Cardinal left-handed Zack Thompson Baseball Operations president John Mozeliak told reporters today (including the St. Louis Post, Derrick Goold) that his left hand muscle suffered tears. Thompson will be shut down and then reevaluated within three to four weeks, so Thompson will certainly start the season on the card injury roster.
It was a tough setback for Thompson, who was competing for work in St. Louis Bullpen and was still trying to find a niche for himself at the major league level. Over the past three seasons, the 19th pick in the 2019 draft has accumulated 118 MLB innings, with a 66 1/3 innings highest in the 2023 game while serving as a reliefist for the first time before becoming a starter in the final six weeks of the season.
Thompson got a 2.08 ERA in 34 2/3 frames in 2022, but then went on a 4.48 ERA from the 2023 workload. His peripheral numbers are still interesting enough to show that Thompson might have taken another step last season, but the opposite happened, but Southpaw swung over 9.53 ERA with 17-and-a-half-year starts and teenagers, and returned to teenagers in April and teenagers, which was a starter and teenager choice. The situation for the minors is not completely stable, as Thompson has a 4.40 ERA and a 14.2% walk rate in 90 innings in Memphis, with 20 of his 21 games.
Although these struggles did not remove Thompson from the Cardinal’s future plans, he had no space in the spin still filled with veterans’ weapons, and if the spin points did open, the other young men now seemed to have crossed Thompson on the depth map. Unless St. Louis would rather make him a starter in Memphis, being a long-term reliefist or possible swinger would allow Thompson to build more experience and confidence.
During the offseason, the league awarded the Cardinals a fourth minor league option in Thompson, allowing the team to send him back and forth between Triple-A and Grand Slam during the 2025 campaign. Anyway, Thompson is likely to start the season in Triple-A, although today’s injury news will be delayed entirely by the left-hander until he can return to the mound. Thompson will then need to rebuild his arm strength, so it seems he may be eliminated until at least late April due to the time he will miss during the shutdown.
