What is the St. Louis Cardinals plan for Michael Wacha?

With Michael Wacha back from being shut down earlier this season, what do the St. Louis Cardinals have in plan for him?

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After making two starts since coming back to the rotation, it seems as if the Cardinals have limited Wacha’s innings. He pitched in a side session on Sunday.

“We have a few options here,” Mike Matheny said according to an MLB.com article. “He starts soon. He starts later. He relieves soon. He relieves later. Or he doesn’t pitch at all. But things are going in a direction to where I imagine he’ll be pitching sooner rather than later. Just like everybody else, I’d like to see Michael out there on the mound. I’d like to see him starting. But we’re going to make sure with this kid. We’re going to make sure everything is right before we do that.”

Wacha has had issues with his change-up pitch since returning.

“We have a guy who we’re making sure is right,” Matheny said. “We don’t have anywhere to send him to go pitch [now that the Minor League seasons are over], so we have to get the work in somehow while also monitoring how much, while also keeping eyes on how he’s responding, how his arm is holding up. It’s a unique injury. We don’t have a lot of protocol for that, so we don’t know a lot about what that looks like. So the answer is this is something we’re trying to feel our way through to protect this kid, but also if we can, we have to take our best shot.”

I trust that the Cardinals will do the right thing with Wacha. He proved how valuable he is to the Cardinals with his performance during the 2013 postseason.