St. Louis Cardinals: Who’s next to be injured?

2016 Pitchers

In the previous slide, I examined the position players who landed on the disabled list in 2015.  These players filled spots one through four of the ten players on the team who appeared on the DL in 2015.  If you are good at math, this means that six (yes, 6!) pitchers on the Cardinals were injury-prone in 2015.

Adam Wainwright

In 2015, the 33-year-old Wainwright started the season in strong fashion but suffered the (projected) season-ending Achilles injury early in the season.  This injury actually landed him on the DL for a total of 159 days.  Wainwright was determined to return in 2015, and did.  His start to 2016 seems strong, but should fans worry about a weak leg?

Jaime Garcia

Like Pham before him, Garcia is a player who fans could label as “oft-injured”, and with good reason.  Jaime spent 84 days on the disabled list in 2015 due to both groin and arm injuries.  Arm injuries for a pitcher are terrifying and provide reason for concern for 2016.  Is Jaime next on the injured bus?

Jordan Walden

Walden, out of the bullpen, found himself on the DL for a total of 160 days (essentially the entire season), thanks to an arm injury.  There are plenty of signs here at the start of 2016 to indicated that Walden seems to be healthy. But again, with pitchers, any arm injury frightens the medical staff and makes fans wonder if continued health is in question.

Mike Leake

While Leake wasn’t yet a Cardinal, he did land on the DL in 2015 and is included in the headcount of the 10 injured last season.  Leake spent 20 days on the DL due to a hamstring injury.  Pitchers require strong leg muscles to power their pitches and fans should wonder about this health moving forward.  In his favor, however, is the brief length of his DL stay and his lack of major DL visits in his career.  But is he next to suffer a surprise injury?

Lance Lynn

It almost doesn’t feel fair to include Lynn on this list since we all know that he is already out this season thanks to the need for Tommy John surgery.  Just a quick note about 2015. We all know that Lynn had many small injuries but- in keeping with this review- Lynn landed on the DL for a total of 18 days due to arm injuries that might have been early indicators of the injury that has eliminated him from the 2016 season.

Carlos Martinez

While Carlos is a stud (even found himself in hot water thanks to his stud-like behaviors on Twitter), he found himself on the DL in 2015 for a total six days due to a nagging shoulder. He was lost for the playoffs thanks to shoulder issues. Will this recur in 2016?

Pitchers are prone to injury due to the torque and stress placed on their bodies to accomplish the feat of chucking a small white ball.  With the loss of Lynn already for 2016, will other pitchers fall?  With the Cardinals’ history of spring training injuries to pitchers, should we expect one of the pitchers listed here to be next to board the injury bus?  Stick around for the next slide to get my prediction.

Next: Prediction