Cardinals right-hander Keynan Middleton will undergo surgery to repair his flexor tendon and will miss the entire 2024 season. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was among those to relay the news on X.
Middleton, 30, signed with the Cardinals this offseason on a one-year deal with a $6MM guarantee. He’s making a $5MM salary this year and there’s a $1MM buyout on a $6MM club option for 2025.
The Cards were hoping to install Middleton as a key piece of their relief unit after his strong 2023 season. Between the White Sox and Yankees, Middleton tossed 50 2/3 innings last year with a 3.38 earned run average. His 10.8% walk rate was a bit on the high side but he also struck out 30.2% of batters faced and got grounders on 56.6% of balls in play.
Middleton was undoubtedly hoping to build on that campaign and put another strong year together, but it will instead be a lost year for him. He was shut down in the middle of March due to a forearm strain and began the season on the injured list. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection while trying to recover and progressed far enough that he began a rehab assignment. But he then experienced renewed discomfort and was shut down. Now that it has been determined surgery is necessary, he’ll be sidelined for the remainder of the year.
Injuries have been an unfortunately common occurrence for Middleton in his career. He underwent Tommy John surgery back in May of 2018, wiping out the remainder of that season and much of the subsequent campaign as well. In later years, he made trips to the injured list due to a right biceps strain, right elbow inflammation, a right ankle strain and a sprained left great toe. Even last year, when he was healthy enough to make 51 appearances, he missed a couple of weeks due to right shoulder inflammation.
He’s already on the 15-day IL and will be transferred to the 60-day version whenever the Cards need his roster spot for some other transaction. He’ll spend the rest of the year rehabbing and the Cards will then have to decide whether or not they want to bring him back for 2025, a net $5MM decision. Flexor tendon surgery generally has a lesser recovery timetable than other major elbow surgeries and it’s possible Middleton will be healthy by next spring, but the Cards might just take the buyout and keep the $5MM available for other moves, as they could always circle back to Middleton later in the offseason if he’s recovering well.
The Cards have Ryan Helsley as their closer and will give setup work to guys like JoJo Romero and Andrew Kittredge for now. If the club stays in the playoff race for the next few weeks, they will likely pursue some bullpen help prior to the deadline.
Was a risky signing to start with.
I don’t think this means they need to add to the bullpen. Another starter is a greater priority. I hope (hope, hope, hope) Pallante can have another solid showing tonight. But adding a starter that keeps Libby in the pen even in case of injury would be more helpful.
Predictably Pallante turned back into a pumpkin. He is Dak Hudson’s clone. Stubborn refusal to strikes.
Yeah, Pallante neither a reliever nor a starter. It’s time to move on from him. There must be something better in Memphis.
At least it wasn’t a big disaster unlike a few other reliever contracts that Mo’s dished out. It definitely would’ve been a boost to the pen, but now if the Cards stay in the wc/divisional race they’ll have to settle for someone else. If the Cards were to decline the option, could they theoretically bring him back if they chose to do so on another similar contract?
“Few other reliever contracts”…If the Brent Cecil contract didn’t get Mo fired, nothing will. Even the best relievers should only be offered 1, 2 or 3 year deals with the main preference being a 1 year deal.
That is the only deal that makes mike leaks deal look good
Of course they could but they won’t. It sucks that every time they spend on the bullpen it just ends up a disaster. We could really use this guy right now too. At least they can always trade for another bullpen arm if they stay in contention for the highly coveted final wild card spot.
Another one bites the dust
YES! I said it first!
This was a roll of the dice given his history. St. Louis lost this roll of the dice.
Another one. Pandemic.
The Yankees knew something cause they didn’t bother with him despite pitching well.
Trust me, the Yankees don’t know anything that everyone else doesn’t. If they did, the Sonny Gray, Frankie Montas or Joey Gallo deals would’ve never happened. Teams truly cannot sign everyone and the Yankees got very lucky they didn’t choose to sign him.
Cardinals lose 8-5 to the Astros cause pitching, hitting
Disappointing, frustrating, sad.
Can a new GM right the ship.
The lack of a #6 starter falls squarely on Mo. He did fine by adding Gray, Lynn, and Gibson. But that made them the oldest rotation in baseball with nothing behind them. Everyone knew they lacked depth. He did nothing. I appreciate the recent turn around. But this team wasn’t built to contend. Just tread water until Mo’s contract is up. He deserves to be fired for not supporting the young talent on the roster.
Our young talent doesn’t stack up with most good teams. And we have little to no young pitching talent at the big league level.
I disagree. I have been as doom and gloom as any Cardinals fan on this site. But I think our young position player talent is outstanding! We have very little pitching talent in the organization. It’s a problem. This coaching staff HAS shown an ability to turn interesting arms into effective relievers. But they have not shown the ability to develop effective starters. That has to change, or we have to be willing to pay market value for for starting pitching plus depth. These are facts.
The only reason the Yankees didn’t sign him was simply his price tag and demands were too high. Or possibly he didn’t want to go back to NY.
The veteran players have become the drag on the offense for the Cardinals. They’ll show brief flashes of coming back then fall back into the deep slump. I feel stronger than ever that the full rebuild around those younger players should have started at the deadline last year.