St. Louis Cardinals: Trouble could be brewing in the rotation

The St. Louis Cardinals may have a problem with their rotation.

It is too early to make determinations and write players off. It’s only a week into spring training. But the rotation as a whole has struggled early on, though those concerns were quieted with a strong recent start by ace Jack Flaherty. But when it comes to the rest of the rotation, there are question marks.

Miles Mikolas is not 100 percent healthy. Adam Wainwright is approaching 40. Kwang Hyun Kim is talented. But the No. 5 spot in the rotation was supposed to be an open competition between Alex Reyes and Carlos Martinez and the early signs, as Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes, seems to lean heavily in favor of Martinez even though that is not the obvious answer.

The tone from president of baseball operations John Mozeliak and manager Mike Shildt has been striking when discussing Martinez and Reyes. Of the two, Reyes has performed better – at least early on – while Martinez has struggled to translate his offseason success from the Dominican Republic.

It is early, and perhaps the Cardinals change their tone/thinking, but if they want to maximize their chances of competing in the National League, they should consider starting Reyes. Forget that Martinez is making $12.5 million this season. Reyes is 26, a former top prospect and clearly determined to win a spot in the rotation, telling Frederickson: “I would love to start.”

Maybe it doesn’t happen right away. Maybe it takes a few strong starts for the Cardinals to seriously consider him as an option in the rotation. But their hesitation to discuss Reyes as an option to start games this season has been one of the most baffling developments to come from Jupiter, Fla. this spring.