The St. Louis Cardinals should overcome Wade LeBlanc’s injury

The St Louis Cardinals have not had a healthy rotation all season. When it was finally close to doing so, the rotation once again fell apart.

The St. Louis Cardinals thought they were days away from getting a healthy starting rotation with Jack Flaherty finally returning off the injured list. Then Kwang Hyun Kim was placed on the IL with an elbow issue. Then left-hander Wade LeBlanc, who was brought in midseason to aid the rotation, left Thursday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates with an elbow injury.

A day later, the Cardinals placed LeBlanc on the 10-day IL, depleting a rotation that they had only just grown increasingly confident about internally.

LeBlanc, 37, has pitched very well for the Cardinals in recent outings, not allowing more than three runs in each of his last five appearances. He had been pitching his best in recent weeks, allowing only three runs in his last 11.2 innings, but struggled against the Pirates by allowing three runs in two innings before departing with the elbow problem. On the season, he has a 3.61 ERA in 42.1 innings and a 23/16 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Replacing LeBlanc, however, should be relatively easy for the Cardinals. They have J.A. Happ and Jon Lester in the organization and Happ has been very good since coming over from the Minnesota Twins, posting a 2.45 ERA in his first two starts, though there is external pessimism that he maintains it considering his age (38) and his 6.77 ERA in 19 starts before the trade deadline deal.

Both Happ and Lester are left-handed, which helps the Cardinals maintain good balance in the rotation with both left and right-handed pitchers. But the team should also get Miles Mikolas back in the next week or two and his presence should provide another boost, especially as the Cardinals look to gain ground in the National League Central with 48 games to go.

Losing LeBlanc does make that task a little bit tougher, which underscores the dire state the rotation has been in for the entire season. But with Happ and Lester on the roster, and Mikolas not too far away from returning, the Cardinals’ rotation shouldn’t be impacted too much.