St. Louis Cardinals: Is Michael Wacha’s Future in the Bullpen?
By Jason Evans
Michael Wacha was activated off of the 15-day DL yesterday. Is his future with the St. Louis Cardinals out of the bullpen?
The St. Louis Cardinals follow the philosophy that Brad Pitt as Billy Beane talked about in Moneyball – “adapt or die.” The Cardinals have done a whole lot of adapting this season dealing with injuries. They adapted when players like Albert Pujols left in free agency and haven’t missed a beat.
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The Cards got one of their injured players back yesterday when Michael Wacha was activated as a reliever. There just isn’t enough time left for him to go out on a rehab assignment, so Wacha will give the Cardinals another arm out of the bullpen as they fight for a Wild Card berth.
The question is, though, could Wacha’s future be as a reliever?
Wacha has been shut down twice in his career with shoulder issues. In 2014, it was dubbed a shoulder stress reaction. He had a similar injury this season.
Wacha came up in 2013, but the right-hander missed time in two out of the last three seasons with shoulder issues and has gone over 180 innings just one time. Trevor Rosenthal came up as a starter but was converted to a reliever and until going through injury issues himself this year was one of the best in the game.
The Cardinals do have top prospects Luke Weaver and Alex Reyes in the majors and in the rotation. They still have Adam Wainwright, Carlos Martinez and Mike Leake as well, especially moving forward in 2017.
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It makes sense to give Wacha one more chance as a starter. A starter is more valuable than a reliever. Maybe a different offseason program will help strengthen his shoulder? Maybe start him a little later during Spring Training? There are things that the team can do to protect him a little bit more. If it doesn’t go well, then it’s time to move him to the bullpen, but for 2017 they should give him another shot.