Cardinals epic streak of keeping starters healthy ends as Andre Pallante hits IL with concerning injury

In a surprise piece of news today, the St. Louis Cardinals have placed right-handed starter Andre Pallante on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation. Quinn Mathews will start on Saturday, while Ryan Fernandez will replace Pallante's roster spot for Friday's game. It is unclear who the Cardinals will make the corresponding move to bring up Mathews this weekend.

The Cardinals have deservedly received a ton of praise over the last few years for keeping starting pitchers healthy, and the fact that Pallante is the first Major League starter to hit the injured list on August 21st is extremely impressive. Still, Pallante has been a huge part of the Cardinals rotation this year, and if they are going to make a push for the playoffs, they'll need him to return as soon as possible.

Even before news of Pallante's injury went public, there were already issues complicating the Cardinals rotation for the rest of the season, and now those questions become even more difficult to answer over the coming weeks, especially if Pallante has to miss more time than the Cardinals are hoping he will.

Andre Pallante's injury further complicates the Cardinals current rotation outlook

Kyle Leahy, who has arguably been the Cardinals' best starter this year, is going to be limited in the number of innings he can throw moving forward in his first year transitioning back to starting, so the Cardinals were already working on ways to either piggyback his starts or skip some outings in the near future.

Matthew Liberatore has been one of the worst-qualified starters in baseball this year, and while he's coming off two solid starts, there were certainly questions about whether or not the Cardinals could keep him in the rotation and still compete. Now it is very hard to imagine a scenario where they move him to the bullpen.

On the bright side, it sure is nice that the Cardinals have Mathews in their back pocket to bring up to St. Louis right now, and they do have a number of other young arms who could factor into their bullpen mix, including Brycen Mautz, Cade Winquest, and Hancel Rincon. The real wild card here is Cooper Hjerpe, who has been excellent starting games for Memphis since arriving in Triple-A and is already on the Cardinals' 40-man roster, though he couldn't go deep into games as he continues to build up after returning from Tommy John surgery. Hjerpe could become a spot starter like Mathews has been, or be a factor out of the Cardinals' bullpen.

The Cardinals have strung five straight series together coming out of the trade deadline and face a critical weekend series against the Philadelphia Phillies, who are not far ahead of them in the current National League Wild Card race. Depending on how the Cardinals fare this series, they could emerge as real contenders down the stretch, or the Phillies could put their hopes of a Cinderella run to October to bed before those hopes really get too high.

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