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Cardinals fans received some excellent news recently as injured catcher told reporters (including ) yesterday that hes been cleared to resume baseball activity after a CT scan revealed good news regarding his surgically-repaired forearm. Contreras has already caught a bullpen for right-hander and today he resumed hitting. Contreras indicated that he hopes to return to big league action by the end of the month, telling reporters that it wont be July when he returns. Its an incredibly impre sive turnaround for Contreras, who was to mi s ten weeks of action after a swing of the bat from collided with his forearm back in May. Instead, he was cleared to resume baseball activities just one month to the day after sustaining the injury, and appears to be ramping up fairly quickly. A return before the end of June would place Contrerass return at just six or seven weeks after the injury, though manager Oli Marmol pumped the brakes on talk of a quick return in conversation with reporters (including those at ). Marmol noted that the club will monitor how Contreras progre ses over the coming weeks and lean on the teams medical staff as they determine a more specific timeline for his return. Whenever Contreras ultimately returns, he figures to be a huge a set to the Cardinals. The 32-year-old slugger was slashing an incredible .280/.398/.551 with a 171 wRC+ in 128 trips to the plate at the time of his injury and stood out as the hitter leading a scuffling Cardinals team that fell to a 15-21 record on the day of Contrerass injury. While their catcher has been on the mend, St. Louis has surged back towards .500 and now sports a 30-33 record that places them just one game back of the final NL Wild Card spot. If St. Louis can manage to hang around the Wild Card race over the next few weeks and Contreras picks up where he left off upon his return, the catcher could help to further transform their offense as they look to establish themselves as contenders ahead of the July 30 trade deadline. Contreras isnt the only player progre sing towards a return for the Cardinals this month, as veteran southpaw is scheduled to make his second rehab start on Tuesday at the Double-A level as he works his way back from a lower back strain that sidelined him at the end of April. As noted by , Matz is slated to throw 40 pitches during his next rehab start, meaning that there still figures to be Graham Pauley Jersey quite a ways to go until he returns to the big league club. The Cardinals are reportedly planning on stretching Matz out into the 75-80 pitch range before he comes off the IL and steps back into the clubs big league rotation, a goal that will likely keep him on the shelf until sometime near the end of the month if he continues building up at his current pace. In Matzs absence, the Cardinals have not been able to settle on a fifth starter to fill the void behind , , , and . The club has used both right-hander Andre Pallante and lefty to follow up that quartet in the weeks since Matz was placed on the shelf, but the duo has combined for a 7.11 ERA acro s five starts in Matzs absence. Those struggles have led Marmol to be non-committal regarding who will take the ball when the fifth spot in the rotation is due up tomorrow against the Rockies, though notes that Marmol has noted the starter will be chosen from options already on the roster, indicating that they wont look toward other alternatives beyond Pallante or Liberatore just yet. Right-handers and are already on the clubs 40-man roster and could theoretically be options to fill out the clubs rotation should St. Louis eventually decide to make a change, but the pair have ERAs of 4.46 and 4.50 respectively at the Triple-A level this year with no big league experience. Cardinals fans are surely hopeful that theyll see right-hander , the clubs top prospect who has dominated the Double-A level during his age-21 season this year, impact the big league team at some point this year. Fans hoping to see Hence in St. Louis this season were dealt a scare earlier this week when he was was pulled from his most recent Double-A start after just two innings. Fortunately, MLB.com notes that Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak told reporters that Hences removal was due to cramping rather than any sort of serious i sue and that he should be ready to make his next start for the Double-A Springfield Cardinals. Through 11 starts this year, Hence has pitched to a 3.19 ERA with a 2.82 FIP in 53 2/3 innings of work while striking out a fantastic 32.4% of batters faced. It would hardly be a surprise to see those numbers earn Hence a promotion to Triple-A in the near future; after all, St. Louis promoted him from High-A to Double-A after eleven similarly excellent starts last year. Paul Campbell Jersey
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发表于 2025-11-13 18:36:36