodgers

By Connor Byrne | October 1, 2017 at 4:50pm CDT

The Brewers’ impending free agents – infielders Neil Walker and Eric Sogard, reliever Anthony Swarzak and starter Matt Garza – spoke about their futures Sunday with Adam McCalvy of MLB.com and other reporters. Walker, the most noteworthy of the bunch, suggested that he’s keen on testing the open market in the offseason, though the August trade acquisitions did note that Milwaukee “is the type of team I’m going to be looking at. One that’s ready to win now and one that I can help.” Sogard and Swarzak made it clear they’d like to return to the Brewers, meanwhile, with the latter saying: “There’s still room to get better, and hopefully everybody in Brewers Nation gets to see a better Anthony Swarzak next year, because I want to stay here. I want to make another push here.”

While there’s clearly more baseball ahead of Walker, Sogard and Swarzak, the elder statesman of the group, Garza, admitted that his career could be at an end. The soon-to-be 34-year-old Garza acknowledged that he has struggled over the past couple seasons and said he’s “not expecting much” in the way of offers during the winter. Garza is wrapping up the four-year, $50MM contract he inked with the Brewers prior to the 2014 campaign. The righty made 96 appearances (93 starts) as a Brewer and logged a 4.65 ERA/4.38 FIP with the team.

Cardinals Notes: Wainwright, Weaver, Wisdom

By Steve Adams | September 19, 2017 at 8:59pm CDT

The Cardinals announced on Tuesday that they’ve activated right-hander Adam Wainwright from the disabled list. The longtime St. Louis ace has been out since Aug. 17 due to an impingement in his right elbow. Wainwright is reportedly ticketed for a bullpen role upon his return from the disabled list, as the Cards will roll with Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha, Lance Lynn and young starters Luke Weaver and Jack Flaherty as their starting five through season’s end. The 36-year-old Wainwright has struggled for a consecutive season, following up last year’s 4.62 ERA with a 5.12 mark in just 121 1/3 innings. He’s signed through next season and will earn $19.5MM next year.

A bit more on the Cards…

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch takes a lengthy look at the Cardinals’ use of cut fastballs over the past several years, dating back to Chris Carpenter’s emergence with an explosive cutter that transformed him into one of baseball’s best pitchers. Goold speaks with Wainwright, pitching coach Derek Lilliquist, manager Mike Matheny and others about the organization’s use of the cutter. Notably, Weaver tells Goold that he’s begun to experiment with the pitch and ultimately believes that a cutter will be an important part of his arsenal, but he’s not yet fully comfortable with the pitch. It’s an interesting look not only at the Cardinals’ usage of the pitch but also at the more general strengths and weaknesses of the pitch as well as its its usage rate throughout the years.
MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch tackles several Cardinals-related topics in her latest Inbox column, beginning with the omission of Triple-A slugger Patrick Wisdom from the team’s group of September call-ups. The 52nd overall pick in the 2012 draft, Wisdom showed significant power in Triple-A this year, hitting .243/.310/.507 with 31 homers and 25 doubles in 506 plate appearances. As Langosch points out, Wisdom will be Rule 5 eligible this offseason if the Cardinals don’t add him to the 40-man roster, thus making him available to 29 other clubs. The Cardinals haven’t had a significant need at the infield corners this year, however, limiting chances for Wisdom to get a look in the Majors. The Cardinals could, however, still include Wisdom among their final wave of September promotions now that the minor league season has come to a close.

[Related: St. Louis Cardinals depth chart and payroll outlook]

Central Notes: Minor, Twins, Wainwright, Pirates

By Steve Adams | September 18, 2017 at 9:24am CDT

Royals lefty Mike Minor struck out the side to end the Indians’ winning streak and pick up his first career save over the weekend, and he tells MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan that he’s intrigued by the idea of holding a late-inning relief role moving forward. “I value starting over not knowing when you’re going to pitch,” said Minor, a potential free agent after the season. “But if there’s an opportunity to be an eighth-inning guy or ninth-inning guy, that’d be great.” Minor says that he spoke to Wade Davis about his transition from struggling starter to dominant reliever when the two were teammates last season, and he also pointed to Zach Britton’s similar emergence as one of baseball’s top relief arms. The Royals hold a $10MM mutual option on Minor for the 2018 season, though the 29-year-old’s dominant season could also lead to a return to free agency. In 73 innings, Minor has averaged 10.2 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 with a 43.4 percent ground-ball rate — all of which has resulted in a 2.71 ERA.

Injury Notes: Hernandez, Wainwright, Marisnick, Johnson

By Kyle Downing | September 14, 2017 at 1:19pm CDT

As planned, Felix Hernandez will come off the DL to start tonight for the Mariners, according to a club announcement. It’ll be King Felix’s first start for Seattle since July 31st. It’s been a tough year for the righty so far (this was his second stint on the disabled list for issues with his throwing shoulder), but he’ll have a chance to turn things around and keep the Mariners breathing in the AL Wild Card chase.

Some other injury news and updates from around MLB…

Cardinals righty Adam Wainwright threw a bullpen session today, according to a tweet from MLB beat reporter Jenifer Langosch. At this point in the season, and with the Cards three games back in a battle for the NL Central pennant, it seems likely that the veteran will pitch out of the bullpen upon his return. Langosch also notes that reliever Seung-hwan Oh threw a bullpen session as well, while Jedd Gyorko and Dexter Fowler took practice on the field.
Astros outfielder Jake Marisnick left Wednesday’s game with an apparent thumb injury after sliding into second base in the top of the third inning. Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle offers some thoughts on the unfortunate situation for the AL West-leading Astros, noting that the recently-acquired Cameron Maybin and rookie Derek Fisher are likely to see increases in playing time. The organization hasn’t released details on the severity of the injury, but manager A.J. Hinch offered that, “It doesn’t look good.” For reference, significant thumb injuries — such as fractures or ligament tears — frequently require absences of at least six to eight weeks. More information will likely be available sometime after Marisnick undergoes tests in Houston today.
Veteran reliever Jim Johnson of the Atlanta Braves has been diagnosed with achilles tendinitis, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. He remained in Atlanta while the team traveled to Washington, and Braves manager Brian Snitker says he’s unlikely to pitch this weekend. Johnson is in the first year of a 2-year, $10MM deal with the Braves. It remains to be seen whether he’ll pitch again this season, but its certainly an unfortunate development for Johnson after losing the closer role to Arodys Vizcaino already this season. For Atlanta, the loss of Johnson thins out a bullpen that already has the fifth-highest ERA among all major league teams.

NL Notes: Brewers, Rockies, Lucroy, Cards, Stanton

By Connor Byrne | August 20, 2017 at 12:01pm CDT

A late-season reinforcement is on the way for the Brewers, who will see right-hander Chase Anderson return to their rotation Sunday in Colorado. Rookie left-hander Brandon Woodruff is headed back to Triple-A in a corresponding move. An oblique injury has kept Anderson from the mound since the end of June, before which he turned in 90 1/3 innings of 2.89 ERA ball, with 8.47 K/9 against 2.69 BB/9. The Brewers were two games over .500 at the time of Anderson’s DL placement and are now four above, sitting at 64-60 and two back of the NL Central-leading Cubs. If the 29-year-old Anderson’s breakout continues down the stretch, he could end up as a key figure in a tight division race.

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