Dylan Carlson will miss at least the next “couple weeks” due to a left oblique strain, the Cardinals outfielder told MLB.com and other media today. St. Louis placed Carlson on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to August 10) and called up Luken Baker as the roster replacement, giving Carlson some proper time off after he first suffered the injury on Wednesday. Given the lingering nature of some oblique injuries and the fact that the Cardinals are out of contention, it isn’t out of the question that Carlson might have already played his last game of the 2023 season….or even his last game in a St. Louis uniform.
It looked like Carlson was a future cornerstone following his impressive 2021 rookie campaign, but he has followed up that seeming breakout year with pair of injury-marred, lackluster seasons. Carlson has hit only .230/.316/.364 over 743 plate appearances since Opening Day 2022, and both his health issues and the lack of production have reduced his playing time in the Cardinals outfield. While Carlson is arbitration-controlled through 2026 and was the subject of several trade rumors prior to the deadline, his subpar play has certainly lowered his trade value, so it remains to be seen if the Cardinals will sell low on him this winter as they look to both solve their outfield surplus and figure out how to get the team more broadly back on track after their disastrous year.
Catching up on other IL placements from Saturday…
- The Dodgers placed right-hander Yency Almonte on the 15-day IL and called up southpaw Victor Gonzalez. Almonte suffered a right knee sprain that forced him to make an early exit from Friday’s game, as he told reporters (including NBC Los Angeles’ Michael J. Duarte) that the injury was caused when his cleat got stuck on the mound. Almonte’s struggles at limiting walks have resulted in a 5.06 ERA over 48 relief innings, though he had somewhat stabilized after a tough beginning to the season — a 9.00 ERA over his first 18 innings gave way to a 2.70 ERA over his last 30 frames of work.
- The Pirates placed Carmen Mlodzinski on the 15-day IL (retroactive to August 10) due to right elbow soreness, while calling up right-hander Osvaldo Bido from Triple-A. Mlodzinski made his MLB debut on June 16 and has an excellent 2.28 ERA over his first 23 2/3 innings in the Show. The righty’s 4.74 SIERA is less inspiring, as Mlodzinski has thrived despite subpar strikeout (20.8%) and walk (12.9%) rates.
- The Blue Jays placed right-hander Hagen Danner on the 15-day IL due to a left oblique strain, and Nate Pearson was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move. Danner made his MLB debut on Friday and retired the first batter he faced, yet then had to leave the game after getting injured while facing the second batter of his relief appearance. The 24-year-old Danner had earned a look in the majors after posting a 3.81 ERA over 28 1/3 Triple-A innings this season, but it will be at least 15 days before he can get back onto the mound.
True or False: oblique strains are more likely to occur when an athlete is not in proper shape.
False. More common from over-training. Common in sports with a lot of body torque and/or twisting.
True. Except this is the first season I’ve heard of this injury. Either it hasn’t happened very much in the past or it’s just being reported more.
No it happens quite a bit, but it does seem like more of it happening this season. You see it in the Spring when guys are ramping up. Also it seems to happen when they come off an extended stay on the injured list.
The one that sticks out to me was last year. Scherzer going down with an oblique injury only a handful of starts into his overpaid Mets tenure. IIRC, Trout also went down with one later in the season.
I guess that depends on how you define “proper shape”. It seems like an injury that happens in quite explosive movements so maybe more about imbalanced strengthening than overall? Or maybe since it’s a strain injury that happens with overstretching it’s more about being loose and is a momentary thing?
Just thought this was a good opportunity to inject my weekly reminder that Ryan Pepiot strained an oblique in Spring Training and has been out the entire year to date. I’m no doctor, but that has to be the most severe oblique strain in history.
Hope the cards actually let baker play
Who will sit while Baker plays? Do they sit Goldschmidt? Do they sit Walker and play Burleson in the outfield? All the other hitters are hitting very well recently. They need to trade Goldschmidt or Baker this offseason. Maybe they will play Baker in an attempt to increase his trade value.
I don’t think anyone is saying bench Goldschmidt. Baker could help the line up as DH now since he is such a power/rbi threat. With Carlson gone there are plenty of AB’s in the outfield for Burlson as our 4th outfielder.
So sit Burleson most days and DH Baker instead of Walker. The point is first and DH is all that’s available for Baker. Kizner and Contreras are both hot at the plate but one one of them will sit with Baker at DH. My point was that it’s already hard to get all the hot bats into the lineup.
The cards have one of the records in baseball it would not hurt to give this guy some legit playing time bench whoever you like they are playing for a lottery pick at this point.
Dylan Carlson hurt again. His trade value continues to plummet.
According to baseball reference, Luken Baker’s middle name is Grosvenor.
How’s Carrie Muskat doing?
Hopefully we’ll see an improved version of Victor Gonzalez this go-round. He was getting lit up like a Christmas tree in the weeks leading up to his last demotion.