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Sonny Gray, the top offseason acquisition for the St. Louis Cardinals, was faraway from his second exhibition begin with proper hamstring tightness, in accordance with a crew spokesperson.
He had thrown 20 pitches over 1 2/3 innings Monday towards the Washington Nationals however motioned for catcher Willson Contreras after throwing a pitch halfway by means of an at-bat towards catcher Keibert Ruiz.
Grey was rapidly met on the mound by Contreras, head coach Adam Olsen, supervisor Oli Marmol and pitching coach Dusty Blake. The choice to take away him from the sport quickly adopted.
Grey, who signed a three-year, $75 million deal with St. Louis in November, was named the Opening Day starter final week. He remained within the dugout till the top of the inning Monday earlier than being taken off-site for additional analysis.
What’s the preliminary degree of concern?
Concern will at all times come up after a crew’s presumed ace leaves a spring recreation early. Grey was slated to throw three innings and breezed by means of the primary of them. However after recording an out within the second inning, each Grey and Contreras instantly acknowledged one thing as unsuitable.
The Cardinals won’t know the extent of Grey’s hamstring tightness till Tuesday. Grey is about to bear an MRI on Monday night in Jupiter.
The Cardinals clearly hope to keep away from any critical harm, but when Grey is sidelined, their rotation leaves a lot to be desired. Miles Mikolas and Kyle Gibson would spherical out the higher tier, with Steven Matz (who notched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts in his Grapefruit League debut Monday) and Lance Lynn making up the center. Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson can be the likeliest candidates to fill out the rotation, and maybe each left-handers might make the minimize if the Cardinals resolve to make use of a brief six-man rotation to open the yr.
Nonetheless, the Cardinals will wait to make any choices till they know the extent of Grey’s harm.
Has Grey handled hamstring accidents earlier than?
Grey notched a wholesome 2023 for the Minnesota Twins, making all 32 of his begins, however landed on the injured listing 3 times in 2022. Two of these stints have been hamstring-related. Grey missed almost three weeks in mid-April in 2022 with what the Twins termed a “low-grade proper hamstring pressure” and was positioned on the IL once more in mid-September with one other proper hamstring pressure.
Regardless of the injury-riddled 2022, Grey all however actually put issues about his hamstring to relaxation in 2023. He and the Cardinals hope Monday’s untimely exit was a precaution, however the subsequent 24 hours can be telling.
(Photograph of Sonny Grey: Jeff Roberson/Related Press)
