St. Louis Cardinals: Luke Weaver Placed on 7-Day Disabled List
Luke Weaver has hit the disabled list at Triple-A Memphis.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ starting pitching depth continues to crumble during the early going. After serving as the Opening Night starter for the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds, 23-year-old righthander Luke Weaver has hit the 7-day disabled list.
Weaver is ranked as the Cardinals’ No. 3 prospect overall and their second-best pitching prospect by MLB Pipeline. With the organization’s top prospect, fireballing righty Alex Reyes, out for the season due to Tommy John surgery, Weaver was the Cardinals’ top healthy pitching prospect heading into this season. Though his numbers (5.60 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, .311 opponent batting average) might not show it, Weaver had plenty of bright spots during his first big-league season in 2016, posting a 3.48 ERA over his first six starts before burning out near the end of the season.
Weaver was removed after two innings of his start Thursday night, which marked the first action of 2017 for both Weaver and the Redbirds.
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The Redbirds haven’t elaborated on what his injury is, other than to say that it appears to be a hand or wrist injury.
Weaver’s injury is just the latest negative development for a group of Cardinals starting pitchers that was expected to be very deep heading into 2017. In addition to Reyes’s injury, the Cardinals are currently without John Gant, who was expected to begin the season in Memphis’s rotation but is currently on the big-league DL with a groin strain, and lefty Marco Gonzales, who is still making his way back from Tommy John surgery last year and isn’t expected to appear in a minor-league game until May.
If a Cardinals starting pitcher were to suffer an injury in the coming weeks, there’s no telling who the next man up could be. Perhaps they could turn to Mike Mayers, the only healthy minor-league starter on the 40-man roster, but the 25-year-old righty posted a 27.00 ERA and 3.56 WHIP in four major-league appearances last season, and he didn’t exactly get off to a great start in his first start at Memphis this season, as he’ll go into his next outing with a WHIP of 2.20.
Next: Cardinals to Activate Trevor Rosenthal, Option Sam Tuivailala
It’s possible that the Cardinals could turn to lefty Tyler Lyons, who worked exclusively as a reliever during 2016 but was stretched out during a rehab start for Memphis on Friday night, or Trevor Rosenthal, who will come off the disabled list on Monday and has been getting stretched out all spring.