The St. Louis Cardinals rotation was already in a rough spot when ace Jack Flaherty went down with a significant oblique strain. Before yesterday’s game, team president John Mozeliak was talking about how the organization didn’t really want to just bring up prospects, didn’t really want to bring in free agents who aren’t ready to go immediately, and also didn’t want to wait until the Trade Deadline to bring in reinforcements. Everything we Cubs fans were thinking about the positional group a couple weeks ago, the Cardinals were there with their rotation.
And then they lost another starting pitcher.
Last night, lefty Kwang-Hyun Kim, who has been steady if unspectacular this year, left his start early with a back issue. Today, the Cardinals decided it wasn’t going to be just a few day thing, and put him on the Injured List. The team is hoping it’s not much more than 10 days, though:
The Cardinals are hopeful Kim's IL stint is not longer than the 10 days, and Mike Shildt says KK is moving better than when his occurred previously in the spring.
Angel Rondón will take over a long-relief role (for now).
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) June 5, 2021
Already without Dakota Hudson and Miles Mikolas, the Cardinals went down Flaherty and Kim in quick succession. The healthy rotation consists of Adam Wainwright (who turns 40 in August), Carlos Martinez (who got blown out last time and has a long history of injury issues when starting), and John Gant (who is being converted to the rotation this year with great results and mediocre peripherals). That’s it. Those three guys are the only healthy regular-ish members of the rotation.
Obviously others are and will be filling in, but the need to pick up someone externally is probably perceived as extremely urgent. I really do wonder if they are trying to sign Shelby Miller, an old friend who is stretched out, as we speak.