The St. Louis Cardinals are turning within to give their pitching staff a boost by promoting not only one, but two top prospects to the majors.
The St. Louis Cardinals only acquired Zach Duke at the trade deadline, but are about to make two very big additions from the minor league system because of a very big injury to Michael Wacha.
Seismic day for #cardinals. Forced to consider Wacha's longterm role, risk of workload on shoulder and welcome Reyes, Weaver to majors. #MLB
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) August 9, 2016
Wacha was placed on the 15-day DL with shoulder inflammation. He has a similar issue to what he had two seasons ago where he missed time and it may effect his status as a starter moving forward.
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The two arms being called up are two of the top prospects in the game.
Alex Reyes is MLB Pipeline’s #9 prospect overall. Reyes was suspended the first 50 games of the season due to marijuana usage, but came back and has had some dominant strikeout numbers in AAA. Overall, he’s 2-3 with a 4.96 ERA, but he has 93 strikeouts in just 63.2 innings. He’s a guy they can have go multiple frames out of the bullpen in order to stretch his arm out on any given night.
Reyes made his debut last night out of the bullpen with the Cardinals down 7-4 in the ninth. He worked a scoreless frame, striking out the first batter he faced in Cincinnati All-Star Adam Duvall. Reyes got pinch-hitter Tony Renda and Ivan De Jesus to ground out for the next two outs.
Luke Weaver is #93 overall on the same list and has had an outstanding year. He’s made one AAA start where he pitched six shutout innings. At AA, he went 6-3 with a 1.40 ERA and averaged over a strikeout per inning. He doesn’t throw as hard as Reyes, but still impressive nonetheless. Weaver is expected to start Saturday’s game in Chicago against the Cubs.
I’m sure the Cardinals didn’t want to be in this position with Wacha, Trevor Rosenthal and Tyler Lyons all out, and possibly for the season. The best case would maybe be September and out of the bullpen for both and not necesarily now in the pennant race.
Next: Glyber Torres scouting report
I expect the Cardinals to try and get an arm on the waiver wire, but sometimes the best move is going from within.