St. Louis Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright left spring training earlier this week to be examined by doctors regarding pain in his abdomen. It was deemed a minor strain and now Wainwright's spring debut will be delayed, which puts his status for Opening Night against the Chicago Cubs in jeopardy.
Cardinals' manager Mike Matheny said depending on Wainwright's injury situation (strained abdomen and recovery from minor elbow surgery) he would consider pushing back the right-hander's season debut. Wainwright will avoid running and lifting weights over the next couple of days to avoid aggravating his strain, but he'll continue throwing because it doesn't cause any discomfort.
"From what I've been told, in four or five days, I can start mixing and matching things that I would normally do slowly until I'm back to 100 percent in a matter of just two weeks," Wainwright said, via Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com. "I can continue to build arm strength off the mound and face hitters and all that stuff. And when I'm ready to move laterally and get stuff going, that should be a quick, easy thing. Right now, I can go out there and throw live BP, just don't field my position. I'm fine with that."
Although this is good news, it's still not promising because the Cardinals could face a delayed debut from Wainwright and they're also dealing with a recovering Michael Wacha, who suffered a stress reaction in his throwing shoulder and missed over two months last season. The scary part about Wacha's injury is that doctors don't know what caused it and are unsure of its long-term effects, so he's pretty much winging it this offseason in hopes of being ready for the beginning of the year.
With two enormous and largely unsolved issues in their starting rotation, is general manager John Mozeliak preparing to make a trade?
Without Wainwright and Wacha, the Cardinals still have some promising arms, including Lance Lynn and Carlos Martinez to go along with veteran John Lackey, but if they are lacking a healthy ace as well as continuity at the top of their starting rotation, they're going to have trouble keeping up in the competitive NL Central.
"Outside of the Red Sox, [Jon] Heyman [of CBS Sports] posits that the Cardinals are a team that would seem to fit [for Phillies' starter Cliff Lee] since they weren't all that aggressive in adding pitching and they'd be almost local for the Little Rock, Ark. Resident," writes Zach Links of MLBTradeRumors.com.
However, the Cardinals, as well as other teams, would like to see if Lee can stay healthy throughout the spring since he's recovering from a flexor pronator strain in his left elbow. He was limited to 13 starts last season but has been progressing ahead of schedule this offseason.
The only thing we know at this point is that St. Louis was working on acquiring Phillies' starter Cole Hamels, but don't want to give up Martinez in a potential deal, which is who Philadelphia wants. Reports surrounding Lee are nonexistent, so everything at this point is pure speculation.
But we can only wonder, because it would be a great risk if the Cardinals dive into the 2015 season with such uncertainties surrounding two of their top pitchers.
