St. Louis Cardinals RHP Jordan Walden Out for Season
It’s safe to say that very few people who follow the St. Louis Cardinals closely were expecting relief pitcher Jordan Walden to contribute to the team again during the 2015 season. But on Sunday, general manager John Mozeliak put a stop to the hopes of anyone who still did, as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Derrick Goold reported:
Walden out for the remainder of season. And without surgery he has a rigorous rehab to attempt return, says Mozeliak #cardinals
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) September 6, 2015
Walden was initially sidelined in early May with a strained shoulder muscle. At that time, his timetable for return was 6-10 weeks, or roughly until the All-Star break. However, Walden struggled to regain strength in the shoulder, and after going on a brief rehab assignment–two games at Double-A Springfield on July 23 and 26, then two at Triple-A Memphis on July 29 and 31–he was sent back to the Cardinals’ facility in Jupiter, Florida to work on his conditioning. He never re-emerged from that point on, and now his future with the Cardinals looks to be in doubt.
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The 27-year-old Walden, who was given a two-year, $6 million-dollar deal with a $5.25 million club option for 2017, may be facing serious shoulder surgery, which could knock him out for at least part of 2016 depending on the timing. If it’s a rotator cuff operation (he was said to have sustained damage to both his biceps and rotator cuff), it’s certainly possible that the Cardinals could ultimately end up paying Walden $500,000 per appearance over the duration of his contract. He pitched 12 times in 2015 for the club, throwing 10.1 innings while striking out 12, walking four, and holding hitters to a .189 average. He also picked up one save on April 19.
The Cardinals had been operating with the assumption that they weren’t getting Walden back for at least the past month or so, but now that it’s official, they’ll be relying on guys like Steve Cishek, Jonathan Broxton, Carlos Villanueva, and potentially Matt Belisle to provide padding in the bullpen behind key cogs Trevor Rosenthal, Kevin Siegrist, and Seth Maness.