TA 5/11/21: Martinez Injured Himself Celebrating and Placed on IL, Oviedo Recalled

The Cardinals announced the following transaction this afternoon:

5/11/21: Placed RHP Carlos Martinez on the 10-day IL (right ankle). Recalled RHP Johan Oviedo from AAA Memphis.

This will be a short one folks. Martinez said after the game that his ankle was bothering him during his May 8th start—in which he walked five batters in five innings—because he rolled it somehow while celebrating Jack Flaherty’s home run the day before. Martinez played through the problem, he said he wouldn’t have to miss any time, the club said it was confident that the imaging was fine before his start, and he’s not fine. I don’t know how serious it is, but he’s going to miss at least one start.

In Martinez’s place, the Cards have recalled Johan Oviedo. Oviedo started for AAA Memphis on Sunday, and I reviewed that start in the first installment of my minor league report here. Memphis had him start on 3 days of rest after his May 5th start for the big league club in the 2nd game of the doubleheader against the Mets. He didn’t have his best stuff for Memphis, and got pulled after only 49 pitches and five earned runs allowed over 2.2 IP. The Cards recalled him now, knowing he won’t be able to pitch for several days, because Martinez’s IL move allows the “10 days on option rule” to be waived, the club knows it wants him to take Martinez’s start, and this is the only immediate way to make sure that happens.

Starting Oviedo on May 14th in Martinez’s slot would be the most logical move and it would give Oviedo four days of rest after that May 9th Memphis start. According to Jeff Jones of the Belleville-News Democrat, that is what the Cards have done. Because there are off days on both May 17th and May 20th, the spot in the rotation won’t come back again until May 21st, and at that point, Martinez will be eligible to return from the injured list. Miles Mikolas will be making another rehab start tonight for AAA Memphis, and depending on how that goes, he might be available to take John Gant’s spot in the rotation on May 18th.

I can’t recall any baseball celebration injuries involving the baseball Cardinals in recent memory, and please let me know if you can remember any. The one celebration injury that comes to mind happened with a football kicker about 20 years ago. Enjoy the video.