The St. Louis Cardinals (28-21) remain in one of the closer divisional races in baseball as play enters June. Despite not having ace starting pitcher Jack Flaherty all season, the second-place Cards begin Wednesday just three games behind the NL Central’s best team, the Milwaukee Brewers (32-19).
After it was reported last week that Flaherty was set to face live hitters in his way back from a shoulder injury, St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol provided more positive developments on Wednesday.
The righty recorded just 78 1/3 innings pitched over 17 games (15 starts) in 2021 due to an oblique injury followed by a shoulder strain. Flaherty’s shoulder issues popped up again to begin 2022, but when healthy, the 26-year-old has already shown to be one of the premier starters in the senior circuit.
Flaherty made his big league debut in 2017 and finished fifth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2018. The former first-round pick had a full breakout campaign in 2019, going 11-8 with a 2.75 ERA over 196 1/3 innings in 33 starts, while striking out 231 batters and leading the league in WHIP (0.96) and hits per nine innings (6.2).
A native of Burbank, Calif., Flaherty captured the NL Pitcher of the Month honors in both August and September 2019 and ended up placing fourth in the NL Cy Young vote.
