photo: Jack Flaherty (Jeff Curry/Imagn)
St. Louis Cardinals press release
The St. Louis Cardinals announced this afternoon (Friday, August 13) that they have placed left-handed pitcher Wade LeBlanc (left elbow) on the 10-day Injured List, and activated right-handed pitcher Jack Flaherty (left oblique strain) from the 60-day Injured List.
LeBlanc, 37, who celebrated his birthday last Saturday, exited Thursday afternoon’s game in Pittsburgh after pitching two innings. The southpaw has made eight starts and 12 appearances all-together for the Cardinals in 2021, posting an 0-2 record with a 3.61 ERA compiling 42.1 innings.
Flaherty, 25, is returning off the 60-day Injured List with a left oblique strain suffered during a start at Los Angeles on May 31. The Cardinals hurler was 8-1 with a 2.90 ERA in 11 starts when he went on the Injured List and was leading all National League pitchers in wins at the time.
Since July 27, Flaherty has made three rehab starts between Memphis (AAA) and Springfield (AA) and increased his pitch count to 75 in his most recent start at Springfield on August 6 vs. Tulsa.
Flaherty is scheduled to start tonight’s game in Kansas City.
Brian Walton’s take
The preceding was expected, with only open question for the day being the nature of the 40-man roster move to clear space for Flaherty’s activation. It turns out the Cardinals moved pitcher Johan Quezada from Springfield’s 7-day injured lists to the 60-day IL on Wednesday.
The 6-foot-9 Quezada suffered a lat strain this spring and upon his recovery, had been moved down to Springfield. He was working out of the Double-A pen before becoming one of the club’s six COVID IL moves this week.
By placing a 40-man roster player with COVID to the 60-day IL, an organization can reuse the roster spot in the immediate time frame. The player can return whenever he is deemed healthy enough to do so – but would reclaim his 40-man spot at that time, requiring another move, and so on…
For more
To track the status of the Cardinals’ 40-man roster as well as all players in the system by position and level, check out the Roster Matrix, always free and updated here at The Cardinal Nation. Also included is every player transaction across the full organization all year long.
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