Jack Flaherty

Cardinals Place Jack Flaherty, Harrison Bader On Injured List

By Anthony Franco | June 27, 2022 at 4:25pm CDT

The Cardinals announced this afternoon that both Jack Flaherty and Harrison Bader are headed to the injured list. Flaherty, as a pitcher, lands on the 15-day IL with what the team is calling a right shoulder strain. The position player Bader heads to the 10-day IL as he battles plantar fasciitis in his right foot.

To replace the duo on the active roster, the Cards selected outfielder Conner Capel and reliever James Naile onto the big league club. St. Louis had a pair of vacancies on the 40-man roster after placing southpaws Génesis Cabrera and T.J. McFarland on the COVID-19 list in recent days. Each of Capel and Naile would be making their major league debuts if they get into a game.

Flaherty’s injury is the most notable development. The star right-hander has spent a good chunk of the last two years on the IL, most recently as he’s battled continued shoulder problems. He lost a month last season due to a shoulder strain (in addition to a longer stint with an oblique injury), then spent the first two-plus months of this year on the shelf with what the pitcher identified as bursitis in Spring Training. Flaherty was only just activated for his season debut a couple weeks ago, and he made three appearances before leaving yesterday’s start after the second inning.

It’s an alarming recent injury history, and it seems the 26-year-old is going to miss a notable chunk of time yet again. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak told reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat and Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) that Flaherty’s again dealing with bursitis. Mozeliak said the club was “pretty optimistic” Flaherty will be able to return at some point this season, but he didn’t provide more specifics on a timeline.

Flaherty joins Steven Matz on the injured list, leaving the club with a starting four of Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Dakota Hudson and Andre Pallante at the moment. Top prospect Matthew Liberatore would seem the logical candidate for the fifth spot, but he has just four MLB appearances under his belt. The Cards sit a game back of the Brewers in the NL Central and seem likely to at least dabble in the trade market for starting pitching before the August 2 deadline, particularly if Flaherty’s indeed looking at another months-long recovery process.

In addition to losing arguably their best pitcher, St. Louis will be down their primary center fielder for at least a week and a half. Bader has started 65 of the team’s 75 games this season, hitting .256/.303/.370 with five home runs through 264 plate appearances. That’s a step back from his offensive production of 2020-21, but he’s swiped 15 bases and consistently rates as one of the game’s top defensive outfielders.

Bader’s absence leaves the club without a true center fielder, as right fielder Dylan Carlson looks likely to slide up the middle for now. That figures to be a notable defensive downgrade, although the Cards do have players like Lars Nootbaar and designated hitter/corner outfielder Juan Yepez capable of subbing in for Carlson in right.

Capel joins that mix, having spent much of his minor league career in right field. Originally selected by Cleveland in the fifth round of the 2016 draft, the Texas high school product was dealt to St. Louis in the Oscar Mercado trade in 2018. He’s spent the past few seasons slowly moving through the ranks in the upper minors, and he earns a big league call with a career-best 2022 showing for Triple-A Memphis.

Over 252 plate appearances this year, Capel is hitting .271/.361/.466. He’s popped nine homers, stolen 16 bags and drawn walks at an excellent 11.9% clip. The 25-year-old hasn’t appeared on an organizational prospects list at FanGraphs or Baseball America since 2019, and the Cards decided against adding him to the 40-man roster last winter — leaving him eligible for selection in a Rule 5 draft which never wound up transpiring. He’s elevated his stock enough in the past couple months to join the big league corner outfield rotation.

Naile, 29, is a seven-year minor league veteran. Originally a 20th-round selection of the A’s in 2015 out of UAB, he remained in the Oakland system through 2021. The right-hander never reached Oakland’s 40-man roster and hit minor league free agency at the end of last year. He signed a non-roster pact with St. Louis over the winter.

After working as a starter for much of his time in the A’s system, Naile has come out of the bullpen for 24 of his 27 outings with Memphis. He’s tossed 46 2/3 innings of 3.28 ERA ball in that new role, often working two innings at a time. Naile has a modest 21.1% strikeout rate, but he’s only walked 5.5% of batters faced. He’s also induced grounders on over 55% of batted balls, a trait the front office has prioritized given the club’s excellent infield defense. He’ll add a multi-inning arm to Marmol’s bullpen.

Jones first reported Naile’s and Capel’s promotions before the team announcement.

Cardinals Activate Jack Flaherty, Designate Ali Sanchez

By Anthony Franco | June 15, 2022 at 3:18pm CDT

The Cardinals announced they’ve reinstated Jack Flaherty from the 60-day injured list. He’s set to make his season debut tonight against the Pirates. In corresponding moves, the Cards optioned lefty Packy Naughton to Triple-A Memphis and designated catcher Ali Sánchez for assignment. Additionally, left-hander Matthew Liberatore has been sent back to Memphis after being added as the 27th man for yesterday’s doubleheader.

Flaherty went down in Spring Training with shoulder bursitis, an issue that required platelet-rich plasma treatment. He was shut down from throwing for a few weeks and the club gradually built him back into game shape once he was healthy enough to pick up a ball. That’s hardly a surprise considering the righty missed a month last season due to a shoulder strain (in addition to an extended absence because of an oblique issue). Flaherty told reporters in March he’s pitched through a small labrum tear for a while.

The 26-year-old has gotten through a brief rehab stint without incident, however, making a start apiece with Double-A Springfield and Memphis. He tossed 59 pitches last Friday, and manager Oli Marmol figures to play things cautiously with his pitch count in the early going. It’s unlikely Flaherty will toss 100+ pitches out of the gate, but he’ll offer an immediate boon nonetheless to a rotation without Steven Matz. The left-hander has been on the injured list since May 23 due to a shoulder impingement, and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak told reporters yesterday he recently underwent a second cortisone injection to manage continued discomfort (via John Denton of MLB.com).

Flaherty is one of the game’s top starters, owner of a 3.34 ERA in just under 500 career innings. He has punched out a strong 28.7% of opposing batters on the back of an excellent 13.3% swinging strike rate. It was more of the same last season when Flaherty was on the mound, as he pitched to a 3.22 ERA with a 26.4% strikeout percentage across 17 outings. He’ll join Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas and Dakota Hudson among the top four in the starting staff.

Sánchez loses his spot on the 40-man roster to accommodate Flaherty’s return. The 25-year-old backstop has been on the 40-man since being acquired from the Mets in February 2021, but he’s only appeared in two games with the big league club. Sánchez has spent the majority of his time in the organization on optional assignment to Memphis, where he’s hitting .255/.333/.409 through 123 plate appearances this season.

The Cardinals will have a week to trade Sánchez or look to run him through waivers. He’s never been an impact offensive player, but scouting reports praised his defense during his time climbing the New York farm system. He’s in his final option year, so another club could stash him in the upper minors for the rest of the season if they were to devote him a spot on the 40-man roster.

Injury Notes: deGrom, Muncy, Heaney, Flaherty, Dickerson

By Mark Polishuk | June 4, 2022 at 6:59pm CDT

Jacob deGrom hit a notable checkpoint in his injury recovery today, as the Mets ace threw a 19-pitch bullpen session. GM Billy Eppler told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) that deGrom threw only fastballs of “moderate intensity,” and deGrom will continue to build up his arm strength and readiness with more bullpen sessions in the coming days.

Between the planned program of these bullpens, live batting practice, and then 3-5 rehab starts in the minors, deGrom is tentatively scheduled to make his season debut in July. This timeline is still fluid, of course, given how today’s bullpen session marked the very first time deGrom has even pitched off a mound since March. Between a forearm issue that prematurely ended his 2021 season and then a stress reaction in his right shoulder during Spring Training, deGrom hasn’t pitched in a Major League game since July 7, 2021.

More on other injury situations around baseball…

Max Muncy and Andrew Heaney began rehab assignments with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate, with both veterans in tonight’s starting lineup. Muncy was only played on the 10-day IL on May 28, and given how he has been playing with a partial UCL tear since last October, it is a very promising sign to see him already on a rehab assignment, though it isn’t know how many games Muncy will play in Triple-A. Heaney seems likely to receive multiple rehab starts considering his longer stint on the injured list, as shoulder discomfort sidelined the left-handed back on April 20.
Jack Flaherty is also set to start his own rehab assignment, as the Cardinals right-hander is scheduled to pitch Sunday for Double-A Springfield. Cards manager Oliver Marmol told MLB.com’s John Denton and other reporters that Flaherty will throw 40-45 pitches, and depending on his status following that outing, will then throw either 40-45 pitches or 55-60 pitches in his next rehab start. Shoulder problems have plagued Flaherty in each of the last two seasons, and he has yet to pitch in 2022 due to inflammation in his right shoulder during Spring Training.
In other St. Louis injury news, Corey Dickerson made an early exit from the first game of the Cardinals’ doubleheader with the Cubs. Dickerson was replaced in right field prior to the bottom of the second inning due to left calf discomfort, and it isn’t clear if the injury was triggered by anything in the game, as Dickerson had yet to make a play in the field or take an at-bat. After signing a one-year, $5MM free agent deal with St. Louis in March, Dickerson has hit only .194/.245/.286 in his first 106 plate appearances, though he is coming off his best game of the season — Dickerson hit his first two home runs of 2022 in the Cardinals’ 14-5 victory over the Cubs on Friday.

Cardinals To Promote Nolan Gorman, Matthew Liberatore; Tyler O’Neill To IL

By Anthony Franco | May 19, 2022 at 11:01pm CDT

There’s a momentous roster shakeup in St. Louis, as the Cardinals are set to welcome two of the game’s top prospects to the big leagues in the coming days. As first reported by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter links), the team has promoted both Nolan Gorman and Matthew Liberatore for this weekend’s series against the Pirates. Katie Woo of the Athletic tweets that outfielder Tyler O’Neill is headed to the 10-day injured list because of a right shoulder impingement in one corresponding roster move.

According to Goold, Gorman will be in tomorrow’s starting lineup at second base. That figures to be his primary role moving forward, with Gold Glove second baseman Tommy Edman kicked to the other side of the bag. Edman has been excellent this season, but the Cards haven’t gotten much production out of their shortstops. Paul DeJong struggled enough the team optioned him to Triple-A Memphis last week, seemingly setting the stage for a forthcoming Gorman promotion.

That’s not to say the Cardinals hastily promoted Gorman to compensate for struggles at the major league level — far from it. The left-handed hitter has forced his way to the majors with an incredible showing in Memphis. Over 147 plate appearances, he’s hitting .308/.367/.677 with an astounding 15 home runs. No other Triple-A batter has more than 13 round-trippers, and only the Cubs’ Robel García has a higher slugging percentage in the International League.

Gorman’s production hasn’t been completely without issue, as he’s gone down on strikes 50 times. That’s a 34% clip, an alarming rate for any minor leaguer considering the higher quality of pitching he’ll face in the majors. Ultimately, however, Gorman’s power production became too much for the St. Louis front office to ignore.

It has been a long-awaited debut for Cardinals fans, who have anticipated Gorman’s arrival since he was selected with the 19th pick in the 2018 draft out of an Arizona high school. Regarded as a power-hitting third baseman as an amateur, he has more or less met those expectations while in the minors. Gorman has consistently posted huge extra-base numbers while running elevated strikeout totals. Prospect evaluators have raised some concerns about the amount of swing-and-miss in his game, but they’ve been unanimously effusive in their praise of his power upside.

Each of FanGraphs, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN, Keith Law of the Athletic and Baseball America slotted Gorman among the game’s top 60 prospects this past offseason. (Law and McDaniel both placed him among their top 20). That was before this season’s home run barrage, which only figures to have raised the 22-year-old’s profile even further. Gorman has kicked over to the keystone in the minors with Nolan Arenado entrenched at third base. He’s not regarded as an elite defender and will certainly be a downgrade from Edman there, but the hope is that his offensive capabilities will more than compensate for any issues on the other side of the ball.

Not to be outshined, Gorman’s draft mate will make his major league debut one day later. Liberatore is lined up to start Saturday’s game against the Bucs, manager Oliver Marmol confirmed to reporters (Woo link). The skipper said it’s still to be determined whether there’ll be more than one spot start for the 22-year-old southpaw. Regardless, that Liberatore is now lined up to pitch in the majors suggests he’s firmly on the organizational rotation depth chart.

Liberatore was coincidentally also a first-round draftee out of a Phoenix-area high school the same year as Gorman, and the two have been friends since childhood. Seen as one of the top prep arms in that year’s class, he fell to the Rays at 16th overall because of concerns about his signing bonus — which ultimately checked in just shy of $3.5MM. While Liberatore’s fastball sat in the low-90s, he drew praise for his secondary offerings, particularly a curveball that evaluators consider his best pitch. He pitched well for his first season-plus in the lower levels of the Tampa Bay farm system, then was involved in a January 2020 blockbuster that sent Randy Arozarena back to Tampa Bay.

The cancelation of the 2020 minor league season kept Liberatore from making his official Cardinals debut until last year. The organization pushed him straight to Memphis for his age-21 campaign and he held his own, tossing 124 2/3 innings of 4.04 ERA ball with a solid 23.7% strikeout rate and an excellent 6.3% walk percentage. St. Louis assigned him back there to open this season, and he’s made strides from a swing-and-miss perspective. Liberatore’s ERA and walk rate are right in line with his 2021 marks, but he’s improved his strikeout rate by almost five points through his first seven starts.

Liberatore is also regarded by most evaluators as one of the top 100 minor league talents. He’s not seen as a future ace, but between his excellent control and well-rounded arsenal, he’s unanimously viewed as a possible rotation stalwart. Whether the Cardinals plug him into that role immediately isn’t clear, but it seems likely he’ll be taking the ball every fifth day in St. Louis before long.

Neither Gorman nor Liberatore will accrue enough major league service time this year to reach the one-year threshold. Even if both players are in the majors for good, neither will be eligible for free agency until after the 2028 campaign at the earliest. Both players are in good position to reach early arbitration as Super Two qualifiers after the 2024 season, although that’s contingent on sticking in the big leagues from here on out. In Liberatore’s case, in particular, it seems future optional assignments are still a possibility.

The Cards have Adam Wainwright, Steven Matz, Dakota Hudson, Miles Mikolas and Jordan Hicks as their primary starting five at the moment. Wainwright and Mikolas have been excellent. Matz has struggled but isn’t going to be bumped from the rotation two months into a four-year contract. Hudson doesn’t have great strikeout and walk marks, but he’s riding his typically elite ground-ball production to decent results. That’s more or less also true of Hicks, who has lengthened out into the rotation after a few years as a high-leverage bullpen arm.

Of course, St. Louis has been without arguably their best pitcher for the entire season. Jack Flaherty hasn’t thrown a pitch because of a shoulder issue that required a platelet-rich plasma injection. He’s been on the 10-day injured list all year, and the club announced that he’s been transferred to the 60-day IL to clear space for Gorman on the 40-man roster.

That’s merely a procedural move that keeps Flaherty out for two months from Opening Day. The 26-year-old has yet to embark on a minor league rehab assignment and surely wouldn’t have been ready to make an MLB return before the first week of June anyhow. Flaherty has recently progressed to throwing bullpen sessions, so it seems reasonable he could head out into minor league games within a few weeks.

The club will also need to create a spot on the 40-man roster for Liberatore, with that transaction set to occur before Saturday’s contest. Aside from Flaherty, St. Louis doesn’t have any obvious candidates for a 60-day IL transfer, so it seems likely someone will be designated for assignment within the next two days.

The only disappointing aspect of today’s news is that O’Neill is headed to the IL. He’s missed the past couple days battling the shoulder discomfort that will now cost him at least a week and a half. The team hasn’t provided an indication whether he’s facing an absence longer than the minimal stint.

So continues a rough start to the year for O’Neill, who is just a season removed from an eighth-place finish in NL MVP voting. The 26-year-old has hit just .195/.256/.297 with a pair of home runs across 133 plate appearances, nowhere near the 34-homer output he put forth last season. O’Neill, who also lost his arbitration hearing last week, will try to get back on track whenever he’s healthy enough to make his return.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Health Notes: Gray, Murphy, Flaherty, Soroka

By Anthony Franco | May 7, 2022 at 9:43am CDT

The Twins announced this morning that Sonny Gray has been activated from the injured list to start today’s game against the A’s, with Cole Sands optioned out in a corresponding move. Gray has been out of action since April 16, when he left a start in the second inning due to a right hamstring strain. Acquired from the Reds as the Twins’ biggest rotation pickup of the offseason, Gray has made just a pair of starts with his new club. Despite his three-week absence, Minnesota has gotten excellent production out of their starting staff thus far. Twins starters rank sixth in MLB in ERA (3.12) and eighth in strikeout/walk rate differential (17.1 percentage points). Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Chris Archer, Chris Paddack and highly-regarded prospect Josh Winder each have an ERA of 3.26 or lower; Dylan Bundy is currently on the COVID-19 injured list, but the Twins could have an interesting call on how the rotation should be comprised once Bundy returns.

Some other injury updates around the league:

Mariners catcher Tom Murphy left last night’s game against the Rays after dislocating his shoulder on a tag attempt at home plate. After the game, skipper Scott Servais said Murphy will be out for a while (via Corey Brock of the Athletic). The team will presumably provide a more specific timetable in the coming days, but it’s all but certain he’ll head to the injured list before tonight’s contest. The M’s optioned Opening Day backstop Cal Raleigh to Triple-A last week, and it’s likely he’ll be recalled to pair with Luis Torrens behind the dish. Murphy had been off to an excellent start to the year, reaching base in 18 of his first 42 plate appearances.
Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty is set to throw a bullpen session before tonight’s game against the Giants, tweets Katie Woo of the Athletic. She notes that it’s Flaherty’s first bullpen work since he was shut down from throwing in Spring Training due to shoulder bursitis. It’s obviously a notable step in the righty’s recovery timeline, but manager Oli Marmol cautioned the club was prepared for a “pretty lengthy (rehab) progression” and still doesn’t have a target date for his return. Flaherty missed a month last season because of a shoulder strain (in addition to a longer absence on account of an oblique issue), so it’s wholly unsurprising the team is proceeding with caution. St. Louis has managed an impressive 3.15 rotation ERA — albeit with more pedestrian peripherals — in the absence of arguably their top starter.
Braves right-hander Mike Soroka hasn’t thrown an MLB pitch since August 2020, the result of successive Achilles ruptures that have sidetracked a fantastic start to his young career. The most recent of his surgeries occurred last June and came with an estimated year-long recovery timeline, and he opened this season on the injured list. Soroka remains on track in his rehab, he and manager Brian Snitker informed reporters yesterday (via Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Mark Bowman of MLB.com). The right-hander has thrown off a mound without issue around five times, and he’s soon to begin pitcher-fielding practice. The club is still hoping he can make it back to the majors shortly after the All-Star Break, and Toscano notes they’re not considering transitioning him to relief to expedite his return.

Injury Notes: Acuna, Flaherty, Lewis

By Darragh McDonald | April 28, 2022 at 10:43pm CDT

The Braves got a huge boost today, with superstar outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. returning to the team and the lineup after an absence of over nine months due to an ACL tear last year. However, the club will still be trying to gradually ramp things up for him, according to David O’Brien of The Athletic, who relays word from manager Brian Snitker. Acuna will reportedly have something less than a full workload, getting occasional days in the designated hitter slot or sitting out day games after night games or missing games after playing and traveling the same day. This plan is intended to go until July 22, which is all fairly sensible given that Acuna is incredibly valuable to the team and is coming off a long layoff from a very serious injury. It’s worth pointing out, though, that Snitker also said the situation is fluid and will be re-evaluated daily. Acuna’s already beaten a timeline in his rehab once, as the club was targeting a May 6 return, but he’s back in the lineup tonight and has already stolen two bases, tying himself for the team lead on the year. No one should be surprised if he alters the plan and finds a way to take the reins off sooner rather than later. In fact, he might not even be aware of the plan, as he had this to say about the idea of him sitting on Friday: “I don’t know who said the plan was for me not to play. The way I’m looking at it is, I’m playing tomorrow. So I guess we’ll see what happens.” O’Brien later clarified that the club did tell Acuna about the plan, but he was too excited about his return to hear it. (Twitter links)

Some other health updates from around the league:

Cardinals righty Jack Flaherty is making progress towards a return, as manager Oliver Marmol tells Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat that Flaherty will throw off a mound in the second week of May. He’s been dealing with an ailing shoulder since Spring Training began, the same shoulder that put him on the shelf for about a month last year. The club has been able to weather his absence so far, starting the season 11-7. The rotation has four pillars in Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Dakota Hudson and Steven Matz, but one wild card in Jordan Hicks. After working exclusively as a reliever since his MLB debut in 2018, Hicks has made two starts recently, throwing 46 pitches over 3 innings in the first outing, followed by 42 pitches over 2 innings in the second. Time will tell if this transition will work out, but there’s no question a healthy Flaherty will improve things, either by sending Hicks back to the bullpen or covering for an injury to someone else down the line. In 2019, he threw 196 1/3 innings with a 2.75 ERA, 29.9% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate, coming in fourth in NL Cy Young voting that year.
It’s been almost a year since Kyle Lewis has played a major league game, with his last appearance coming May 31 of last year. A torn meniscus ended his season, with Lewis hitting many obstacles on the road to recovery since then. In a sign of progress, Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto tells Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times that Lewis is now participating in games at extended spring training, both playing in the outfield and slotting into the designated hitter role. None of the Mariners’ three regular outfielders are off to a blazing start to the season, as Julio Rodriguez, Jarred Kelenic and Jesse Winker each have a wRC+ between 54 and 77. (League average is 100.) Mitch Haniger was also off to a sluggish start before being sidelined by a positive Covid test. If Lewis can get back to his pre-injury form, he’d provide a boost to the lineup, as his career batting line is .258/.343/.450, 121 wRC+.

Cardinals To Select Andre Pallante, Place Jack Flaherty On Injured List

By Steve Adams and Anthony Franco | April 4, 2022 at 5:39pm CDT

The Cardinals announced this morning that right-hander Andre Pallante has made the Opening Day roster. They’ll need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move in the coming days to formally select the 23-year-old Pallante’s contract. Additionally, the Cards have formally placed right-hander Jack Flaherty on the 10-day injured list. It’s been known for some time now that Flaherty will miss the beginning of the season, and his absence figures to be a good bit longer than 10 days.

Pallante was the Cards fourth-round pick in 2019. The righty had pitched to a 2.59 ERA in three seasons at UC-Irvine, working out of the rotation for his final two campaigns with the Anteaters. While his fastball typically sat in the low-90s with UCI, he’s seen a velocity spike in pro ball. Baseball America wrote this winter that he averaged north of 95 MPH on his heater last season. BA also credited the 23-year-old with an above-average slider and named him the #16 prospect in the St. Louis organization.

Because of the canceled minor league campaign in 2020, last year marked Pallante’s first full season of professional game action. He spent the bulk of the year with Double-A Springfield, where he started 21 games and worked 94 1/3 innings. Pallante’s 19.4% strikeout percentage and 10% walk rate at that level aren’t especially exciting, but he induced grounders on nearly 60% of balls in play against him. That’s no doubt of appeal to a St. Louis front office that placed an emphasis on acquiring ground-ball specialists throughout the winter in an effort to maximize the effect of arguably the game’s top defensive infield.

Pallante will break camp with the big league club, presumably as a bullpen option. The Cards have a top four in the rotation of Adam Wainwright, Steven Matz, Dakota Hudson and Miles Mikolas with Flaherty out. Drew VerHagen appears to be the favorite for the fifth spot, with Aaron Brooks and Jake Woodford also seemingly ahead of Pallante on the rotation depth chart. Pallante only has two career Triple-A appearances under his belt, and it’s possible he’ll find himself back in the minors at some point. While the Cardinals will carry him on the Opening Day roster, he still has all three option years remaining and could bounce between St. Louis and Triple-A Memphis.

Flaherty recently underwent a platelet-rich plasma on an ailing throwing shoulder. His precise timetable for a return remains unclear, but he’ll surely need some time to progress through a throwing program and perhaps embark on a minor league rehab assignment. It’ll be the second consecutive season impacted by injury for Flaherty, who was limited to 17 outings by oblique and shoulder issues.

Jack Flaherty, Alex Reyes To Begin Season On Injured List

By Anthony Franco | March 20, 2022 at 3:44pm CDT

TODAY: Flaherty discussed his injury situation today with MLB.com’s Joe Trezza and other reporters, noting that the PRP injection wasn’t due to his labrum tear, but rather bursitis. Flaherty felt that the shoulder issue was brought on by mechanical changes Flaherty made last season, while trying to adjust to his oblique strain. It appears to be a matter of crossed signals between the righty and the team as to why the Cardinals announced the labrum tear as the cause of the PRP injection, as Flaherty has been dealing with the tear for “a handful of years,” and during the lockout, “it was just hard communication-wise to communicate to [the Cardinals] what was going on” in regards to his shoulder inflammation.

MARCH 18: Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty received a platelet-rich plasma injection to address a small tear in his right shoulder, the team informed reporters (including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). He’ll be shut down from throwing for two weeks, at which point the team will reevaluate his status. Flaherty obviously won’t have time to build up arm strength in time for Opening Day, and he’ll begin the season on the injured list.

It isn’t known how long Flaherty will be out, as Goold writes the team will have a more definitive timetable once they see how his shoulder responds to the PRP injection. The diagnosis of the small tear sounds ominous, but Katie Woo of the Athletic reports (via Twitter) the Cardinals have been aware of its presence for a while. Flaherty has pitched through it in the past, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak tells Woo, but he’s apparently not able to do so as things currently stand.

Flaherty missed a good chunk of last season due to injury. He initially suffered an oblique strain that cost him a couple months. Not long after returning in August, he suffered a shoulder strain that knocked him out an additional four weeks. Flaherty returned in a relief capacity at the end of the season, but the repeated issues kept him to 78 1/3 innings over 17 outings.

With Flaherty down at the start of the year, there’s some uncertainty in the rotation behind the top four of Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz and Dakota Hudson. Goold writes that Mozeliak pointed to Jake Woodford and Matthew Liberatore as possible candidates for the final spot. Swingman Drew VerHagen and non-roster invitee Aaron Brooks — both of whom were signed after stints in Asian leagues (the NPB and KBO, respectively) — could be other options.

Meanwhile, righty Alex Reyes received a stem cell injection in his own ailing shoulder (via Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat). He’ll be shut down from throwing for at least two weeks, and St. Louis doesn’t expect he’ll be ready for MLB action until late May or early June.

Reyes, who served as St. Louis’ primary closer last season, has dealt with a few arm issues in prior years. Various injuries, including a February 2017 Tommy John procedure, limited him to 72 2/3 big league frames between 2016-20. He avoided the IL last season, but he’s seemingly in line to miss the first six-plus weeks of this year. While he’s out, pitchers like Giovanny Gallegos, Genesis Cabrera and Ryan Helsley could be bumped up a peg in the high-leverage pecking order.

Jack Flaherty Undergoing Medical Evaluation On Throwing Shoulder

By Darragh McDonald | March 15, 2022 at 4:00pm CDT

Cardinals’ righty Jack Flaherty missed today’s camp activities and is undergoing medical evaluation on his throwing shoulder, per Derrick S. Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Although further details won’t be known until the review is completed, this is surely a worrying sign for the Cardinals and their fans. After developing into a front-of-the-rotation starter in 2018 and 2019, Flaherty took a step back in 2020 and then missed significant time due to injuries last year.

In that 2018-19 stretch, Flaherty made 61 starts, logging 347 1/3 innings with a 3.01 ERA, 29.8% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate. In the shortened 2020 campaign, he had a 4.91 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate in the small sample of 40 1/3 innings. Last year, though he dropped his ERA to 3.22, his strikeouts also faded, dropping to 26.4%. In June, he went on the IL due to an oblique injury. Though he was able to return in August, he returned to the IL a few weeks later with a right shoulder strain. He did return from that injury after about a month, but only made three short appearances towards the end of the season. All told, he was only able to throw 78 1/3 innings on the year.

It now seems possible that the shoulder injury which plagued him last year might not be fully healthy, putting a significant dent in the St. Louis rotation. Flaherty was projected to be joined by Adam Wainwright, Steven Matz, Miles Mikolas and Dakota Hudson. Mikolas and Hudson are also unknown quantities this year, having each dealt with injuries last year themselves. If Flaherty or anyone else needs to miss some time, the club will have to consider other options. Drew VerHagen was just signed after a successful two-year stint in Japan. At the time of the signing, team president John Mozeliak suggested VerHagen could compete for a job in either the rotation of the bullpen. Zach McAllister and Aaron Brooks have recently signed minor league deals with the club. There’s depth options such as Jake Woodford and Johan Oviedo, as well as prospects like Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson. There has been some talk of Alex Reyes or Jordan Hicks moving from the bullpen to the rotation, though Mozeliak threw some cold water on that idea recently. If the club is unsatisfied with those in-house options, there are still free agents available due to the lockout pushing transactions into Spring Training. Some of the top options still unsigned include Johnny Cueto, Michael Pineda and Zack Greinke.

NL Central Notes: Haudricourt, Pirates, Flaherty, Cardinals

By Mark Polishuk | January 21, 2022 at 8:46am CDT

Veteran sportswriter Tom Haudricourt announced his retirement yesterday, as the longtime Brewers beat writer for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel will be officially stepping away within the next month or two. Haudricourt has been with the Journal Sentinel for the last 36 years, following an eight-year stint with The Richmond Times Dispatch that launched his baseball career when Haudricourt covered the Braves’ former Richmond-based Triple-A affiliate.

Both Milwaukee fans and MLBTR’s readers have become very familiar with Haudricourt over the years, as he has broken countless transactions and news items related to the Brewers and the greater baseball world as a whole. In addition to his work on the beat, Haudricourt has also authored several books on the Brewers, and regularly contributed to Baseball America’s coverage of Milwaukee’s farm system. We at MLB Trade Rumors wish Haudricourt all the best in his retirement, and congratulate him on a terrific career.

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