St. Louis Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty has dealt with numerous injuries that have sidelined him this season.
While this wasn’t the season he envisioned, he can still make an impact for the Cardinals.
Flaherty has missed almost a month with a shoulder strain. But he will be back on the mound sooner than later.
This week, he threw against some of his teammates during a practice and went through some fielding drills.
While he was on the mound, he didn’t show any signs of any pain, which is exactly what you want to see from him.
Coming into the 2021 season, Flaherty was the talk of the town in St. Louis, and when the season started he was dominant on the mound.
On The MLBBro Show Podcast week 4’s Black Ace ♠️ report @FANalyst1 is shouting out @Cardinals Jack Flaherty and thinks he might be a Cy Young Winner. Check out https://t.co/d5pfLsCroD for the full episode and comment below to let us know what you think. @Jack9Flaherty #STLFLY pic.twitter.com/L7E4CSlfMq
— MLBbro.com (@MLBbrodotcom) May 19, 2021
Going into May he had an 8-1 record and was on pace for a 20-win season.
But a torn oblique forced him to miss six weeks. After returning from the oblique injury he only appeared in three games finishing with a 1-1 record before going down with the shoulder injury.
Jack Flaherty, 94mph Paint. 🖌️🎨 pic.twitter.com/tG7M4qeWU0
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 14, 2021
On the season he has a 9-2 record through 14 starts with a 3.08 ERA.
Cardinals manager Mike Shildt is excited to have Flaherty back, but wants to make sure the team does not rush his return.
“I think we’ll take it as we go,” Shildt told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Right now we want to make sure he recovers from it, and then we’ll just evaluate from there as far as what the volume can look like and then what the role (is). We’re excited to have Jack and the opportunity to have him back in whatever capacity it looks like.”
Look, if he wasn’t plagued with those injuries this season, Flaherty would be one of the top pitchers in the game right now.
Our MLBbro was shutting teams down out there when he was on the mound and put the Cardinals in a position to win games.
Unfortunately, injuries are part of the game and Flaherty could not get away from them this season.
But his return is near and in perfect time because the Cardinals have won 11 games in a row and are 4.5 games up on Cincinnati for the second NL Wild Card slot with about 10 games left in the season. A golden arm of Flaherty’s ilk will certainly be a big help.
It looks like his return will come Friday as Shildt announced that Flaherty will start in the second game of a doubleheader.
Jack’s back, take 2.
Jack Flaherty will start Game 2 of Friday’s doubleheader vs the Cubs, Mike Shildt says.
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) September 22, 2021
After he had his outing throwing against his teammates, Flaherty kept it simple on how he felt.
“Feel great. We have to see what’s next,” he said.
Flaherty is ready to help his team make a playoff push and wants to show everyone that he still has that dominating stuff in his arsenal.
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