St. Louis Cardinals' Injury Update: Aledmys Diaz Nearing Return

The St. Louis Cardinals may be starting to get healthy at the right time, and the players returning from injury may be a key to the team’s success in the remaining days of the regular season.

The St. Louis Cardinals started the season off relatively healthy. They didn’t have to worry about recovering from injuries for the most part. There was the typical wait for Tommy Pham to become healthy but that has unfortunately become a normal part of life for Pham.

However, when the injury bug started to bite, it bit hard. There have been several influential members of this St. Louis Cardinals team wind up on the disabled list at some point or another in the second half. As any Cardinal fan would be, I have been curious on what updates there are on the existing injured players.

Wonder no more, as today we take a look at what updates there are on the players currently on the disabled list.

Diaz getting close

Aledmys Diaz was perhaps the greatest thing to happen to the St. Louis Cardinals this season and just like that he was taken away from them. An Andrew Cashner fastball that strayed too far inside nailed Diaz on the hand, resulting in a fracture.

My assumption was, “Oh he’ll be fine, we can’t possibly lose Diaz,” I was wrong and dead wrong at that. Diaz hasn’t been able to do much other than enjoy the benefits of becoming a father for the first time since the injury.

However, Derrick Goold told us on last Wednesday that Diaz has begun “aggressive baseball activities” down at the St. Louis Cardinals’ training facilities in Florida. Fox Sports Midwest’s reporter Jim Hayes mentioned on Monday that Diaz would be facing live pitching very soon if not already.

Now, Goold is telling us that he is going to be starting in a couple of AA playoff games with the Springfield Cardinals as a tune-up for his return to the majors which could be as early as this weekend.

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This is huge news for the Cardinals. Getting a healthy Diaz back just before the playoffs will be a key to this team’s success. While Jedd Gyorko, Randal Grichuk, and Brandon Moss have been carrying this team offensively, Diaz adds a level of consistency that those players really cannot offer.

Leake healing up

Unfortunately, it seems as if Mike Leake is healing up his bout with Shingles. This is quite surprising, as it would appear that this is something that would last a bit longer than it has. Goold mentions that Leake will be returning to the rotation on Wednesday and Alex Reyes will return to the bullpen.

I am sure that Leake is looking forward to the relief from the Shingles. However, I’m not so sure I want him returning to the rotation as he has been as inconsistent as the weather in St. Louis this summer.

However, getting Leake back would likely shore up the bullpen as Alex Reyes would slide back into a bullpen role where he was very effective before.

Rosenthal close

Derrick Goold also mentioned today that Trevor Rosenthal is close to being ready to make his comeback as he threw a 40 pitch bullpen yesterday in Pittsburgh. Goold mentioned that if all goes well, we could possibly see him back in the bullpen by the end of the month.

If this happens and Rosenthal is indeed healthy, this could be a big addition to the St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen as we move towards a possible playoff run.

Healing up at the right time

With all of these players healing up, it is almost as if this team is starting to get healthy at the right time. We may start to see quite the infield shuffle once Aledmys Diaz gets up as Jhonny Peralta really hasn’t been himself this season and Jedd Gyorko continues to tear the cover off of the ball.

With Kolten Wong starting to look better, the bench of this team is starting to look mighty formidable and could be part of a potential long playoff run. No matter what this team needs to put the pedal to the metal as they only have one game separating them and the New York Mets for the final Wild Card spot.

However, with there only being one-half of a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants, maybe my dream of not having San Francisco in the playoffs is closer than I realized.

Next: Adam Wainwright being who we need him to be

Getting Aledmys Diaz back is going to be the biggest boost to this team and possibly the one thing that will cement themselves in a Wild Card spot. Let’s hope this team plays well with the strong boost he will give them

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St. Louis Cardinals’ Injury Update: Aledmys Diaz Nearing Return