ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The 2024 MLB regular season is a two weeks away from Thursday and for the St. Louis Cardinals, they could head into their season-opening series against the Los Angeles Dodgers considerably short-handed with injuries on multiple fronts.
In the outfield, presumptive center fielder Tommy Edman is still ways away from being ready, with an injured list stint to begin the season seen as likely, while left fielder Lars Nootbaar is dealing two non-displaced fractures in his ribcage, with his status for Opening Day still unknown.
Along that, Cardinals presumptive Opening Day starter Sonny Gray is dealing with mild hamstring injury that puts his Opening Day status in doubt, but Gray recently had 20-pitch bullpen session Monday, throwing his normal velocity for the session and is expected to throw a longer session as early as Wednesday or Thursday.
St. Louis Post Dispatch Cardinals beat writer Lynn Worthy joined Tom Ackerman to discuss the Cardinals outfield and Gray's bullpen. On the Gray end, Worthy says that Gray didn't look like he was injured and seemed more healthier than you would think.
"To me, it looked like a perfectly healthy guy throwing a bullpen," said Worthy. "You had no indication anything was wrong, he didn't have to stop or was holding back."
Gray told reporters like Worthy his last pitch reached up to 92 mph Tuesday where in a normal bullpen session it would be 88-90 mph. Along that Gray said that in conversations with pitching coach Dusty Blake, it wasn't one where questions were asked by Blake how he was feeling, it was more conversations of how the ball was coming out his hand and how the pitches felt.
Worthy says in talking with Gray, there was a sense of being cautiously optimistic that he could pitch on March 28 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"Talking with him afterwards, it seems like he was optimistic," said Worthy. "I think he was trying to be cautiously optimistic. He didn't want to say too much and get too far ahead of himself, but it also seemed that he didn't take off the table that maybe he gets back in time for the start of the season."
When it comes to the outfield, Worthy thinks that there are a lot of options for the Cardinals when it comes to temporarily replacing Edman and potentially, Nootbaar in center field and left field.
"You could definitely see multiple guys fit into center field, whether that is Dylan Carlson, Victor Scott II," said Worthy. "You have options in left too, with Alec Burleson who would be the first name who comes to mind. He's done a lot of work in the offseason, like cutting some weight."
Worthy also list out utility player Brendan Donovan as a potential option in left field and listed Carlson also as a left field candidate on days where he isn't in center.
"There's different mixing and matching that could go on there and they haven't necessarily committed to one way or the other," said Worthy. "At some point you will get Nootbaar and Edman back, so how do you manipulate 'what are we going to do in the short term versus what our long term plan is.'"
