Cardinals suffer blow to pitching depth as exciting young arm hits the injured list

As the St. Louis Cardinals rotation continues to struggle through the early parts of the 2026 season, one of their "next men up" in Triple-A Memphis will no longer be available for the foreseeable future. Hard-throwing right-hander Richard Fitts, whom the Cardinals acquired in the Sonny Gray trade this offseason, just hit the minor league injured list with a lat strain.

Fitts had a really intriguing spring training that saw him fight for an Opening Day rotation spot, and despite missing out on that honor, seemed to be first or second in line for an opportunity once one opened up.

In his three starts for Memphis this year, Fitts posted a 1.76 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 15.1 innings of work. While he was not going to be a savior for the Cardinals' rotation, he certainly could have been an effective option to turn to if an injury occurred or some of their Major League arms continued to struggle.

Richard Fitts injury means all eyes are on Hunter Dobbins as Cardinals' next man up

With Fitts on the injured list, all eyes are now on Hunter Dobbins as the next in line for an opportunity in St. Louis, and that could come rather quickly. Dobbins has been on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Memphis to start the year, posting a 3.48 ERA with 10 strikeouts in 10.1 innings of work. Once his rehab assignment clock is done at the end of this month, the Cardinals will have to decide if they want to fit him into the rotation or option him to Memphis officially.

Through 15 games this season, the Cardinals' rotation ranks 23rd in ERA (4.92), 22nd in innings (75 IP), 25th in WHIP (1.45), 30th in batting average allowed (.279), and 27th in FIP (4.74). Even when they've had some solid outings in the box score from some of their starters, it's often been accompanied by bad underlying data that seems to indicate that the success is not sustainable.

The hope is that some of those arms can turn things around soon, as we saw from Dustin May in his last start, where he looked so much better than he had prior to facing Boston, but at some point, the Cardinals may need to shift the deck in their rotation in order to see what other arms can do. Dobbins looks the part right now, and since they haven't used an option on him yet due to him being on a rehab assignment, that tells me they see a scenario where he joins the rotation.

Hopefully, Fitts time on the injured list is rather short, as he's an arm that St. Louis will be eager to see as the year goes on. But for now, he's going to be sidelined, and that puts more pressure on the Cardinals' current ground, Dobbins, and other arms to step up.