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.
color me shocked
Color you red n white ⚾️
Reyes will be on the Disabled list off and on all season!! Flaherty will be the same but won’t last the season without surgery on his tear in his tendon. Best thing to do with them is put them on the 60 day disabled list and hope for the best the second half!!
Don’t mess around with them in wishful thinking as with Carlos Martinez and Brett Cecil. You see where those 2 got the Cardinals!!!
The original post doesn’t cover the whole badness. There’s questions about Mikolas, too, given HIS past injury history. There’s questions about Waino, given that last year was his best since 2014. Is he likely to be this good and this injury-free this year? Sure ….. socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2022/03/dear-mo-sign-z…
I totally agree with you!!!
Plus, We all know how Mozeliak’s philosophy trends!!! Bring up from within—— whether they are ready or not.
Mozeliak will not trade prospects for a #1 or #2 Starting pitcher who could vault the Cardinals to the top.
If that does in fact happen—- Color Arenaldo gone for 2023. (He was upset with Mozeliak because of the unjust firing of Mike Schildt !! This, lack of leadership —insures pennant winning is not in Mozeliak’s vocabulary!!!!!
Better get involved in those Montas/Manaea talks.
No leverage and no excuse now, gotta get more starters
Greeeeeaaaaaaat. I hope Mo is on the phone with the A’s right now.
Jack Flaherty hurt? Im shocked… Maybe he should do less social activism and more focus on getting in game shape
Thanks for the utterly nonsensical take.
@LFGMets (Metsin7): Something tells me the probability of deGrom’s injury popping up just increased with this post.
absolute bozo
Because shoulder injuries occur when you are out of shape. SMH
However you comment, baseball needs both of these pitchers to make it interesting. It gets old hearing how your favorite pitchers keep going down
How does anybody’s head function this way where this is the logical conclusion?
Exactly. He and Dex were the clubhouse cancer duo before Mozeliak flipped Fowler to the Halos as a salary dump. So it doesn’t shock me he came to camp with the same issue as he had last year. Instead of being prepared for the season, he dumps this on Mo and the team in mid-March. No shock.
Hardball, any real evidence of this clubhouse cancer accusation? Or that Flaherty wasn’t prepared for this season? Remember, the owners locked the players out and cut off all communications between teams and players, so he couldn’t tell the team about his injury.
I can’t get passed that you think no one communicated because the owners said they couldn’t. But let’s pretend they were prevented by some supernatural force… If you read the news out of Jupiter back in January the PD had a story on how Jose Oquendo (longtime 3b coach) was working with minor leaguers at that facility, and had been running training regimens for several major leaguers with injuries since October. One was Flare, who also had his own treatment protocols. This guy has more talent than lefty Jaime Garcia, but sadly the same rehab work ethics.
Tatis broke his wrist months ago, but the team just found out a few days ago. Communications were cut off.
As a Cardinals employee, Oquendo could not work with anybody on the 40-man roster during the lockout. You reference october, so Oquendo and Flaherty could have been working together then. I doubt Flaherty’s treatment protocols were something he came up with on his own. I’m sure he was working with doctors.
Isn’t Jose Oquendo a minor league coach? Didn’t think they were affected.
Cmurphy, I think any team employees couldn’t work with 40-man players, but I didn’t dig deep into the specifics. I did a search for the article PureHardball mentioned and couldn’t find anything.
They literally can’t communicate with 40 man roster players during a lockout. Ever hear of a little thing called collective bargaining?
Oh, you’re one of those.
Flaherty, Fowler, and Pham weren’t good clubhouse fixtures—- Flaherty was young and impressionable. Followed the wrong guys attitudes. Especially Tommy Pham!!
17dizzy, this seems like nothing but speculation.
Idiot
Libertore looked pretty decent his first spring outing. He looked like a different pitcher the second half of last year.
That seems like serious wishful thinking on Libertore!! He hasn’t look good at a while in the minor leagues.
Wtf are you talking about? He was solid all year and great in the 2nd half. He was incredibly young relative to the league too in AAA. He’s fine and has been fine all throughout the majors.
Mo failed to prepare, so redbird fans better be prepared to fail.
Mo could care less about building a World Series contenting team. (Only needs a#1 or #2 starting pitcher). Mo will pond scum
Hindsight is 20/20 but they should have extended Kim and not having him walk away to the FA
I’m not sure Kim is the answer here. He couldn’t make it past 3-4 innings and had some just really awful outings.
Didn’t he sign a 4 year deal in Korea? Maybe he wasn’t interested.
Extended Kim? No thank you.
Kim don’t matter. The Cardinals need an ace and he’s far from being one of those.
Looks like best case scenario is half seasons for both. Cards need another veteran starter and a backend reliever badly. They could also use a veteran bat to DH. They don’t look like division favorites.
I think the lineup is pretty set. I personally would’ve liked to see them move DeJong and get into the SS market but they were never going to spend that money so I’m fine with what they’ve got. They desperately need another SP who can eat innings. More pitching in the pen wouldn’t hurt but I don’t want them to spend big money on any relievers.
Time to trade Yepez for Fleming/Yarbrough from the Rays. Cards need some serious rotation depth who you know will stay healthy.
budman3 2: Or they can try to get a starter or 2 fr the Marlins.
Yeah, they one they gave up for ozuna would be a nice addition.
I agree on Alcantra!!
Make a deal for Trevor Bauer.
Trevor Bauer is about to get the Puig treatment, and get forced out of the game
Meanwhile Deshaun Watson gets 250 mil guaranteed while facing 22 civil suits.
Worm can open
Hopefully you’re just kidding!!! A lot of talent!! Plus a too many toys in Bauer’s head. Way too many!!!
Mozaliak will wait until everyone is signed and then he will look for pitchers that have had Tommy John surgery before they can have a chance of signing.
Cards have options…. but I do agree they need a solid 2 or 3 spot starter that is established. Flaherty wants to complain about getting top dollar then he better start making sure he’s worth that. His will honestly be more serious than Reyes. But don’t just slam the cards in the fail column and this actually has very little to do with Mo… no contact allowed with players for over 100 days…. please before you post dumb stuff know what you’re speaking about
Both are done for 2022..
Can Reyes be worth anything in a trade to obtain a quality 2 or 3 starter???
At some point they have to look at either the training staff or the way this dude works out or throws there has got to be something going on. All this potential but can’t stay on the field for more than a month and half.
It’s almost like being a major league pitcher is extremely stressing on the body.
lol I get that but this dude is hurt so regularly he barely has time to be on the roster. I know they push themselves and I’m sure he hates it as much as Cardinals fans do just seems they should be able to figure out something to help keep him on the field.
I agree more work needs to be done to dig into this and find out why he keeps getting hurt.
You should have just said this to begin with
Perhaps Keuchel has a half seasons gas in tank, he’s kinda odd man out as a 6th starter for WSox now. Cards could get him for salary relief plus lottery ticket. Just sayin’
No, Keuchel is the WSox 4th SP. Reynaldo Lopez or Vince Velasquez or Michael Kopech are #5 and Sox are a title contender, ain’t trading any of them.
I think it’s safe to say that Reyes is a bust. Guy can not stay healthy.
Alex Reyes? Injured? No…
Gormon and some sprinkles for montas abs Manaea. Both teams win
Let’s not trade Gorman. Strike one. Try again.
Is “abs” supposed to be “and?”
I think you can figure that one out for yourself
This just blows my mind. Reyes hurt AGAIN. And honestly, most Cardinals pitchers that come up through their system seem to get hurt too often. Makes me wonder what the trainers are doing to these guys. But that is a completely unscientific take and not compared to any other organization. It’s simply an observation that seems a bit too coincidental.
Stem cell injection? NOT KOOL.
Ha I’m sure you know so much about stem cells
So Flaherty injured his shoulder last season and spent the winter hoping it would heal or that he would be able to pitch through it? And therefore the front office knew all offseason that they were potentially going to need another starter depending on how the shoulder felt. This whole story line is both predictable and disappointing. Just find a way to scrape together 85 wins, sneak into the expanded playoffs, and say we tried. The should engrave it on the side of the stadium.
Your comment is pretty much hitting the nail on the head as long as John Mozeliak is employed by the Cardinals. When does his contract end???
Since the cards will likely not come close to making the playoffs, even with the extended format, wonder if the Braves can pull of a trade for Flaherty. Prob not, but he’s pretty legit
They are the favorites to win their division.
The Brewers are favored to win the division at -130, not the Cardinals at +190
Oh my, might as well not even play the games then. The pre season favorite always wins the division…..
It makes no sense whatsoever that Flaherty and the Cards know he has a labrum tear and they aren’t addressing it, it’s a simple procedure, I’ve had it, and since it was repaired I throw harder than I ever had in my life.
Lol it’s not nearly that simple dude. His isn’t supposedly completely torn, and while you might be a beer league softball all star, I’m pretty sure you don’t put the kind of torque that he does on it. Labrum surgery is 3 months to heal and 9-12 months to fully recover and be able to throw in games. Shoulders are tricky AF and not even tommy John surgery has a 100% success rate and it’s way higher than shoulder surgeries in general for pitchers.
BIG SEXY on line 3.
Your son rip is on line toot!
Hate to see a young player hurt, but happy to see this garbage organization start to fall. Their pitchers get hurt so often due to the “cardinals way”. Their methods obviously don’t work in the best interest of their young pitchers. Time to steal someone else’s database and find some players.
Cry more.
We are!! Ha!
delusion in action. All pitchers get hurt for all teams eventually. Some get hit with worse luck than others in a given year. Please share your meta data study research on how their trend lines are somehow different from the rest of baseball though. Reyes looked borked at the end of last year anyway, and obviously the lockout wasn’t good for players in their situation. Cards still are going to win the division. They have the pieces to acquire what’s needed in season. There’s no point in assuming doom. They obviously are very confident in Liberatore being able to step in right away to fill some of that void.
Maybe Flaherty should get that tear fixed and quit trying to play through it.
Well as an A’s man I say you better get Montas . I want Nolan Gorman . Really I want to force the Twins to give up Royce Lewis , and Jordan Balazovic
I’m no scout. These are just my opinions from the numbers:
I predict STL IF Nolan Gorman will be a very good MLB caliber player if he can break this lineup. I like IF Brendon Donovan and OF Alec Burleson too.
STL has several extremely good pitching prospects but they’re mostly in lower MiLB. SPs Matthew Liberatore, Connor Thomas and Ramon Santos may be close to ready but not so special. RP Jake Walsh could be ready and may be special.
I’d say Brooks and VerHagen have the best chance to start the season in the rotation. (Maybe both if one is concerned enough about health issues/building pitch counts up)
If Brooks and Vanhagen are the odds on favorites to be the Cardinals next starting pitcher——— The Cardinals are not dedicated to improving their team to a NationL league Champioship contending team.
Ridiculous—— typical John Mozeliak—— he won’t be trading some top prospects for a #1 or #2 starting pitcher. Prospects are just what the word implies. They have a good CHANCE of being a good major lead player. Doesn’t mean they’d be a superstar.
Current #1 and #2 starting pitchers have already proved their worth in MLB, just by being classified as a #1 or #2 starter.
I wouldn’t expect VerHagen or Brooks to be aces per say but I’m more comfortable with them than I would be with Dakota Hudson despite his shiny ERA.
STL 3-4-5 rotation of VerHagen, Brooks and Woodford.