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Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras underwent surgical procedure to stabilize the fracture in his forearm on Wednesday. Supervisor Oli Marmol tells the Cardinals beat that the surgical procedure went as anticipated, and Contreras will miss round 10 weeks. He’s hopeful of returning shortly earlier than the All-Star break (by way of John Denton of MLB.com and Katie Woo of The Athletic on X). Contreras suffered the fracture this week when Mets designated hitter J.D. Martinez struck his left forearm throughout a swing.
Subtracting Contreras from an already struggling Cardinals lineup is a intestine punch. Veteran stars Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado have each underperformed this season (the previous, specifically), whereas accidents have stored Tommy Edman off the sphere completely and restricted Lars Nootbaar’s time on the sphere (and arguably his productiveness as effectively).
The Playing cards are batting simply .217/.296/.339 as a crew. They rank twenty ninth within the majors in house runs (27), twenty ninth in runs (127), twenty eighth in batting common, twenty seventh in on-base proportion and are tied with the Marlins for twenty seventh in slugging proportion. As longtime Cardinals reporter and St. Louis radio host Bernie Miklasz points out on X, the trio of Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman and Dylan Carlson have astonishingly mixed to go 0-for-48 for the reason that calendar flipped to Could.
Had been it not for an eye-popping begin to the season from Contreras, these crew totals and rankings could be far worse. He’s been far and away the crew’s greatest hitter, batting .280/.398/.551 with six homers in 128 plate appearances. Contreras’ six homers lead the membership, and he’s additionally pacing the crew in doubles (11), walks (18) and wRC+ (171).
In his absence, the Cardinals will flip catching duties over to the tandem of Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages. Herrera has lengthy been a touted catching prospect who appeared prepared for an audition as an enormous league common, however between iron man Yadier Molina and the crew’s signing of Contreras, that chance hadn’t offered itself — till now. The 23-year-old is out to a sluggish begin in 76 plate appearances this yr, hitting simply .232/.276/.377. Nonetheless, he slashed .297/.409/.351 in 13 video games with the Playing cards final yr and posted an enormous .297/.451/.500 line (147 wRC+) in 83 Triple-A contests (375 plate appearances).
Pages made his huge league debut this month. He’s appeared in six video games however has simply eight plate appearances and has but to log his first main league hit. The 2019 sixth-round choose is taken into account a glove-first catching prospect however did submit a top quality .267/.362/.443 slash line (142 wRC+) in 497 Double-A plate appearances final season. He was 4-for-18 with a homer and two doubles in Triple-A previous to his name to the large leagues.
The 15-22 Cardinals have misplaced 5 straight video games and eight of their final ten. Their -41 run differential ranks twenty fifth within the majors and twelfth within the Nationwide League.
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