The Cardinals saw a pair of high-profile players exit today’s loss to the Cubs due to injury today. Catcher Willson Contreras exited the game in the sixth inning with right hip tightness before third baseman Nolan Arenado exited the game in the ninth inning. Per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat, Contreras felt some soreness in his hip while blocking pitches early in the game that was then aggravated upon running the bases later on, while Arenado fouled a ball off his lower left leg earlier in the game. While he initially stayed in the game, Arenado’s leg began to stiffen up during a lengthy rain delay later in the game, prompting Arenado’s exit. Per MLB.com’s John Denton, Arenado told reporters that he’ll “be fine” on Sunday, indicating he could return to the lineup without missing time. Denton added that Contreras is listed as day-to-day.
Losing either Contreras or Arenado for significant time would be a major blow to the St. Louis. While the club is in fourth place in a weak NL Central division with an abysmal 44-55 record, the club has performed better of late with a solid 17-13 record in their last thirty games. Both Arenado and Contreras have been key pieces in that success. Since that month of play began, Arenado boasts a strong .288/.336/.586 slash line while Contreras has caught fire to the tune of a .373/.472/.653 line in 21 games. If Contreras ends up missing time, the Cardinals figure to rely on youngster Ivan Herrera behind the plate alongside backup Andrew Knizner.
More from around MLB’s central divisions…
- With Twins infielder Jorge Polanco nearing a return from the injured list, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press) that Polanco would be taking reps at third base during his rehab assignment. The position change, Baldelli explained, is designed to keep second baseman Edouard Julien in the lineup after Polanco’s return. Julien has been a revelation for the Twins in his rookie season, slashing a phenomenal .318/.399/.565 with a wRC+ of 167. With Polanco set to shift to the hot corner, the likes of Donovan Solano and Kyle Farmer figure to see their playing time reduced upon his return.
- MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reports that Tigers outfielder Kerry Carpenter is drawing significant trade interest, but that Detroit is expected to hold onto the lefty slugger. The 25-year-old Carpenter has done nothing but hit since reaching the majors late last season, with a .257/.317/.493 slash line in 312 career plate appearances that’s good for a wRC+ of 125. Carpenter has shown particularly prodigious power, with 17 homers despite only half a season’s worth of trips to the plate. Given his offensive success, it’s hardly a surprise that Morosi notes the Tigers see Carpenter as part of the club’s future. Riley Greene, Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning, and Spencer Torkelson are among the other young pieces already in the majors who could be key factors in the club’s eventual return to contention.
- Brewers lefty Aaron Ashby has yet to pitch in the majors this year after undergoing shoulder surgery back in April, but he’s making progress toward a return at some point this season. MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy relays that Ashby has been on a schedule involving 30-pitch bullpen sessions on Tuesdays and Fridays, and that while there are still hurdles before he can return to game action, he’s expected to head to Arizona next week to continue his rehab. Upon his return, Ashby figures to pitch in out of the bullpen, a role in which he owns a career 3.66 ERA across 39 1/3 innings of work with a 32.5% strikeout rate.
A 34-homer full-season rate is “particularly prodigious power?”
Seems more like an excuse to use alliteration.
What did alliteration ever do to you? Do you have a stutter or something
I actually enjoy alliteration.
Ummmm hate to tell you , but 34hr is better than Ohtani had last yr and same as Alonso. 34 hr is usually top 5 in big leagues
More like you needed an excuse to use the word alliteration.
As always shine that application up and take it from there
Two tough losses for the Cardinals the last couple games. The team is hanging on by a thread. 8 games left before the break I think the team needs at least 6 wins or it’s sell time. They don’t want to sell at all but at some point you gotta win games.
If Arenado is hurt for any length of time that could be the final nail in contending in 2023. Herrera could cover Contreras but can’t lose Arenado.
Yeah if Arenado is out any length of time it might be time to get Walker some time at third where he’s comfortable because he’s a big donkey in the outfield.
Mo pretty much said the Cards are playing for 2024. So we’re the Dodgers because they didn’t spend anything to improve this season, saving money to make a run at Ohtani. They’re doing pretty good without him
I got a feeling Walker is bad at 3b too but who knows.
Walker should be DH only
They need 9 of 8 wins to make it interesting at this point.
Also, 44-55 is “abysmal?”
Considering for the last 21 years, cardinals have been much better than what their current record shows. “Abysmal” seems appropriate to how everyone views the Cardinals around the league and internally.
Just like when the Braves went into their funk at the end of of the 2000s. All their name players like Andrew Jones, Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddox, and so on, retired. So that left the Braves retooling themselves as an organization. The Braves got a lot of grief from fans around the league because of the high standards they set themselves up for. Cardinals are similar to that and the fans and league sees them needing to perform at their “highest standards”. 21 years is a long time of winning baseball and hovering around the playoffs or in the playoffs in those 21 years. Not to mention their multiple World Series wins in that time frame. So writers will be harsh on the Cardinals due to their longevity of winning. Just take it with a “grand of salt” and scroll onto the next article. Cardinals will be back just like the Braves came back. And when they do, as a Pirates fan, it will annoy me to no end lol.
They’re on pace to go 72-90. That’s bad but not A’s/ Royals-level abysmal.
I guess you don’t get it. Anything other than winning record is abysmal
@piratesfan1981
your right to us cards fans anything but a winning record is abysmal, because we have a very long history of being a contending team. when your bar for success is so high that also raises the bar for accepted failures.
Yes.
Just seems like the Cardinals can’t make up their minds about which few of their redundant pieces they are going to have to trade for pitchers. And while they hold onto them, they all seem to lose their luster.
The Cards need a refresher course in the art of “selling high”; if they understood this concept better, they would have moved guys like Oneill two years ago, when many people still thought he was an excellent, reliable player.
They weren’t selling at the deadline two years ago. It would’ve made absolutely no sense to trade TON.
Clearly you don’t understand the concept either; you don’t need to be a deadline “seller”, to move overvalued players in the off-season. They’d be in a much better spot today, had they selectively traded certain players in the last two yrs, instead of playing half their team out of position.
Yes I do agree about trading someone. Once the decision was made to keep Walker up a trade should have been made.
You need to closely pay attention to the Tampa Bay Rays off-seasons, they often proactively trade players at their highest peak value. I never actually said anything about “deadline trades” in my original post, just “move” some guys to maximize and cash in their value and clear player logjams. TON is most likely gone for peanuts now, when 2 yrs ago, coming off a good season, he would’ve returned a couple decent prospects. You don’t have to be out of contention or “deadline sellers”, to use this concept. Smart, competitive teams use it all the time.
ONeill is a good player. The team is better when he’s on it.
I was pretty set on trading ONeill but I get the feeling the offers Mozeliak was getting weren’t too good. He’s been on base 7 times in the last 3 games. I dint want to move him and give Walker a position he doesn’t belong at.
You are absolutely spot on. Waited too long on O’Niel, waited too long on Carlson. Doing the same with Donovan, Edman and Nootbar. They need to make up their mind on which ONE they want to keep and get what they can for the others. It really doesn’t even matter which one they keep. Let the other clubs tell you, which ever one nets you the least return, keep him maximize the r returns of all the rest
How does this even make sense? You said the Cards should only keep “ONE” of Donovan, Edman, and Nootbaar. Seriously? Then what? Each of these young players are winners, they’re each very different and add lots of value to a winning team. You saw Donovan bat for Arenado yesterday and first pitch smacks it into right field. Sheesh. All 3 of them are excellent defensively, too, no matter where you play them. Versatility is very beneficial. So, let’s say you trade two of these players for pitchers. Then what? Who plays Center Field if Carlson, Edman, and Nootbaar are all traded, b/c I guarantee you that Carlson will be gone by the deadline. Tell us, who plays CF? Bring back Mercado? What? Who?
If those 3 are gone that means you still have O’Niel for CF. They need so many pieces, the farm has nobody. This season is done so they need to bring in as many pieces as possible and figure out how to fill in for the rest of the season from there. If it isn’t ideal, who cares this season doesn’t matter, they don’t need to win, they just need to get through it.
Moe has to be careful to NOT OVER-CORRECT an already bad situation. He has to protect the very good lineup we have on a daily basis, while moving pieces to grow depth in the pitching ranks. His main goal at this deadline is bringing in roughly 2 starting pitching prospects that are nearly ready for MLB, if not already in MLB. Moe also needs to thin the ranks of players/prospects at certain positions. For instance, lots of redundancy with 1st basemen like Goldy, Burly, Baker, Redmond, so move a couple of those guys by adding them to say Jack Flaherty and possibly get a young starter for them. Moe has tons of options but he has to stop screwing up. Finally, he can sign a FA Ace this coming free agency season, like for instance Yamamoto from Japan. You pay him to be your Ace. Cards have $60M to add to payroll next year so they can easily do it, if DeWitt Jr ever awakes from his nap. Cards really need to add 4 starters to help Mikolas who’s basically a #5 type starter.
Oh ya, if Moe can get a bag of balls for TON that guy is gone. This season doesn’t matter, correct, but my goodness, Moe is building for 2024 and beyond so he has to keep excellent players in house. He’s already said Goldy, Nado, Noot, and Walker aren’t getting traded, and I 100% agree with that. I would also add these guys to his no-trade list: Gorman, Herrera, Winn, Donovan, Edman, Victor Scott II, and Chase Davis, That’s your current & near future team locked down. Enjoy it.
Here are the ones I think Moe really prefers to trade for pitching by the deadline, in order of necessary importance: Monty, Flaherty, DeJong, Hicks, TON, Carlson, Contreras; and then second tier trade chips to be added to the bigger names: Yepez, Gomez, Baker, Liberatore,
2024 is already a lost season. This team is that bad. They can’t fix it all in one offseason. They aren’t going to get ola or Ohtani is free agency. Their pitching is going to be just as bad next year. There isn’t enough out there other than more 4/5 type starters that will change any of that for next season. This needs to be a two season approach the rangers did two years ago when the they got Seager and Siemen and then add more last offseason while continuing to draft and develop well. Goldschmidt is a lottery ticket for 2024 and should not be an extension candidate. If Baker was the next answer at 1B he’d already be so or traded by now, he’s just a good AAA player. Aside from Winn all the position players in AA and AAA are 26+ years old. Which Means they are pretty much mid players at best. Nootbaar, Donovan, Edman, Carlson, O’Niel, Burleson are all mid players at best. That’s the problem with this front office. They don’t see how bad it actually is right now and how bad it’s going to be in a few years because of it. Just like this years rotation was known it was goin g to be an issue in 2021, it’s pretty easy to see this team is in trouble for a few years to come and if they think they are only a player or two away from being able to have another run of sustained success(really arguable if was really succes given the softness of division), they can actually do real damage and set this organization back a decade rather than just a 2-3 years.
I don’t agree 2024 is a lost season. You say they can’t fix it one season, but that’s your opinion is all, and definitely NOT an absolute. The pitching staff can be fixed with a couple of young starters obtained in trades and by signing a couple FA’s like the Rangers did this past off-season. The Cards position players are above average overall, and ranked 3rd or 4th in N.L. offense, which is good enough. Tidy up the defense, and blow up the starting pitching staff, the Cards can be very good in ’24. But, then again, we have Mozeliak running things, so do I trust him to get it done? No.
Solano has played well this year. Wonder if the Twins might try and flip him as a rental
Utility guy, good bat. I think the twins will keep Solano as first guy off the bench
Good call Twinkies on keeping Julien at second base.
He’d be better at DH but Buxton can’t play in the field.
I don’t believe any of the Cardinal’s expendables are going to fetch a huge return of stellar prospects. The only exception would be Goldie if they opt to trade him.
Why? Two reasons. First, the Phillies and the Brewers would surely pony up to get Goldie. And, secondly, maybe 1B is Walker’s best position. He’s iffy as an outfielder, and so long as Arenado is in town, he ain’t gonna play 3B.
One of the aforementioned expendables, Carlson, should be of interest to any number of teams.
I’m not seeing Walker as being good defensively anywhere on the field. Bad instincts. He can’t read a fly ball off the bat which renders him useless in the OF. His glove skills are only okay, so 1st or 3rd base is probably a stretch for him, and his arm is fairly wild. I’m not hopeful of him ever being “good” anywhere in the field. Hopefully he proves me wrong but I’m not confident at this point.
The Brewers wouldn’t trade for Goldschmidt. At all. Too expensive for them. Won’t take that contract for next year.
Goldschmidt isn’t going to net you a big return either. No one is going to last with top end prospects for a first baseman who will be 36 before the end of the year and is owed $25 million next year. But I am all in on seeing if we can trade him for two raw a ball players with high ceilings.
Ha, did you just say that last years MVP, who’s an incredible person and teammate on a 25 mil salary wouldn’t net a big return?
That’s an interesting take.
Just say an article on Bleacher Nation. Willson Contreras might be on the trading block already. Lmao. I wish him well except vs. The cubs. It would be a terrible signing if they traded him 4 months into a 5 year deal.