Already fighting to stay in playoff contention, the St. Louis Cardinals are once again preparing to be without starting catcher Willson Contreras for the foreseeable future.
Contreras suffered a fractured middle finger in his right hand after being hit by a pitch by Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Pablo López on Saturday. Contreras, who was the designated hitter, left the game immediately and underwent X-rays at Target Field, which revealed the fracture. He will be placed on the 10-day Injured List on Sunday, manager Oli Marmol said in a phone call. Iván Herrera will replace Contreras on the active roster and is expected to meet the team in Minnesota ahead of Sunday’s series finale. As of Saturday night, there was no estimated timetable for Contreras’ recovery.
The Cardinals lost Saturday’s game 6-0.
The injury is a brutal development for Contreras, who already missed seven weeks in the first half of the season after fracturing his left arm in May. It’s also certainly not ideal for St. Louis, as Contreras has been one of their most productive players on both sides of the ball this year. His 15 homers and .849 OPS has helped stabilize an offense that has severely underperformed, and his work with the team’s pitching staff has been commended all year.
Now the Cardinals will again turn to two rookie backstops to lead the way behind the plate. Marmol has not yet decided how the playing time will shake out between Herrera and Pedro Pagés, who has filled in admirably as the team’s reserve catcher for the majority of the season. Pagés is the stronger defensive option, but the Cardinals may be enticed to start Herrera semi-regularly in an effort to boost the offense. Herrera was hitting .279 with a .718 OPS in the majors before he landed on the Injured List with back tightness in mid-June. St. Louis optioned Herrera to Triple-A when he recovered, as Contreras had returned from his arm injury, and there was no need for the team to roster three catchers.
Either way, Contreras’ injury is bleak. The Cardinals (64-65) are 11 games out of the National League Central and six games out of the final wild-card spot. The team already shook up their active roster twice earlier in the week, optioning Jordan Walker to Memphis and releasing Brandon Crawford on Monday before sending Nolan Gorman down to the minors on Tuesday.
If they are going to make any sort of a run in September, they need a lot of things to go right. Being without their starting catcher for any amount of time definitely does not bode well.
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(Photo: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)
