Pitching depth issues for the Cardinals echo the desperation of last season — but worse

By the time the St. Louis Cardinals inked free agent lefty Wade LeBlanc last June 17, what had begun as a shortage of innings had already bloomed into a full-blown drought.

In their discernment, the Cardinals had two important criteria LeBlanc needed to meet — was he available to pitch right then, immediately, and was he able to get to Atlanta within a number of hours.

He was, and he was, and he pitched the same day he signed. Then he pitched the next day — three innings’ worth — and 11 days later was in the starting rotation.

Manager Oliver Marmol doesn’t believe these Cardinals have yet reached that level of desperation, but by some measures, they’re already even further behind.

Miles Mikolas was unable to break camp with the club in 2021, just as Jack Flaherty was unable to do in 2022. The 2021 version of Flaherty, though, lasted until May 31 and made 11 starts before going down with an oblique injury. Steven Matz, this year’s comparable, was yanked four pitches into his start on May 22, and has pitched only nine times.

Carlos Martínez held out last season until July 4, and despite his underwhelming results, made 16 starts, four of which were shorter than five innings. Jordan Hicks has made seven starts, six of which were shorter than five innings — and the one remaining was precisely five.

“We have more depth, if necessary, than we did,” Marmol said from his Busch Stadium office Monday when asked to draw a comparison between the two situations, in the wake of Jake Woodford’s demotion to Triple-A Memphis.

“We have a doubleheader coming up (Saturday). We understand that we’re going to need innings. Do you keep Woody? Do you not? Who do you lose?”

More about Woodford demotion, Naughton called up

Left unsaid is who the Cardinals have left to add. Woodford was demoted to create a roster spot for Packy Naughton, pressed into a short, spot start in the Majors after Hicks was placed on the injured list with inflammation in the flexor tendon of his twice-surgically-repaired right arm.

Usage has demanded that each of Junior Fernández, Angel Rondón, and Jake Walsh have been cycled up and down from the minors, and top prospect Matt Liberatore was added to the 40-man roster and is now a rotation fixture.

By rule, pitchers optioned to the minors — with exceptions including replacing an injured player or as the 27th man in a doubleheader — must remain on that option for a minimum of 15 days. The coverage conga leaves Walsh as the pitcher closest to an eligible return, but his date doesn’t arrive until June 5.

Marmol happened to know that date precisely without reaching for reference material; a giveaway, certainly, the moving pieces are on his mind. There are only two pitchers currently on the 40-man roster who are eligible for a non-injury recall — Freddy Pacheco, closing at Double-A Springfield, and Johan Oviedo, who was thrust into an unfair position for which he was not ready in 2020 and 2021 and who has struggled to a 5.58 ERA and 4.1 walks per nine innings in the minors thus far this season.

Under normal circumstances, Naughton would have been recalled with a clearer understanding of whether he would be making a quick u-turn to Memphis or extending his stay in the Majors. As he left the stadium Monday, he had no indication of which team’s clubhouse he would next be entering.

‘He absolutely should be disappointed’

Woodford became the first, or at least the most obvious, exception to the rule Marmol laid out May 2, when veteran Aaron Brooks was designated for assignment as the team trimmed down to 26 players.

“What message does it send to the clubhouse if performance doesn’t outweigh having options,” Marmol asked reporters rhetorically that day. “If you put out, you stay. If you don’t, you go.”

Woodford, Monday, heard a very different tune.

“He absolutely should be disappointed,” Marmol said of the demotion. “He’s outperformed several guys that are still on the team, and that’s clear, and they know it.”

Relievers TJ McFarland and Nick Wittgren are surely among that group, and each was used heavily over the weekend, taking them off the board for early this week.

Woodford also threw against Milwaukee, tossing three relief innings in Saturday’s blowout win. Had the Cardinals been able to trust others to cover those, Woodford would have been in line to start Monday, regardless of whether the club has sincere concerns about the underlying data around his breaking pitches.

Keuchel may join club soon

Instead, he was pressed into service, and then sent out.

LeBlanc retired this winter. So too did Jon Lester, who was added at the trade deadline at the same time as JA Happ, who announced his own retirement this week. Cheap lefty innings for hire have been of interest to the Cardinals, so the recently-designated for assignment Dallas Keuchel may well surface in the visitors’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field this weekend.

If he doesn’t, it’s unclear who will have a spot. It’s fruitless, at the moment, to ask the Cardinals. They truly don’t know.