St. Louis Cardinals Aledmys Diaz to the DL is Bad News

Jul 8, 2016; Milwaukee, WI, USA; St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Aledmys Diaz (36) avoids a pitch during the fifth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 8, 2016; Milwaukee, WI, USA; St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Aledmys Diaz (36) avoids a pitch during the fifth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /
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The St. Louis Cardinals got really bad news as Aledmys Diaz is headed to the DL with a fractured thumb.

The St. Louis Cardinals are starting to feel the full wrath of the injury bug and it is happening to the wrong players. According to Jenifer Langosch on twitter, Aledmys Diaz has a hairline fracture in his thumb and according to Derrick Goold per John Mozeliak he could “miss significant time” and has been placed on the 15-day DL.

While this news is at least coming right before the return of Matt Carpenter and Jhonny Peralta, this is the last bit of news the Cardinals needed to hear. We found out yesterday that Diaz was removed from the game after being hit with an Andrew Cashner fastball on the hand.

My hope was this wasn’t going to be much of anything, but all of our fears of Aledmys Diaz being seriously have come to fruition. Diaz has absolutely been a bright spot for the Cardinals, he was the lone Cardinals’ player to make the All-Star Game as he was added when Matt Carpenter went down with his injury. 

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In 96 games so far, Diaz has hit .312/.376/.518 and has 42 extra base-hits (14 homers, 25 doubles, and 3 triples), while posting a 137 wRC+ and a 2.5 fWAR. He has garnered serious “Rookie of the Year” considerations in the NL alongside the Dodgers’ Corey Seager and has been one of the bright spots of not just the St. Louis Cardinals’ season but all of MLB as well.

So, to say that this is not good for the Cardinals right now is saying it lightly. While it will be nice to get Peralta back to fill in for Diaz, it would have been nice to have all of Carpenter, Diaz, and Peralta healthy for the stretch run as the Cardinals attempt to either catch up to the Chicago Cubs or take control of one of the two Wild Card spots.

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As we have seen with Peralta and Yadier Molina, thumb injuries are nothing to mess with. Not only that, but we saw hand injuries all but ruin David Freese here in St. Louis, so it is not good to see a young player with so much promise deal with such a tough injury. Hopefully, he is able to heal quickly and get back by the end of the month and give this team a nice boost.

With this injury, I’d expect the St. Louis Cardinals to keep Greg Garcia on the active roster, and send down Jeremy Hazelbaker (who has no business being on this team) when Brandon Moss and Peralta are activated tomorrow.

Next: Is it time to extend Aledmys Diaz

For those of you saying that this means John Mozeliak should have made a move to bolster the offense in advance of Diaz going on the DL, he still made the right move of only acquiring Zach Duke.