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St. Louis Cardinals RP Seth Maness to Have Tommy John; Sam Tuivailala Recalled

By Patrick Karraker

Jun 29, 2016; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Seth Maness (43) throws during the twelfth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Busch Stadium. The Royals won the game 3-2 in 12 innings. Mandatory Credit: Billy Hurst-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 29, 2016; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Seth Maness (43) throws during the twelfth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Busch Stadium. The Royals won the game 3-2 in 12 innings. Mandatory Credit: Billy Hurst-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Cardinals have suffered yet another loss in the bullpen due to injury.

After announcing earlier on Tuesday that he’d been placed on the disabled list with a right elbow strain, the St. Louis Cardinals announced during the afternoon that relief pitcher Seth Maness will have Tommy John surgery this week to reconstruct his right elbow. Due to the timing of the surgery, it seems quite possible that Maness might not make his return until 2018, but at the earliest it will come late next season.

To replace Maness on the roster, the Cardinals recalled Sam Tuivailala, who has a 9.00 ERA and 1.33 WHIP in four major-league appearances this year. Tuivailala, who’s already been in the majors on two different occasions this year, is unscored upon over his last three big-league appearances, with all of the damage to his stat line having come from a disastrous 2016 debut that saw him give up three earned runs to the Milwaukee Brewers on July 3 while allowing two hits, hitting a batter, and failing to record an out.

Tuivailala has been rather ineffective this year at Triple-A Memphis, so it should be interesting to see how he does back in the bigs. In 10 appearances since the All-Star break, he has a 6.55 ERA, 1.82 WHIP, and .326 opponent batting average, so it’s safe to say that his stats haven’t really earned him a big-league spot right now. His high-90s velocity and status as a 40-man roster player, though, do aid his cause.

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Fortunately for the Cardinals, Maness hasn’t pitched in too many big situations recently, with Matt Bowman having taken over the role of “designated ground ball guy” in the Cards’ pen and Alex Reyes now being around to provide multiple innings in tight situations. Maness had improved significantly, throwing for a 0.68 ERA and 0.75 WHIP following the All-Star break after posting a 5.40 ERA and 1.75 WHIP before it. The Cardinals have enough internal options in place, though, that his loss shouldn’t be devastating.

With that said, the losses are beginning to build up for the Cardinals’ staff. While Maness’s DL stint due to elbow tightness and Kevin Siegrist’s two-week stint on the DL to fight mono were the only pitching injuries of the first half, the losses have been much more pronounced over the second half. Tyler Lyons, Trevor Rosenthal, and Michael Wacha have suffered significant injuries that threaten (or have completely wiped out, in the case of Lyons) their respective 2016 seasons. Young guys like Reyes, Tuivailala, and Luke Weaver are going to have to step up to keep the season alive.

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Interestingly, Maness’s injury could pave the way for the Cardinals to activate Lance Lynn from the 60-day DL in September if the righty’s accelerated comeback from Tommy John continues. Lynn threw 1 2/3 shutout innings in a rehab start for the High-A Palm Beach Cardinals on Monday, and since he’d likely be throwing out of the bullpen if he did return to the majors in 2016, he wouldn’t need to build up a ton of stamina over the next couple weeks. Though he’s on the 60-day DL, he could easily be swapped with Maness to create 40-man roster space.

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Reliever Jordan Walden and catcher Brayan Peña, both of whom are on the 60-day DL right now, will start rehabs this week and have a chance of returning in September, so they could also command 40-man spots if they ultimately do return. The Cardinals have two more pitchers, Wacha and Rosenthal, plus outfielder Matt Holliday, who could very well miss the rest of 2016, so 40-man roster semantics shouldn’t be an issue for the remainder of the season.

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