The St. Louis Cardinals are down another Matt.
On Tuesday in St. Louis, the Cardinals announced the following roster moves via the club's official Twitter account:
- Righthanded reliever Matt Belisle was placed on the disabled list with "right elbow inflammation."
- Righthanded reliever Jordan Walden was transferred from the 15-day to the 60-day DL.
- Righthanded reliever Marcus Hatley's contract was purchased from Triple-A Memphis.
Belisle
Belisle's health had been a hallmark of his big-league value. The righty had made 60 or more appearances in six of the 12 years has been a major-leaguer, including each of the last five seasons (2010-14). In 2012, Belisle led the league with 80 relief appearances.
This is not to say that Belisle has been completely free of any issues regarding his money-making right arm. The Baseball Prospectus injury tracker is no longer being updated unfortunately, but its historical data is still good. Belisle experienced forearm tightness in 2008 before requiring ACL surgery on his leg. In February 2009, Belisle missed time during spring training with a forearm strain." A year later during spring camp, he experienced "forearm tightness."
Right elbow inflammation is ominous sounding and it remains to be seen how long Belisle will be out of action.
Hatley
The Chicago Cubs selected Hatley in the 39th round of the 2006 MLB Draft. He is not a prospect and never has been. Now Hatley is in his age-27 season and not very good. He joined the Cardinals sometime before this year, though I'm not sure how. The only reason to call him is his shiny 2015 ERA over 31 1/3 Memphis innings that is propped up by a low BABIP and high strand rate that mask blah strikeout and walk rate combination. The following chart contains Hatley's career minor-league stats. There isn't much on it to suggest Hatley is long for the St. Louis active roster.
|
Year |
Level |
Age |
G |
GS |
IP |
BABIP |
LOB% |
K% |
BB% |
ERA |
FIP |
|
2007 |
RK |
19 |
13 |
6 |
37.2 |
.300 |
61.2 |
16.4 |
7.6 |
3.82 |
3.90 |
|
A- |
19 |
3 |
0 |
4.2 |
.143 |
83.3 |
15.0 |
10.0 |
3.86 |
6.49 |
|
|
2008 |
A- |
20 |
12 |
6 |
34.2 |
.381 |
67.4 |
17.9 |
12.5 |
5.71 |
4.83 |
|
2009 |
A |
21 |
30 |
16 |
95.0 |
.308 |
65.4 |
15.2 |
9.8 |
4.64 |
5.00 |
|
2010 |
A- |
22 |
2 |
2 |
3.2 |
.222 |
83.3 |
23.5 |
11.8 |
2.45 |
4.56 |
|
RK |
22 |
2 |
2 |
3.0 |
.250 |
100 |
27.3 |
0.0 |
0.00 |
2.21 |
|
|
A |
22 |
7 |
7 |
13.1 |
.389 |
72.7 |
22.8 |
12.3 |
3.38 |
3.50 |
|
|
2011 |
A |
23 |
13 |
0 |
15.1 |
.281 |
75.0 |
32.8 |
12.5 |
2.35 |
2.78 |
|
A+ |
23 |
13 |
0 |
15.1 |
.294 |
82.6 |
28.8 |
16.7 |
1.76 |
3.45 |
|
|
AA |
23 |
22 |
0 |
29.0 |
.318 |
64.7 |
16.3 |
8.9 |
4.66 |
4.17 |
|
|
AFL |
23 |
12 |
0 |
13.2 |
.439 |
58.2 |
8.6 |
4.3 |
9.88 |
6.43 |
|
|
2012 |
AA |
24 |
28 |
0 |
45.0 |
.290 |
45.0 |
25.1 |
10.9 |
3.40 |
3.30 |
|
AAA |
24 |
12 |
0 |
15.1 |
.342 |
41.7 |
26.1 |
14.5 |
8.22 |
3.28 |
|
|
2013 |
AA |
25 |
14 |
0 |
18.0 |
.316 |
82.0 |
32.1 |
18.0 |
3.00 |
3.19 |
|
AAA |
25 |
35 |
0 |
42.2 |
.339 |
65.9 |
26.5 |
11.4 |
4.22 |
3.43 |
|
|
2014 |
AAA |
26 |
45 |
0 |
47.0 |
.349 |
67.7 |
27.6 |
6.2 |
4.60 |
3.79 |
|
2015 |
AAA |
27 |
27 |
0 |
37.1 |
.252 |
85.3 |
17.4 |
9.7 |
1.69 |
4.00 |
Walden
At present, there is no reason to interpret the Cardinals' decision to transfer Walden from the 15-day to the 60-day DL as any sort of reflection of his progress post-shoulder injury. Walden landed on the DL on May 3, retroactive to his last game played on April 30, with right biceps inflammation. The Cardinals announced at that time that the righty would miss six to ten weeks. Today is June 30, which means that it's already been 61 days since Walden's disabling and there's no indication that Walden will be ready to come off the DL in the immediate future. Consequently, the path of least resistance is to transfer Walden to the 60-day DL, which opens up a spot on the 40-man roster for Hatley to join the relief corps.
Updated 40-Man Roster Matrix
The updated roster matrix shows that manager Mike Matheny is going to have to manage with a right arm or two behind his back in the near-to-medium term.
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Correction: The original post's roster matrix graphic had Lance Lynn categorized as on the DL and Tyler Lyons on the active St. Louis roster. It has been fixed.