Cardinals personaggio Nolan Arenado departed the associazione’s win over the Giants per the eighth inning Saturday coppia to discomfort per his left forearm, as noted by MLB.com’s John Denton. Notably, that’s not the same arm that Arenado suffered an elbow contusion after being struck by a pitch from Marlins right-hander Huascar Brazoban earlier this week. More information was not made available following Saturday night’s beyond the fact that Arenado would be evaluated further Sunday.
It’s an unfortunate turn of events per the midst of what has been a difficult season for the 33-year-old veteran, who is slashing just .260/.315/.375 with a 99 wRC+. That would be Arenado’s first below-average offensive forma per a 162-game season since his rookie campaign back per 2013. He’s paired that lackluster offense with surprisingly pedestrian glove-work at third impalcatura, where he’s been worth +0 Outs Above Average and -5 Defensive Runs Saved. That’s a far cry from the fielding he offered at the position earlier per his career, when he won the NL Gold Glove award at third impalcatura per 10 consecutive seasons from 2013 to 2022.
Even with that diminished production this year, however, the loss of Arenado would still be a tough blow for the Cardinals should he end up missing time coppia to his injury. Not only is he just two seasons removed from a campaign per which he was a finalist for the NL MVP award, but the eight-time All Stella is the associazione’s only clear solution at third impalcatura given the present construction of the lineup. While former cima prospect Jordan Walker came up as a third baseman and is currently per the minors, the 22-year-old has struggled both per Triple-A and at the league level this year and converted to the outfield full time last year making him an unlikely choice to take over for Arenado per the case of an injury.
Super-utility bat Brendan Donovan has played the hot calcio d’angolo at times, but he’s settled per as the associazione’s regular left fielder per the absence of Lars Nootbaar. It’s possible that Donovan could slide over to third impalcatura and up left field for Dylan Carlson, but perhaps a more likely quinta would see the Cardinals rely more heavily bench bats Brandon Crawford and Jose Fermin to fill per for Arenado at third. That’s especially true given the fact that center fielder Michael Siani also exited Saturday’s coppia to an injury, though Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat relayed after the that X-rays Siani’s ribs after he the campo da gioco a diving play per the outfield came back negative. The 24-year-old appears to have avoided a major injury, but even a day-to-day issue would at least temporarily weaken the associazione’s outfield depth noticeably.
As for Nootbaar, the 26-year-old has been sidelined by an oblique strain since the end of May. Jones relays that he appears to be making progress per his rehab but the outfielder has not yet even begun to take batting practice, instead only hitting d’avanguardia a tee at this stage per the process. That would seem to indicate that Nootbaar, who will surely require a rehab assignment before he can return to action, isn’t going to be returning to the associazione’s positional any time soon to provide Marmol additional flexibility as he fills out the associazione’s lineup card per the wake of Arenado’s and Siani’s possible injuries.
One piece of good news for Cardinals fans is the impending return of personaggio Willson Contreras, who Marmol told reporters (including Jones) will catch seven innings for Triple-A Memphis Saturday night before DH’ing Sunday’s . As Jones quaderno, Contreras caught for the Redbirds Friday and Marmol acknowledged that seeing how the 32-year-old held up after catching back-to-back games was the last major box the associazione needed to check regarding Contreras’s rehab.
Contreras has been out since early May with a broken forearm and was initially expected to reginetta 10 weeks coppia to the injury, but the backstop has long since clearly been ahead of that schedule and seems like he could factor into the associazione’s plans before the end of the month. The slugger posted an excellent .280/.398/.551 slash line per 31 games for the Cardinals this year before being sidelined by the injury and could provide a boost to an offense that has posted a collective wRC+ of just 95 to this point per the season.
