Tyler O’Neill is back on the injured list as the club put him on a 10-day IL due to a stretch in his left thigh before tonight’s race with Brewers. Lars Nootbaar Triple-A was recalled from Memphis to take up a position on the active list as a utility Brendan Donovan was played on the left side of the game tonight.
The team did not provide a timetable for O’Neill’s recovery. This is the last season that has been very disappointing for a sluggish pitcher. He lost a few weeks in May, fighting a better shoulder blow, and even when healthy he was not as productive as expected. The 26-year-old (27 on Wednesday) has 185 performances in the season with a slash .241 / .292 / .361 with only four home runs. It’s on the heels of a 34-day campaign, and O’Neill had a pretty staggering drop in the quality of the ball hit (barrel speed, hard contact rate, etc.) to keep up with the lower results.
In O’Neill’s absence, Donovan moves to the left quite regularly. The newcomer to the left is 0.315 / .424 / .434 through 170 recordings. This relatively quiet excellence has brought him a place in the usual stroke order, although manager Oli Marmol has had to confuse Donovan with a diamond. Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman, Tommy Edman and Nolan Arenado acts as the primary internal field.
Notary bar and right hitting Juan Yepez probably also cycling through the corner court and the assigned batsman. veteran Corey Dickerson was awarded a one-year contract during the off-season to play a similar role, but has been out for a few weeks due to leg strain. Derrick Goold St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Dickerson continued to feel uncomfortable after rehab in Memphis last Thursday, so he went out of play for a few days. Hopefully he can resume rehabilitation treatment as soon as tomorrow.
I would join Dickerson Jordan Hickswho will start his rehab there tomorrow (reports Katie Woo Athleticust). For the past three weeks, Hicks has missed a throw with his forearm stretched – the latest edition for a thrower who underwent Tommy John’s surgery in 2019 and who missed his elbow two months later last season. It is a welcome development that Hicks will return to the hill in a relatively short time.
Woo adds that the club intends to take Hicks out of the yard. The flamethrower’s right wing worked exclusively as a relief during the first seasons of his high league career, spending part of the season in the near future of 2018–2019. He took a surprising start this year and interrupted the start of the season, making his first seven starts in the big league (nine outings) before the IL landed.
However, Hicks had a rough performance in this role, 5.02 ERA to 28 2/3 innings. He has hit a decent 23% of opponents when he has hit more than half of the balls he has hit, but he has also had significant difficulty with hits. Hicks walked almost 16% of the hackers and it looks like he’s going to take the club back to his more familiar assisting role.
That might suggest Andre Pallante there are tickets for longer viewing in rotation. The new team’s right wing opened the season in Bullden, but he has started three of his last four appearances. Pallante, who started in college and the sub-leagues, won the 5 2/3 innings against the Red Sox yesterday, suggesting that Cards is happy to turn the lineup at least twice on the way out.
The rest of the starting lineup has been established, together Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas, Dakota Hudson and Adam Wainwright forming a strong performer. Off – season contractor Steven Matz has a shoulder injury in IL, but Pallante appears to be in # 5 role. Former first round selection Zack Thompson is also on the active list and has been working with Memphis this season, but it seems that the club currently sees him as a first aid option at the Premier League level. Marmol noted this afternoon that Thompson could see more leveraged work (via John Denton of MLB.com).
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