St. Louis Cardinals hurler Wainwright suffers injury, out indefinitely to start season

The threat of injury is the Sword of Damocles that hangs over every day of spring training, every year. Who can enjoy their fun in the sun when catastrophe lurks so ominously?

The Cardinals were within a week of escaping. They did not get away clean.

Manager Oliver Marmol informed reporters at the team’s complex in Jupiter, Florida, on Thursday morning Adam Wainwright would be placed on the injured list to start the season with a strained groin suffered in the weight room just before the final of the World Baseball Classic. Wainwright, per Marmol, is expected to miss “several weeks.”

Reliever Wilking Rodríguez will also start the season on the injured list with soreness in his right, throwing shoulder. As a Rule 5 selection from the New York Yankees, Rodríguez is required by rule to spend the entirety of this season on either the active roster or the injured list, and so his placement allows the team to delay for an indefinite period a final decision about how he fits into the bullpen picture.

Wainwright’s absence creates an opening in the rotation that’s set to be filled by Jake Woodford. After displaying a sharper slider and carrying over his consistent success to spring action, Woodford was in position to make the team as a long reliever. Now, the 2015 first round draft pick will add to his ten career big league starts.

He was a part of the team’s rotation at the end of the 2021 season as they secured a playoff berth by ripping off a franchise record 17-game winning streak. Woodford was the winning pitcher of record in one of those games, and allowed just four earned runs in 14 1/3 innings spread across three starts in that period.

For his career as a starter, Woodford has a 3.77 ERA in the majors and a 4.61 ERA in 56 games (55 starts) in a run-happy environment at Triple-A Memphis.

Wainwright was also scheduled to take the ball for the Cardinals on opening day, a fitting cap to his career in what will be his 18th and final season. The team has yet to announce a replacement, but Team USA teammate Miles Mikolas pitched behind Wainwright in the semifinals of the WBC and is on the proper work schedule to receive that assignment.

The ripples deeper down the roster also provide some clarity to the most intriguing roster battle left ahead of opening day – that among the left-handed relievers. That group should also be said to include righty Andre Pallante, who bedeviled lefties in his rookie season. Pallante’s spot is now seemingly secure, in part because he’s the most obvious option to provide the bullpen length that would otherwise have been assigned to Woodford.

High octane Zack Thompson has established himself as the club’s top option from the left side, seemingly winnowing down the race for one spot to Génesis Cabrera, Packy Naughton, Andrew Suárez and Jojo Romero. Anthony Misiewicz, acquired in a minor trade just before the start of camp, was optioned to Memphis Thursday morning, removing one contender from the pool.

Closer look at the options

Each of the other four has obvious points in his favor. Cabrera has perhaps the longest track record of big league success and the longest history with the organization. Naughton was effective last season in a variety of roles, and the club selected him for the postseason roster last fall. That decision, a mild surprise at the time, is a fair read on the favor of the relevant decision makers.

Suárez showed mixed results as both a starter and reliever for the San Francisco Giants before spending a year each in professional leagues in Japan and Korea. He’s perhaps the most seasoned of the bunch and the Cardinals have previously had success in signing pitchers from Asian professional leagues, though he would require a 40-man roster spot.

A team official confirmed Suárez, like many other veterans returning from overseas, does have an opt-out clause in his contract that would allow him to become a free agent if he’s not promoted to the Majors by June 1. That gives the Cardinals additional time to evaluate him, but could eventually be a relevant variable.

Romero, acquired last summer in exchange for Edmundo Sosa, has been out of camp and pitching in limited duty for Team Mexico in their run to the WBC semifinals. As with Cabrera, who pitched for the Dominican Republic, a lack of time in front of team evaluators and a dip in his work rate could prove to be challenges to overcome in terms of making the roster.

Doubling down

Assuming no further injuries occur (knock on wood), the short term impact of Wainwright being sidelined may be most felt in the loss of a chance for fans in St. Louis to provide him with a proper salute to open a summer of sending him off. Woodford is an adequate replacement, and redundancy built into pitching is at the core of organizations across the league.

Still, the Cardinals pointedly did not aggressively pursue starting pitching depth on the free agent or trade markets this winter. Their bet then, as it is now, was that their existing depth was sufficient to stretch through the inevitable innings deficits which have already begun to reveal themselves.

Now, taking a hit, they have no choice but to double down.