St. Louis Cardinals Place Trevor Rosenthal on DL, Recall Dean Kiekhefer
The Cardinals are finally taking measures to try to fix Trevor Rosenthal.
The St. Louis Cardinals made the third adjustment to their pitching staff in three days on Tuesday afternoon, placing righthanded reliever Trevor Rosenthal on the 15-day disabled list with right shoulder inflammation.
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Lefty Dean Kiekehefer was recalled from Triple-A Memphis for the third time this season and the second time in the past week, and righty
Sam Tuivailalawas also recalled to serve as the Cardinals’ 26th man during the second game of tonight’s doubleheader with the New York Mets.
Rosenthal, who the Cardinals previously had said was healthy, will finally get some time off in what has been a trying season. He was removed from the closer role in late June after blowing his fourth save of the season, and while he’s now had three straight scoreless outings, he’s still experiencing issues with control. On Sunday night, after getting out of the sixth inning unscathed, Rosenthal came back for the seventh and walked three straight batters, forcing Mike Matheny to go to Matt Bowman and likely sealing his fate in terms of dealing with his apparent ailment.
It’s worth noting that Rosenthal does still have minor league options remaining and can be sent down without his consent, so there’s no reason for the Cardinals to place Rosenthal on the DL with a fake injury (other than to preserve his pride). We’ll see if Rosenthal gets a rehab stint to work things out and makes his way back to the bigs in late August or September, but it might make the most sense just to shut him down for the rest of the season and get him fixed for 2017.
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Kiekhefer, who was recalled for last week’s doubleheader but didn’t pitch, will become the third lefty in the Cardinals’ pen. While he has a 5.73 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, and .267 opponent batting average in 11 innings this year, Kiekhefer has a much more impressive 0.79 WHIP in 24 plate appearances against lefty hitters.
Kiekhefer might not stick around too long, as the Cardinals could subtract a reliever–either Kiekhefer or Jerome Williams–to make room for a position player soon, since Brandon Moss and Matt Carpenter are scheduled to return from the DL within the next week or two.
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The Cardinals will also have Tuivailala around for Game 2 of tonight’s doubleheader. MLB permits a 26th man for doubleheaders, but the extra player can participate in both games only if they’re scheduled 48 hours in advance. Since today’s doubleheader was scheduled to make up Monday’s rainout, Tuivailala will only be eligible for the nightcap. In three appearances, Tuivailala has a 13.50 ERA, 2.00 WHIP, and .333 opponent batting average. With that said, much of the damage came from a disastrous first outing where allowed three earned runs while failing to record an out. Since then, he’s had two straight scoreless outings.