As expected, the Cardinals announced Tuesday afternoon they have placed righthander Jordan Hicks on the 10-day injured list with right elbow inflammation, retroactive to Sunday. That made room on the roster for righthander Johan Oviedo, who was to have started Tuesday night against New York.
But that start was postponed until Wednesday when the Cardinals have a 4:15 p.m. doubleheader at Busch Stadium--two seven-inning games--as a result of Tuesday's game being postponed because threatening weather.
The Mets probably still won't have star righthander Jacob deGrom, who was scratched with right side tightness. deGrom, two-time Cy Young Award winner, has an 0.51 earned average and 59 strikeouts in 35 innings but only a 2-2 record.
Cardinals cleanup man Nolan Arenado who has started all 29 games so far, would have been out of the lineup. He is only two for 20 against deGrom but manager Mike Shildt has been trying to rest all his regulars during this stretch of 17 games in 17 days. Tommy Edman is the only player left who has started every game.
Hicks, who came out of a game on Saturday night in Pittsburgh with right arm tightness, had worked 10 innings in 10 games, striking out 10 and walking 10 in his first competition since 2019 when he underwent Tommy John elbow surgery.
No new surgical procedures have been planned for Hicks, but president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said that Hicks could be out a minimum of four weeks. The next step in the process, Mozeliak said, is to secure a second medical opinion and, after that, options might be stem cell injection, a platelet-rich plasma injection or just rest.
"That hasn't been determined completely," said Mozeliak. "We'll let the other doctors weigh in and then, ultimately, we'll have an idea what this will look like in terms of timing and what will need to be done in the training room.
"Obviously, it's not great news but, hopefully, it's something that can be managed and, fingers crossed, he can join our team at some point this summer."
Mozeliak added that he didn't think "surgery is on the table at all. We haven't got a second opinion yet and things could change, but I doubt it.
"But with any of those procedures I just mentioned, it would probably require a minimum of four weeks, so that would take us into the summer season."
Hicks was working his way back to being the Cardinals' closer, as he was in 2019. That job belongs to Alex Reyes, who has eight saves in eight tries, plus one victory, and is unscored on in 14 1/3 innings over 14 games.
Oviedo will be making his third appearance this season. The 6-foot-5, 255-pound rookie has fanned 11 in 9 2/3 innings, allowing just five hits and three runs. His last appearance came in a start this past Wednesday against Philadelphia when he struck out seven over five innings and allowed just three hits.
