St. Louis Cardinals rotation may suddenly have a big problem

It didn’t take too many days into the St. Louis Cardinals spring training workouts for a team with big aspirations in 2022 to suddenly have a potentially big question mark in its rotation.

According to a tweet from St. Louis Cardinals beat writer Derrick S. Goold, Cardinals starting pitcher Jack Flaherty “missed Day 2 of camp and went for further medical evaluation on his right shoulder.” It is a concern as Flaherty missed time during the 2021 season with a right shoulder strain. He left his start on August 24 with the strain against the Detroit Tigers and did not return to the mound until September 24. From then until the end of the season, Flaherty threw just 2.1 innings in three outings.

What could Jack Flaherty’s potential injury mean for the St. Louis Cardinals rotation?

Of course, as of the time of this writing, there are still plenty of unknowns about the severity of any issues with the 26-year-old’s shoulder. However, should Flaherty be forced to miss any time, it would put a dent in a St. Louis rotation that was projected to include him in the middle, likely sandwiched between Adam Wainwright and Steven Matz in the front and Miles Mikolas and Dakota Hudson in the back.

There are some options that St. Louis could potentially include in the rotation. However, all of them carry their own question marks as well. Could St. Louis make a quick move to bring in a free agent starting pitcher? If so, few quality options remain on the market after what has been a signing frenzy since the MLB lockout ended. However, Johnny Cueto and Zack Greinke are still, as of now, available should the Cardinals choose to go that route.

When he was healthy last season, Flaherty was a strength for St. Louis, going 9-2 with a 3.22 ERA and 1.060 WHIP. Since making his debut for the Cardinals in September of 2017, the former 34th overall pick in the 2014 MLB draft has posted a career 3.34 ERA in 487.1 innings of work.

While there is still much to learn about what comes next for Flaherty and his shoulder, this is a situation worth watching for St. Louis Cardinals fans as the Cardinals creep ever closer to an April 7 Opening Day matchup against the Pittsburgh Pirates.