The Cardinals are on the verge of reinstating Jack Flaherty and Miles Mikolas after both pitchers spent extended time on the injured list. Just as those two rejoin the rotation, St. Louis could be dealing with another loss on the starting staff. Veteran left-hander Wade LeBlanc left this afternoon’s start against the Pirates in the third inning after experiencing elbow pain. He’s now slated to undergo further testing to determine the issue’s severity, writes Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
LeBlanc wasn’t the only Cardinals player to make an early exit from today’s contest. Rookie outfielder Dylan Carlson was removed with soreness in his right wrist. The 22-year-old has been playing through some pain in the area for a few days, according to Brenden Schaeffer of KMOV. He’s now slated to undergo an MRI.
The switch-hitting Carlson has been a bright spot in what’s overall been a bit of a disappointing season in St. Louis. A longtime top prospect, he struggled in his first crack at the majors last year but has somewhat quietly had a nice 2021 campaign. Carlson is hitting .261/.341/.419 over 478 plate appearances, logging a decent amount of action at all three outfield spots. Defensive metrics suggest he’s a better fit in the corner outfield than center — a sentiment public prospect evaluators have long shared — but he’s shown quite a bit of promise offensively.
Carlson’s approach at the plate has been particularly impressive for a player so young. He’s already one of the game’s more patient hitters, chasing just 25.8% of pitches outside the strike zone (league average is 31.1%). Yet he’s still been aggressive enough on offerings in the zone to do some damage, hitting twelve homers and showing the ability to hit to all fields. Carlson hasn’t necessarily produced at an eye-popping level, but he already looks like an above-average hitter and has certainly done enough to guarantee himself a regular role on the club for 2022 and beyond.
In better health news for the Cards, injured right-hander Dakota Hudson continues to progress in his rehab from last year’s Tommy John surgery. Goold writes that St. Louis president of baseball operations John Mozeliak was impressed with Hudson’s form after watching the 26-year-old throw this week. Goold reiterates that Hudson and the team remain optimistic about his chances to pitch in the big leagues this season.
Presumably, that’d come in short relief stints given his lack of time to build arm strength during a lengthy minor league rehab assignment, but any contribution from Hudson in 2021 would be a welcome development. Tommy John surgeries often require a recovery period of fourteen months or more. Hudson, who underwent the procedure at the end of last September, would be back in almost exactly one calendar year were to make it onto a big league mound. At 58-56, the Cardinals look unlikely to be serious factors in the postseason race. Nevertheless, getting Hudson back (if possible) could allow him to log a few innings and have a more or less regular offseason in preparation for a return to the rotation in 2022.
Hopefully LeBlanc and Carlson are alright.
Its sad to see this for LeBlanc, he rwally kept the cardinals afloat this year. Hopefully Carlson will be better with a few days rest. Its really amazing what he’s doing at age 22.
LeBlanc fan. Hoping for a speedy recovery
Pitching-wise, the Cards are becoming the Angels of the NL…
Except for that foreign guy there, what’s-his-name….you know, he hits sometimes too…..
HubcapDiamondStarHalo- Never. We actually develop pitchers from our farm system.
Steve Bedrosian Jr.
tbh i don’t want to see hudson pitch this year, i’m still holding out hope for the birds but let’s be real this season is a wash. imo let hudson just rehab and then shut him down until next season there is no need to rush him back and possibly ruin his career. also i hope the best for wade and dylan i hope the just minor aggravations than a serious injury.
It’s a wash…..that’s what they said in 2011 when STL was 10.5 back at the end of august. #nyger_morgan
@kiddhoff i never said i gave up on this year, you make a good point we came back in 11 and the nats had an awesome run in 19. i’m just trying to look at this realistically too. why rush guys back when things like 11 or 19 are outliers and not the norm, i’m more concerned about our future than trying to make 10+ games this late in the season.
What’s going on, @brodie-bruce?
Long time.
I’d be reticent to wave the white flag, myself. Chances are, the Brewers will hit a rough patch.
But the biggest narrative of the ’21 season is injuries. & Covid-19 is still a thing. As an example, Yanks have 20(!)guys on one of the various IL’s. It’s why I’m currently enjoying watching Homer Heaney getting crushed in IA.
But fortunes can change quickly in baseball & in 2021 that is even more true.
The Cards aren’t going to leapfrog the Brewers AND the Reds.
If they leap frog the Brewers, wouldn’t they leap frog the Reds in the process??
@ducky long time no talk, i’m not waving the white flag until we’re mathematically out of it. at the same time i don’t wanna rush kids back after a serious injury, even if let’s say my birds had a slim lead in the nlc. we tried rushing a kid back and we lost 2 years of reyes because of it i just don’t wanna see it happen again. i just hope this time around that my birds take wanio’s gem and sweep of pit (yes i know pit suck atm) and this is the boost they need to at least compete for a playoff spot.
Maybe, but this team has no magic in them. They get a game or two over 500 and then melt down…and this is such a soft stretch of the schedule. If they were going to turn it around, it needed to start after the Allstar break.
I’d like to say that maybe flaherty could get a spark going, but pitching has not been their problem.
.. pitching injuries has def been one of their problems.
They’ve had pitching injuries, but we’ve also gotten an awful lot of good outings that our offense threw away. CMart gave us a few. Oviedo gave us a couple. Our record is what it is because our bats have been weak.
@del i’m glad this is the last we will see of cmart, the man can’t get out of his own head. this season i’ve seen enough games where cmart would just implode if a guy got on base.
Agreed, but he also gave us some gems and we threw them away. That was his problem. He’d pitch a brilliant game and then meltdown the next game and then pitch a brilliant game.
@del cmart gave us like 2 or 3 most of his starts me and my dad would say in the car otw to work when cmart was on the mound. we both went there’s a loss cmart is pitching, he is the prime example all the talent in the world and is ok with being avg.
Jose Abreu with a Bill Mumy moment. He sent a baseball into an Iowa cornfield.
That place is a launching pad
LeBlanc is done
First of all, please don’t take any risks with Carlson. I’m sure he’s eager to keep playing, but wrists are tricky and can become chronic. Let him heal completely. Secondly, hats off to Wade LeBlanc. When he was signed, I expected the worst, but he has been ok. He has held his own and mostly kept them in games. He has been exactly what we needed at the time, a low cost veteran to soak up innings and protect whatever young arms we may have from getting prematurely exposed during a lost season. I wish him the best and I wouldn’t be mad if they offered him a minor league deal in the off season.
Agreed, but I’d say he has been better than okay all things considered.
@don i completely agree and i hope wade just hyper extended his elbow and a few days off some ice and man sodas he back in a few days. imo the biggest weakness of the cards this season is our depth and wade was a perfect fit for pitching depth a solid 4~5 guy that pitches to his teams defensive strengths.
Trying to bring Hudson back next month could either be a huge mental boost for him if he has a good outing or two, and feels good the next day, or a complete disaster if he gets hurt again or gets torched.
The Cardinals don’t have the best record recently of bringing pitchers back from extended injuries (Mikolas this year, Reyes in the recent past) so I really hope that they are keeping things in perspective that it isn’t worth bringing him back just for the hell of it if things aren’t lined up 100%.
The Cardinals have almost no chance of catching the Brewers.
Carlson has had a decent season for sure but the lack of another offensive weapon with the pitching being banged up in the rotation and the bullpen being sketchy has put this team in the position it’s in. About .500
Angels they aren’t. We don’t have to contend with Oakland and Houston in our division. Our starters (when some of them can get on the field) is and could be a strong point but I don’t see any hope this year. Too many ??? to hope for a 2011 miracle. Hopefully Mikolas, Jack and Dakota have decent showings and stay healthy the rest of the way to give us a good springboard into 2022. Assuming we have a season.
The Cardinals used to be so great now they are a shell of their former self these days.
were they “great” in the mid/late 90’s? things are always a-changin pardnerr. hang in there teddy
@cheif in the late 90’s they were once tlr took the helm we became a watchable team and came 1 game away from going to the 96 ws but choked it up to atl after being up 3~1
Good Luck next week against my Brewers! Nice comment section.
Can’t wait!
@up thanks i hope for a good series and a birds sweep, but that’s going to be a uphill battle the brew crew might not have an off. but the play solid d and have an awesome pitching staff.