St. Louis Cardinals: Zach Duke Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

The St. Louis Cardinals traded for lefty specialist Zach Duke in the middle of the 2016 season. He was in their 2017 plans to compete, but he underwent Tommy John surgery last week.

The St. Louis Cardinals have dominated the NL Central for almost all of the last decade, winning the division five times since 2006 and three times in a row from 2013 to 2015. While other teams have come and gone during that time, like the 2007 and 2008 Cubs or the 2010 and 2012 Cincinnati Reds, no one has been able to stick around and give the Cardinals a true fight. With the emerging Cubs seemingly set up to do just that, the Cardinals must improve if they want to compete with the new-look Cubs.

The Cardinals did not make the postseason this year, something unfamiliar to most baseball fans. However, with most of their team intact and growing younger, heading into the 2017 season they seemed like a team that would bounce back to win more games than the year before. One of the most important things the Cardinals needed to keep together was their bullpen. The bullpen was neither incredible nor damning for St. Louis, but it was just middle-of-the-pack. They ranked 13th in ERA and 12th in FIP at the end of the season.

The addition of Zach Duke in July was a welcome one. In his 23.1 innings pitched with the Cardinals, Duke struck out 26.3 percent of batters he faced while posting a 1.29 WHIP and 2.85 FIP. He struck out batters while keeping balls in the yard, which was precisely what the Cardinals needed from their lefty specialist. Sustainable or not, he was going to be a vital part of the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen in 2017.

All of that changed last week when he underwent Tommy John surgery. In a report that took many fans by surprise, Duke had serious surgery last week causing him to miss the entire 2017 season.

Duke seemingly didn’t show any signs of being injured as the season wound down, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the injury wasn’t bothering him for a month or longer. That part remains a mystery for now. What is not a mystery is the large impact Duke’s absence will have on the Cardinals’ 2017 season. As Langosch mentions in her article, the Cardinals were planning to have Duke as a large part of their bullpen in 2017.

This will force the Cardinals to look outward for at least one pitcher to add to their bullpen group. In a market where great relievers come at a premium price, the Cardinals may have to alter all of their offseason plans. Improvement in the bullpen could force the Cardinals to push aside any improvement they were going to make elsewhere. For a team struggling to keep their roster competitive with the mighty Cubs, that could be detrimental to their season.

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These types of injuries seem to have a domino effect for teams. Perhaps it’s good for the St. Louis Cardinals that the injury news came long before roster decisions were being made for 2017. However, replacing Duke in the bullpen will be a tall task in an expensive reliever market. If it’s any consolation for the Cardinals, the player they traded for Zach Duke, Charlie Tilson, had his 2016 season end quickly in August by a torn hamstring, which led to surgery.