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Injury Notes: Acuna, Flaherty, Lewis

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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+.

MLB Suspends Arenado, Cabrera For Role In Bench-Clearing Incident

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6:27pm: Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat tweets that Arenado is continuing with his pre-game routine, indicating he’s appealing his suspension. The Cards announced that Cabrera has accepted his suspension and will serve it tonight; he’d likely not have been available anyhow after throwing 29 pitches yesterday.

6:15pm: Major League Baseball announced this evening that Cardinals star third baseman Nolan Arenado and reliever Génesis Cabrera have each been suspended for their roles in yesterday’s bench-clearing incident with the Mets at Busch Stadium. Arenado was suspended for two games, while Cabrera received a one-game ban. Arenado and Cabrera are set to serve their suspensions beginning with tonight’s game against the D-Backs, although each player could delay that by appealing. It isn’t yet clear whether either plans to do so.

Arenado took exception to a first-pitch fastball from Mets’ reliever Yoan López that sailed up-and-in. He and López began jawing and the dugouts and bullpens emptied, with the teams coming together at home plate.  That came a half-inning after Cabrera hit J.D. Davis on the foot with an offering. Arenado and St. Louis first base coach Stubby Clapp were ejected for their roles in the scrum. (Cabrera was suspended “for his actions during the incident,” not because the league determined he’d thrown at Davis intentionally).

No Mets were ejected or suspended. López was handed an undisclosed fine for contributing to the benches clearing. St. Louis starter Jack Flaherty and Mets starter Taijuan Walker were each hit with fines for participating in the argument while on the injured list.

Jon Jay Announces Retirement

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Veteran outfielder Jon Jay took to Twitter earlier today to announce his retirement after over a decade in the big leagues.

“As a kid I remember watching SportsCenter highlights and imitating my favorite MLB players,” Jay wrote. “It is still surreal to me that I played Major League Baseball. As I officially retire from the game that changed my life, I want to thank everyone who has played a role in getting me here.”

Jon JayJay, 37, was a second round pick of the Cardinals in 2006 and then made his MLB debut in 2010. He immediately hit the ground running with the contact-oriented approach that would be a trademark of his career. He hit .300/.359/.422, walking in 7.4% of his plate appearances and striking out just 15.5% of the time. That production amounted to a 116 wRC+, or 16% above league average. The next year, he put up a similar line of .297/.344/.424, 115 wRC+, helping the Cardinals qualify for the postseason and eventually win the 2011 World Series.

Jay stuck with the Cardinals for the next four seasons, with the team making the postseason in each of them. His production stayed largely consistent until wrist issues started hampering him in 2015. He underwent surgery prior to that season and then struggled at the plate, hitting .210/.306/.257. After that campaign, he was traded to the Padres for Jedd Gyorko.

He was able to bounce back somewhat in 2016, hitting .291/.339/.389 as a Padre, good enough for a wRC+ of 99. He signed with the Cubs for the 2017 season and had another solid season, hitting .296/.374/.375, 101 wRC+. He went into journeyman mode for the next few years, spending time with the Royals, Diamondbacks, White Sox, D-Backs again, and then the Angels last year, with none of those stints lasting more than 84 games.

In all, Jay played in 1201 games in 12 MLB seasons from 2010 to 2021. He will head into retirement with a lifetime .283/.348/.373 batting line, 37 home runs, 185 doubles, 25 triples, 1,087 total hits, 532 runs scored, 341 runs batted in and 55 stolen bases. He was a solid contributor to an excellent run of Cardinals baseball, earning a World Series ring in the process. MLBTR congratulates him on a fine career and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors.

Offseason In Review: St. Louis Cardinals

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The Cardinals brought in some new faces and some old friends, as they look for a 15th straight winning season and fourth consecutive playoff berth.

Major League Signings

2022 spending: $22.2MM
Total spending: $60.7MM

Options Exercised

  • None

Trades and Claims

Extensions

Notable Minor League Signings

Notable Losses

Before the offseason even began, a lot had already happened in the world of the Cardinals. Yadier Molina signed a one-year extension in August and then quickly declared that 2022 would be his final season. In September, Nolan Arenado went public with the fact that he would not be opting out of his contract. In October, just a couple of days before the team was about to face the Dodgers in the Wild Card game, they reached a one-year extension with Adam Wainwright, thus keeping in place one of the most consistent batteries in the history of the game. If Wainwright and Molina can start 20 games together this year, they will pass the Tigers battery of Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan for most in baseball history. (Wainwright, it should be noted, has not announced whether the 2022 campaign will be his last.)

Despite all that continuity, there was one major shakeup, with manager Mike Shildt being fired about a week after the Cards lost to the Dodgers in the Wild Card game. This was quite surprising at the time, as there hadn’t been any indication a change of this nature had been imminent. The Cardinals made the postseason in all three of his full seasons at the helm, and on the heels of last September’s 17-game winning streak, there’d even been talk of a potential extension for Shildt after the season. Within less than two weeks of the firing, the club had replaced him from within, promoting bench coach Oliver Marmol to the job.

As the calendar flipped to November and the World Series ended, awards season began, with the Cardinals becoming the first ever team to win five Gold Gloves, highlighting the tremendous defense that helped them be so successful. This defense would go on to be a central part of their offseason moves. It was even reported recently that the club considered moving in the fences of Busch Stadium to make it more hitter-friendly, but ultimately decided against it as that would negate their defensive advantage. With the position player core almost entirely intact for 2022, their offseason would largely be focused on pitching, as well as the new designated hitter slot.

Less than 24 hours into free agency, the club pounced and re-signed lefty T.J. McFarland. He had a nice season in 2021, throwing 38 2/3 innings with a 2.56 ERA. Though he didn’t strike out many hitters (14.6%), his 63.7% ground-ball rate made him an excellent fit in front of that elite Cardinal infield.

On the starting pitching side, the Cardinals reportedly had interest in players such as Andrew Heaney, Alex Cobb and Nick Martinez, but ultimately agreed to a deal with Steven Matz. His four-year, $44MM guarantee beat MLBTR’s three-year, $27MM projection in both years and average annual value. Matz doesn’t have McFarland’s elite ground-ball numbers, but he’s a bit better than most in that regard. He has a career grounder rate of 47%, and his 45.5% mark in 2021 checked in a couple points ahead of last year’s league-wide average of 42.7%. Matz doesn’t have huge strikeout totals, but he owns a career walk rate of 7.1% and was down to 6.6% in 2021. With that golden defense behind him, it’s possible he could improve upon 2021’s 3.82 ERA, as solid as that was.

The Cards further bolstered their pitching staff after the lockout by signing Drew VerHagen, the first MLB signing after the transactions freeze lifted. He had spent the previous two seasons pitching in Japan and used his sinker to record a 53.9% ground-ball rate in that time, continuing with the offseason’s broader acquisition pattern. Nick Wittgren was then added to the bullpen mix. He isn’t specifically a ground-ball machine, but does have good control. He’s only had a walk rate higher than 7.1% in one of his big league seasons thus far. Aaron Brooks, selected to the roster in late March, fits this profile as well. He spent the past two seasons pitching in Korea, with a mediocre strikeout rate but a minuscule 4.4% walk rate and incredibly posting a ground-ball rate above 75% in both years.

During the lockout, it was reported that the Cardinals had some interest in Colin Moran. Given the likelihood of the universal designated hitter being implemented in the new CBA, Moran made some sense as a left-handed bench/DH option. However, after the lockout ended, Moran signed with the Reds and the Cards landed Corey Dickerson for the job instead. The outfielder had slumped in the shortened 2020 campaign and didn’t have a great start to 2021 with the Marlins, but Dickerson finished well after a midseason trade to the Blue Jays.

The Cards had one final move up their sleeves, a move that might have been small in terms of cost but huge in terms of emotion. Franchise icon Albert Pujols, who spent the best years of his Hall-of-Fame career in St. Louis, headed back to Missouri after a decade in California. Shortly after signing, like Molina, he announced that this would be his last season.

Although Pujols’ productivity slipped during his time with the Angels, the Dodgers picked him up last year and showed he could still be a useful part of a team in a limited role. They tried to mostly send him up to the plate to face left-handed pitching, allowing him to hit .254/.299/.460 as a Dodger, around league average production. His overall work against lefties, a .294/.336/.603 output, further proves that he can still produce in the right role. Pujols will likely serve a similar bench/platoon/DH role with the Cards, but the image of him reuniting with Molina and Wainwright will resonate among Cardinals fans beyond his on-the-field contributions.

In the end, there’s a lot of continuity for the Cardinals. They’ve lost some now-retired veterans like Jon Lester and Andrew Miller, but added in a few fresh arms in Matz, VerHagen, Wittgren and Brooks. Although they’re not marquee names, they have a chance to succeed based on the marriage of their particular skills with what the Cardinals already have in house. With the Pirates deep in a rebuild, the Reds cutting costs and the Cubs retooling, St. Louis seems well-positioned for another strong season in the NL Central. In the past 21 years, they’ve only posted a losing record once (78-84 in 2007), have made the playoffs 15 times and won the World Series twice. Wainwright, Molina and Pujols have been huge contributors in that stretch, and this year will provide at least two members of that trio a chance to put the finishing touches on their legacies and an incredible run of success for the franchise.

Cardinals Discussing Multi-Year Extension With Tyler O’Neill

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Tyler O’Neill is the Cardinals’ only arbitration-eligible player who has yet to reach an agreement for the 2022 season, and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (Twitter link) that O’Neill’s arb hearing will take place in the first week of May.  However, the possibility exists that the hearing could be avoided, as the two sides are still in talks about a multi-year extension.

It was less than two weeks ago that the Cardinals reached an extension with another outfielder, as Harrison Bader inked a two-year, $10.4MM deal that also allowed both sides to sidestep an arbitration hearing.  Bader’s deal covered his final two years of arbitration eligibility, whereas O’Neill is only in the first of three arb-eligible years.  It isn’t known whether or not the negotiations are centered around a two- or three-year pact to just address O’Neill’s arbitration years, or if perhaps a longer-term contract could be under discussion.

The Cardinals have been proactive in extending building-block players over the years, and O’Neill’s 2021 breakout makes a good case that he is worth such a long-term extension.  O’Neill hit .286/.352/.560 with 34 home runs over 537 plate appearances last season, translating to a whopping 144 wRC+ and 150 OPS+.  Between that offensive pop, plus baserunning (O’Neill stole 15 bases in 19 attempts), and his second consecutive Gold Glove in left field, O’Neill was somewhat quietly one of baseball’s best all-around players, and only 12 players topped O’Neill’s 5.4 fWAR in 2021.

This big season didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, as O’Neill was a top-100 ranked prospect.  However, he had hit a far more modest .229/.291/.422 in 450 big league PA prior to the 2021 season, and strikeouts have been a continual problem for the Canadian slugger.  O’Neill posted a 31.3% strikeout rate in 2021, putting him in the fourth percentile of all players according to Statcast.

With this in mind, St. Louis could opt to just explore a shorter-term extension for now, in order to gain cost certainty over at least one more of O’Neill’s arbitration years but still coming short of a lengthy commitment.  As noted, this is only O’Neill’s first trip through the arb process, and since he isn’t scheduled to hit free agency until after the 2024 season, the Cardinals may not feel an immediate rush to work out a big extension.  O’Neill is looking for a $4.15MM salary in 2022, while the team submitted a $3.4MM figure.  (MLBTR’s Matt Swartz projected O’Neill to land $3.5MM.)

Cards Decide Against Changes To Ballpark Dimensions

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  • Busch Stadium is known as a pitcher-friendly ballpark, and the Cardinals have added to this built-in run suppression by creating a tremendous defensive roster.  As Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch examines, the club has embraced this to the point of deciding against moving in the walls at their ballpark, even after commissioning a study to examine the possible impact.  “We started to think we may have an edge here with this particular configuration,” chairman Bill DeWitt III said.  “In theory, a bigger ballpark, more balls in play, a defense that catches anything — why don’t we put this on ice and see how things develop?  We have an elite defense and we’re contemplating doing something that might minimize the impact of that defense.  Let’s not.”  Goold’s piece breaks down some of the findings of the study, with the Cards looking at how potential alterations to any of the dimensions would affect everything from fan experience to on-field performance.

Cardinals Outright Brandon Waddell

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Cardinals southpaw Brandon Waddell has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Memphis, according to the team’s transactions tracker at MLB.com. That was the corresponding move for the previously-reported selection of rookie righty Andre Pallante.

Waddell, 27, has pitched 12 2/3 innings at the big league level over the past two seasons. He’s spread that rather limited work over four teams, pitching for each of the Pirates, Twins, Orioles and Cards. Waddell has allowed nine runs on 16 hits and 11 walks with nine strikeouts. He’s also struggled in his Triple-A career, posting a 5.77 ERA in 156 innings over three seasons at the minors’ top level.

Nevertheless, that Waddell changed hands a few times last season demonstrates he was of interest to multiple clubs not long ago. The University of Virginia product was once regarded as one of the more promising arms in the Pittsburgh system, and he owns a 3.45 ERA in 274 Double-A innings. Waddell doesn’t have the requisite service time to refuse an outright assignment, so he’ll head to Memphis and try to work his way back into the major league mix.

Jordan Hicks To Begin Season In Cardinals’ Rotation

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The Cardinals will open the season with former closer Jordan Hicks as their No. 5 starter, reports John Denton of MLB.com (Twitter link). The flamethrowing sinkerballer has appeared in 112 Major League games but will be making his first big league start whenever he takes the mound this year.

There’s been talk of bringing Hicks to camp and stretching him out as a starter dating back to late last season, but it’s nevertheless something of a surprise that he’ll be tabbed for rotation work to begin the season. Were it not for injuries to Jack Flaherty and Alex Reyes, Hicks may well have opened the year as a member of the St. Louis bullpen once again, but instead it seems he’s beaten out offseason additions Drew VerHagen and Aaron Brooks for the final starting job behind Adam Wainwright, Steven Matz, Dakota Hudson and Miles Mikolas.

Working as a starting pitcher isn’t an entirely foreign role for Hicks, it should be noted. He appeared in 37 minor league games before making his big league debut, and 34 of those came out of the rotation. The Cards are still in the process of building Hicks up, as Denton adds that the Cards are hoping he’ll be able to complete two to three innings his first time out against the Royals next Tuesday.

The move of Hicks into the rotation comes on the heels of a two-year stretch in which the right-hander has thrown just 10 Major League innings. The 25-year-old righty underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2019, sidelining him for the remainder of that season and setting the stage for a return in summer of the 2020 season. Of course, the 2020 season wound up not even beginning until late July. Hicks, who had experienced a slight setback in his rehab and was deemed a high-risk individual due to Type 1 diabetes, opted out of that 2020 season, citing health and safety concerns.

He returned to the mound early in the 2021 campaign but landed back on the shelf just a month into the season, due to soreness in his surgically repaired right elbow. Hicks was initially shut down from throwing for a six-week period, but he wound up unable to resume throwing until late August. At that point, the Cardinals opted for a cautious approach to his rehab rather than rushing him back and dropping him into the middle of a postseason push. Hicks did pitch in a pair of games in the Arizona Fall League, and he’s been healthy enough this spring that the Cards feel comfortable pushing him in a new role.

Whether the move to a starting role is permanent or not remains to be seen, but it’s easy to see why the Cardinals are intrigued by the idea of Hicks shouldering a larger workload. The right-hander is one of the game’s most electric talents, averaging a blistering 100.6 mph on a sinker that has helped him post a 63% ground-ball rate in his career. Hicks doesn’t rack up strikeouts quite like some might expect for a pitcher with his velocity (22.5% strikeout rate), and his 13.4% walk rate is a bit concerning. Still, a ground-ball pitcher with this type of velocity and the Cardinals’ all-world infield defense behind him could take his game to a new level if he’s healthy and able to work a notable slate of innings in 2022.

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

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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.

Wade LeBlanc Announces Retirement

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Left-hander Wade LeBlanc has decided to retire, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reports (Twitter link).  The 37-year-old LeBlanc is hanging up his cleats after pitching in parts of 13 Major League seasons with nine different teams, as well as a stint in Japan with the Saitama Seibu Lions in 2015.

Originally a second-round pick for the Padres in the 2006 draft, LeBlanc has pitched in a number of different roles over his long career.  The southpaw has seen work as a full-time starter, full-time reliever, and most often a little bit of both, with teams usually eyeing LeBlanc in various types of swingman or long relief roles.  Interestingly, despite the “veteran lefty” mold, LeBlanc didn’t see much specialist work since left-handed batters actually did more damage (.843 OPS) against him than right-handed batters (.763 OPS).

Never a big strikeout pitcher or a high-velocity arm, LeBlanc relied more on off-speed pitches than his fastball, and got out by generating soft contact.  When LeBlanc was getting that weak contact and keeping the ball in the park, he was quite effective, though home runs became an increasing problem in recent years.

Of LeBlanc’s nine MLB teams, his longest stints came with the Mariners (333 1/3 IP), Padres (293 1/3 IP), and Marlins (117 1/3 IP).  He most recently saw action with the Cardinals, signing a contract in June when the Cards were besieged with pitching injuries.

LeBlanc helped stabilize things by posting a 3.61 ERA over his 42 1/3 innings in a St. Louis uniform, helping the team tread water until eventually going on a major hot streak down the stretch.  Unfortunately, LeBlanc wasn’t there to enjoy that success, as he was sidelined with an elbow injury and was reportedly set to undergo some type of medical procedure to address his elbow in September.

LeBlanc will retire with a 4.54 career ERA over 931 1/3 Major League innings.  We at MLBTR congratulate LeBlanc on an excellent career and we wish him the best in his post-playing endeavors.

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