Opening day is less than a month away. As clubs prepare for the upcoming season, injuries will occur. Unfortunately, the injury bug has struck the St. Louis Cardinals’ camp in Jupiter, Florida. According to reports on Sunday, the team will be without relief pitcher Zack Thompson for at least the next 3-4 weeks. The injury is a tear in the left side lat muscle, according to Cardinals beat writer Derrick Goold on X (previously Twitter).
“Zack Thompson has a tear in his lat muscle on the left side,” Goold wrote on Twitter. “Will be away from throwing for 3-4 weeks, then reevaluated, says #stlcards.”
While the Cards have enough depth to handle this loss for the time being, it will still hurt. Thompson is a former first-round choice who has developed into one of manager Oli Marmol’s most reliable bullpen guns. It will now be up to players like Gordon Graceffo, John King, and others to fill the void in front of closer Ryan Helsley. For a team that is now transitioning from one competitive phase to another, losing a great bullpen arm like Thompson will make the start of the 2019 season even more difficult. Can St. Louis overcome this setback and get off to a quick start?
Cardinals bullpen takes big blow as Opening Day approaches
Even though St. Louis is going through some substantial organizational changes this season, the aim remains the same: make the playoffs and challenge for a World Series title. Although this current Cardinals club would have a difficult time achieving that goal, Marmol and his team would undoubtedly attempt. As Chaim Bloom, the Cardinals’ new director of baseball operations, continues to put his stamp on one of baseball’s most famous organizations, one thing is certain: further change will be required to return the team to October glory.
Nonetheless, losing Thompson for a few weeks is a difficult pill to swallow. This season, the Cards will most certainly face a lot of low-scoring games, so having an experienced arm like Thompson will be extremely beneficial. However, as the team enters its next phase, allowing young arms like Graceffo and Matthew Liberatore the opportunity to expand their wings may be precisely what the doctor ordered. For a team as legendary as the Cardinals, postseason victory seems never far away. Maybe that success will start again in 2025.
