The St. Louis Cardinals acquired reliever Keynan Middleton during the offseason to shore up their bullpen. Unfortunately for the team, their new edition hasn’t appeared in a game yet this season. The pitcher has been sidelined since early March due to a right flexor tendon strain.
However, that could be changing very soon. The pitcher threw off a mound for the first time on Friday and looks poised to make his Cardinals debut soon, according to a report from MLB.com‘s John Denton.
“Cardinals reliever Keynan Middleton (right flexor tendon strain) will throw off a mound today for the first time since he was shut down on March 3,” Denton wrote. “He will need a few of those sessions before beginning a Minor League rehab assignment later this month.”
The Cardinals Should Be Seeing Him Soon
Originally, the club believed that Middleton might be ready near the start of the season. Redbirds manager Oliver Marmol commented on his pitcher’s injury at the time, and he expressed that the club was being cautious with the injury.
“This will obviously set him back several weeks,” Marmol said originally. “He kept feeling tightness. We tried to progress him, but he just continued to feel it, so we went ahead and shut him down.”
“He was doing a nice job,” the St. Louis skipper added. “His changeup is a really good pitch. He was showing extremely well. He’s a guy that we have a lot of confidence in. Honestly, we’re very optimistic about what came back because it could have been a lot worse.”
After throwing on Friday, it’s widely expected that Middleton will begin his rehabilitation assignment early next week.
Middleton Was An Important Addition for the ‘Birds
The 30-year-old righthander signed with the team on a one-year, $6 million contract after splitting his 2023 season with the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees. He posted a 3.38 ERA, and a 1.24 WHIP in 50.2 innings last year.
The Cards pursued pitching heavily in the offseason after finishing 71-91 and finishing last in the National League Central a year ago. Much of that was due to a lack of quality arms; their staff posted a 4.79 team ERA in 2023.
The St. Louis bullpen blew 28 saves in 2023. While Ryan Helsey has established himself as the closer, Keynan Middleton has also finished out games in his MLB career.
“Acquiring additional proven depth for our bullpen was something we have been focused on,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak stated at the time of the signing. “Keynan’s experience in getting outs in the back half of games offers us another strong addition to the bullpen mix.”
Along with Middleton, St. Louis also added veteran starting pitchers Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn, and Kyle Gibson – adding them to holdovers Miles Mikolas and lefty Steven Matz. However, both Gray and Matz have already battled injuries early in the season.
Notable position players Tommy Edman, Dylan Carlson, and Lars Nootbaar have also been out of action already, as well. So Marmol has been forced to juggle both his lineup and his rotation frequently.
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