The Cardinals announced Monday that they’ve placed right-handed reliever Ryan Helsley on the 15-day injured list due a strained right forearm. Right-hander Jake Woodford has been recalled from Triple-A Memphis in his place. Helsley’s placement on the injured list is retroactive to June 10.
Helsley hasn’t pitched in a game since the middle of last week, despite the Cardinals playing in a pair of close games since then. Giovanny Gallegos received the team’s most recent save opportunity, last Friday, when the bullpen was at full strength following an off-day. Helsley’s dayslong absence from game activity now makes a bit more sense. He’ll be sidelined through at least the 25th of the month, though the team has yet to provide any real detail regarding his prognosis or potential recovery window.
Losing Helsley is a blow to an already reeling Cardinals club. While he hasn’t been quite as dominant as he was in 2022, the 28-year-old righty currently boasts a 3.24 ERA, 32% strikeout rate, 10.7% walk rate, a 43.1% grounder rate and seven saved in 25 innings out of the ’pen. Since the calendar flipped to May, Helsley was carrying a 2.40 ERA and a 20-to-6 K/BB ratio in 15 frames.
With Helsley sidelined for at least the foreseeable future, save opportunities will likely fall to the aforementioned Gallegos. The pair had been tied in saves prior to Gallegos notching his eighth of the season Friday when Helsley was unavailable. With Gallegos likely assuming full-time closing duties, setup work will fall to a combination of Andre Pallante, Jordan Hicks, Drew VerHagen and Genesis Cabrera. VerHagen’s seven holds currently lead the Cardinals, though he’s surrendered runs in three of his past four outings.
Woodford, 26, has pitched primarily out of the rotation for the Cards in 2023 but struggled to a 5.40 ERA in 30 innings. The right-hander’s 13% strikeout rate is among the lowest in MLB, but he has a strong 8% walk rate and 53.8% ground-ball rate as well. He’ll likely give the Cardinals some bullpen depth for the time being, as the rotation is still five-deep even after moving veteran Steven Matz to the bullpen. Adam Wainwright, Jordan Montgomery, Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty and Matthew Liberatore figure to continue starting for St. Louis as the 27-39 Cardinals try to claw out of the NL Central cellar.
More brutal news in a brutal season. Hope it’s nothing more serious. We never know with Cardinal pitching injuries.
“Another one bites the dust” the 2023 MLB theme song. I hope he recovers soon.
Waiting for the headline “Cardinals fire GM, Marmol, hitting coach, and pitching coach”
There needs to be a shakeup in the coaching staff this offseason.
Hopefully before then
I read somewhere the pitching coach was good with analytics but that is only part of the duties of the position. Hopefully the assistant pitching coach can help with the physical aspects of pitching. Somebody needs to be able to spot problems pitchers are having and help correct them. Wainwright seems to be good in that respect.
I doubt he would be interested but I’d love to see Molina back as the pitching coach. Yes, pitching coach should be at the top of the list this year.
@Cardsfan1984 The manager should not be younger than the players. He commands no respect around the club house. Hes a yesman for the GM. Nothing more nothing less. Should of kept Schildt, a real leader
Schildt got fired for trying to implement his own agenda, going against the FO.
They want input from the manager, not him being in charge. Nobody can be Tony LaRussa. Even he had to give up some control.
Seems to me they want managers to put their genius ideas into effect as flawlessly as possible, so they can take the credit without actually getting their hands, shoes, and suits dirty.
He really lost the clubhouse when he publically called out O’Neil.
The age of the leader has no bearing so long as said leader commands respect.
Commanding does no good without the resume to back it up, otherwise words are likely to fall on deaf ears.. in my opinion.
@nottinghamforest13 maybe the cardinals should hire a high school student to manage the team since age doesn’t matter
They’re all yes-men for the President of Baseball Operations, a god named John Mozeliak. It’s the only way, if they want to keep their job.
Hard to imagine STL ever being deadline sellers, but they’re 12 games under .500 on 6/12. If they sell, who goes?
Montgomery and Flaherty will go if the Cardinals don’t improve quickly.
Flaherty can be tagged for one year and I would because he will be one more year away from his injuries, getting back to his almost Cy Young stats. Depends whether a draft pick is better than what will be offered up in a trade.
This season is a huge disappointment.
It’s a shame their salaries aren’t performance based, all of them, all the way up the ladder.
Contreras is quoted in one of tonight’s articles on the official site, saying, “I think throughout the year, we haven’t come together as a team, and that’s something that is showing up right now.” — I am so glad somebody finally spoke up and said the obvious. I think the chemistry of the team is toxic, which started with inflated egos full of expectations, and an organization that left the players hanging with a mediocre (at best) pitching staff the players are supposed to believe in, but it’s not that simple. Mo expected the offense to bailout the pitching staff all the way to a title, and the pressure they feel because of that has become too intense on a daily basis.
But 8 games out in the division with 32 inner-division games left. If they can turn it around there is still time.
Pit – 6 games (all after trade deadline)
Mil – 10 games (all after trade deadline)
Cin – 6 games (all after trade deadline)
CHC – 10 games (all before trade deadline)
Flaherty can be tagged to stay another year. Will teams pay more than that on a long term contract $20MM plus per year and lose a draft pick also. Cardinals might be the only ones who will pay that for one year. My vote is pay him one year and let him go if he wants. He has fans here, lots of them. I’d pay him five years @ $20 per, $100MM, even a little more. Maybe???
Hard to even think about being sellers at the deadline, but the minor league scouts for STL have hopefully been evaluating what kind of pitching talent 2.+ years of a Tommy Edman is worth. Carlson and O’neil have severely diminished value at this point and they won’t be trading the corner infielders. Helsley, Gallegos and Hicks could all be moved as could Flaherty and Monty, but who is buying? Most of these other than Edman won’t move the needle for next years roster without some tremendous luck and or a team desperate to make a move. The desperate teams would need to see some better stats out of the above mentioned players or the cardinals will be selling low just for the sake of selling. It is a strange position to be in and interesting to observe as a long time cardinals fan.
We can also safely assume that Wainwright and Contreras won’t be traded, though they probably wish they could move Willson. The FO and Marmol would love nothing more than to trade O’Neill, but nothing of significance would come back. Depends on how bad they want him gone.
Two minds. One I want O’Neil to be gone because he isn’t available enough, hurt too much of the time. Two, I want to keep him because he can be a very good clutch player when he is healthy, almost MVP level. I don’t want to see him go to another team and be a superstar.
Edman’s numbers are down. He has the value of a utility player despite how popular he is in St. Louis.
Carlson looks completely lost. I don’t see why any team in contention would want him around.
The batting line and OBP is way down from Edman but there is a fair amount of value in a super-utility player that has a gold glove on the shelf that is capable of playing a pretty decent CF with enough speed and baseball sense to swipe 30 bases a season. The salary is not out of line either. He has had a pretty rough June honestly, he was hitting .260 before a couple weeks ago and could turn it around just as quickly and gain some value back.
He’s a very good player to have around, but I doubt what they’d get back for a utility player, albeit a very good one, would move the needle much in terms of reloading. It’s probably better just to keep him and build with him as part of the picture.
I would agree honestly. He gets starters reps at SS and Center though so I would put him in a place above most we call super-utility that are capable of filling in at those positions. Not a need typically for a postseason ballclub, but a luxury few may be interested in at the level the Cards and fans value it. The thing with the Cardinals is they will probably be sellers with little disposable talent that other teams really would want with the condition that returning talent would need to be helping the club compete next year. That in itself likely eliminates a match with most teams especially those in the division though the Cards were able to pull off the trade with Pittsburg last year. I am thinking it will be a disappointing deadline season for the fans for a disappointing season.
Looks like Edman turned around yesterday and today. So off he goes again. He is good for the Cardinals but I don’t feel he is clutch whereas I think Donovan is. Somebody is going to have to play SS of DeJong is ever gone. He can be a regular for a number of teams, SS, 2B, CF, all defense positions. .260 at 2B and CF is starting material. Couple years ago he was second in doubles in the league.
That’s all I got.
PS. Bader brought back Montgomery, why can’t Edman do the same.
Way to go, Mo!
2024
Tough news for the Cards. Still plenty to sell and get back some younger players. Hard to imagine the Cards being this bad, but it’s reality.
If there was plenty to sell, they’d be contending at the moment. This roster is rubbish.
Flaherty, Helsley, Montgomery, Gallegos have established themselves plus others I would like to see us keep. Playoff bound teams will pay for the above mentioned pitchers if the FO doesn’t want to keep them for next year (and hopefully a run in the second half of this year). Those guys above are good pitchers on a bad team and other clubs know it. I don’t think the FO will give them away, crossing my fingers.
Flaherty is gone a seasons end, trade him and get something. If you can’t sign Montgomery is he worth a qualifying offer if not trade him get something. Somebody might want DeJong to fill in if an injury pops up. O’Neill will be someone that wanted. It will probably take a 10 or so game winning streak to keep them from being sellers.
We might need a 1964 run to be relevant.
DeJong has no value and should not still be getting games for the Cardinals if they want to compete. He stopped hitting almost as soon as he was called up.
I would send DeJong down to Memphis for a month, then bring him back for his normal hot streak through July, finally trading him at the deadline for whatever you can get out of him.
Tough blow hope it’s nothing serious