It was far from a banner weekend for the St. Louis Cardinals as they opened their second half with a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds.
St. Louis lost two out of three to the Reds and it was also discovered that their two best players, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, are unvaccinated and will be unavailable for their brief two-game series in Toronto.
On top of that, Steven Matz suffered a knee injury in his first start back from the injured list, and yesterday it was discovered that the left-hander had a torn MCL, putting his season in jeopardy.
Katie Woo of The Athletic delivered the grim news late on Sunday.
Cards Lose Matz…Again
This is not good for the Cardinals.
Just when it looked like their rotation was going to get a little bit healthier, they suffered yet another setback.
Fortunately, Dakota Hudson will be returning for the Cards’ three-game weekend series against the Washington Nationals, but that doesn’t help a whole lot.
Now, Matz may be out for the rest of the season.
He’ll meet with team doctors today in St. Louis to determine whether surgery is necessary.
Regardless, it’s yet another huge blow for the Cards.
With the trade deadline just over a week away, we can expect that the Cardinals will be adding some starting pitching to bolster its faltering rotation.
Perhaps somebody like Chad Kuhl or Noah Syndergaard could help patch the holes in the rotation.
With Matz out for an extended period of time in addition to Jack Flaherty being out until late August, the Cardinals are likely going to need to add two starters before the August 2 deadline.
We’ll see what the next week brings for the Cards.
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