JUPITER, Fla. — Hello from The Bind.
The Cardinals’ most-talented starting pitcher presumably won’t making the opening day roster — and their most talented replacement option also won’t make the opening day roster.
The Birds on the bat are in a bind. Just a terrible place to be, even if it is sunny here.
Right now, the Cards’ healthy rotation is Adam Wainwright, Dakota Hudson, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz and an open fifth spot. So even if rising star Hudson pitches a Jack Flaherty-type season, that would replace the injured Flaherty — but then who replaces Hudson?
Definitive news about Flaherty (shoulder) should likely be revealed Friday, and we already know Alex Reyes (shoulder) won’t be on the opening day roster. And that’s pretty frustrating, especially considering the role the lockout played.
See, the Cardinals and their players weren’t allowed to communicate during the league-implemented work stoppage. So the team couldn’t analyze the injuries to its prized right arms. Weeks went by. Months went by. A winter went by, and the Cards still didn’t know their guys were hurting. In the end, even if the lockout didn’t cancel any games, seems there were still negative effects from it.
So what should the Cardinals do?
Admittedly, I’m a guy who often says “Buy! Buy! Buy!” when it comes to needed offense. And the Cardinals actually did that on Thursday, nabbing lefty-swinging, .815-career-OPS-having Corey Dickerson. He’s not Kyle Schwarber. But he is an offensive upgrade from Lars Nootbaar. Though when it comes to needed starting pitching, the market just isn’t enticing enough right now for St. Louis to splurge.
The Cards are stuck in a bind, stuck with what they’ve got. That isn’t necessarily the worst thing. And it’s a lesser of two evils, compared with uninspiring names on the free agent market such as Michael Pineda, Tyler Anderson and Johnny Cueto, who you’d have to assume, after the infamous brawl, will never be employed by the St. Louis Cardinals (time does heal wounds but not sure about career-ending concussions, like Cueto gave catcher Jason LaRue). Our old pal J.A. Happ is available, and the lefty pitch admirably, if not remarkably for the Cards last season.
But as of now, the Cardinals best bets are — sigh — the remaining Cardinals.
“I think last year,” Hudson said, “with the (starters) that were up and down for a little bit, you got to see a taste of what they could do — and now they have the experience to step in. Obviously Flaherty is going to do what he needs to do to get back, and he'll be just fine (as a pitcher) whenever he does get back. But you’ve got a lot of talented arms in this building. And they're going to get an opportunity to see what they can do.”
I am intrigued by Jake Woodford. Like fellow tall righties Flaherty and Hudson, Woodford was a first-round pick (2015 out of a Tampa-area high school). Last season, Woodford tallied a 3.99 ERA (Hey, he was in the “threes!”). More importantly, he finished strong. He started five games in September and October, and his ERA was 3.09 in those, while his FIP dipped dramatically, dropping to 3.21 compared with 4.50 for the season.
“I’ve seen a ton of growth with ‘Woody,’” said manager Oliver Marmol, who will fill out his first Cards lineup card Friday in the spring opener against Houston. “This is a guy we've had in our organization for a while now, and we've been able to see him develop and mature in in a lot of areas — not only his pitch arsenal but his overall demeanor and confidence. And he just carries himself differently today than he did a year ago. And that's going to help him.
"He's way more competitive. He's experienced some failure. He's been kicked around a little bit, and now he's ready to take the ball and do something for us.”
For a lot of other teams, a guy with Woodford’s résumé would resume the next season as a starter. But for the Cardinals, he wasn’t originally in the rotation. Still isn’t — he'll have to earn it in a shortened spring, which means each inning is magnified. Woodford’s locker isn’t even on the established big-leaguer side of the spring training clubhouse. His locker is located near that of Johan Oviedo, another talented hurler who, alas, just walks guys too often. Righties Drew VerHagen and Aaron Brooks will get looks. As will, of course, top pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore, who bedazzles like a jacket on Liberace.
It is possible that the front office makes a move for a fifth starter. Nootbaar is more expendable now, for instance. The Oakland A’s have a couple of hurlers who could be traded, but neither come off as that entrancing.
And as for Flaherty, we’ll soon get clarity.
“Fingers crossed that it’s something that you overcome really quickly and we can have him back,” Cardinals All-Star Nolan Arenado said. “But at the end of the day, at some point last year, we played without him. And we did have a hard time there for a bit. But we also got it going — and we’ve got some guys we think that learned and know they can overcome certain things.
“But yeah, ideally, we need Jack. We need him back. But if we don't, we’ve got to find a way to keep fighting.”
