ST. LOUIS (KMOX) -St. Louis Cardinals starter Sonny Gray has "mild" hamstring strain, leaving his status for Opening Day in question Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak announced Tuesday.
Gray left Monday's Spring Training start against the Washington Nationals with what was originally described as right hamstring tightness.
Gray in his second Spring Training start with the Cardinals, was originally scheduled to appear in Monday's game for three innings.
Gray got through the first five batters with relative ease, allowing only a single, but creating three groundouts, including one for a double play in the first inning and striking out Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz.
Gray left the game near the end of the second inning in middle of 1-1 count against Nationals outfielder Nick Senzel, with Gray leaving after a visit from Cardinals manager Oli Marmol, pitching coach Dusty Blake and a trainer. Kyle Leahy would replace him, eventually striking out Senzel. Catcher Willson Contreras called out the trainers to the field.
Mozeliak spoke to reporters Tuesday and while he refused to give an exact timetable of how long Gray could be out, he was encouraged by the MRI results, calling them "encouraging."
"Obviously, it's been less than 24 hours and we're going to see how he responds over the next few days, but the MRI results were encouraging," said Mozeliak. "Fingers crossed that this isn't going to be something that lingers too long."
Gray was in good spirits when he spoke to reporters Tuesday about the injury saying that he felt his hamstring grab a bit after the pitch to Senzel but felt his strength and range of motion was still great.
'We went and got an MRI last night and that came back good," said Gray. "Nothing major concerning, just a little hamstring tweak on the right side and it is what it is."
Gray has had history with hamstring injuries, with Gray missing some time in the beginning of the 2022 season with the Minnesota Twins with the same injury. Gray was out of action for around two weeks and was able to go on a rehab start in the beginning of May.
Mozeliak says that the hamstring injury was less severe than the one he suffered with the Twins back in 2022.
"This is something that is going to slow him down, but we don't think it's going to be something that goes deep into the season," said Mozeliak.
Gray says that the injury isn't overly concerning from his end or the team's end and won't think he gets completely shut down.
"It's not a thing where I get completely shut down. I won't throw (Tuesday and Wednesday) and then we'll see after that...it's not overly concerning from my end, on the trainers or doctors end, and that's the good thing, but there's a small little strain in there as well so that's kind of where we're at right now."
Gray joined the Cardinals on a three-year deal worth $75 million, and was the Cardinals most prolific signing on the starting pitching front last offseason.
Gray was set up to be the Cardinals No.1 starter in 2024, with Cardinals manager Oli Marmol naming Gray the Cardinals Opening Day starter before Gray's first Spring Training start.
Mozeliak did put Gray's status for Opening Day in question and thinks it could be challenging for him to start in Los Angeles on March 28.
Gray beginning the season on the injured would be a very huge blow for the Cardinals rotation. If Gray does start the season on the injured list, it leaves two holes: who is going to start Opening Day and who would replace Gray in the rotation for the time being?
Looking at the Cardinals rotation right now, Miles Mikolas would seemingly step up to be the Cardinals Opening Day starter against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Meanwhile candidates to replace Gray in the rotation would likely come internally first, with the likes of Zack Thompson, Matthew Liberatore, and Drew Rom seemingly in that conversation at the moment.
Adam Kloffenstein, Gordon Graceffo, Sem Robberse, and Michael McGreevy also serve as additional depth starter pieces in the Cardinals system in 2024, but all will likely to start the season in Triple-A Memphis and it would take a massive injury crisis in the rotation for them to be in legitimate consideration to begin 2024.
Externally, starters Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery are still available, but reportedly, the Cardinals have not reached out to both players agent Scott Boras, according to Derrick Goold. With the Cardinals competitive balance tax set to be a little over $215 million and the Cardinals have publicly denied willingness to go past the first threshold at 237 million, it makes it highly unlikely Cardinals go after either.