The Future in St. Louis Looks Dim

This post originally appeared before the 2011 MLB season. It's an interesting read now due to the fact the Cards won the World Series and Albert Pujols just signed with the Angles. Feel free to comment with your thoughts on St. Louis' future.

The news broke about Adam Wainwright's elbow and in the blink of an eye the St. Louis Cardinals' season outlook didn't seem so optimistic. After finishing second in the National League Central division last season behind the Cincinnati Reds, the Cardinals looked poised to recapture the division crown and possibly win a playoff series. They were unable to sign Albert Pujols in the offseason because, quite frankly, the man was asking for too much money. That put a cloud over the beginning of Spring Training and the team will try to sign him again after the season. A few days into camp their other superstar, Wainwright, injured his elbow and will now have season-ending Tommy John surgery.

It is a blow to a rotation that isn't that deep to begin with. Wainwright burst onto the scene during the Cardinals World Series championship in 2006 when, as a rookie, he shut down the opposition from the closer's role. The past two seasons he finished second in Cy Young voting and was sure to be right up there again this year. Now, the Cardinals will turn to Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia to get the job done. Carpenter has battled injuries throughout his career so who knows how much his body will be able to take and Garcia is still young. Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook are 3-4 in the rotation and the word around the league is that the Cards will try to sign Kevin Millwood or Pedro Martinez to fill the gap.

It is bad news on top of bad news for the Cardinals who, as mentioned before, failed to re-sign Pujols before spring training started. Pujols decided to cut off negotiations so that he would not become a distraction and that is a good move on his part but no one can deny that the contract extension will loom over the season. To make matters worse, it is rumored that the Chicago Cubs are going to make a run at Pujols after the season and they certainly could pay him the money he is asking for. Hopefully he is willing to take less cash to stay with the Cardinals but athletes these days are all about their money. As always, he should turn in another MVP-type season and he will have too because without Wainwright the pitching dominance won't be as great.

One thing is for sure: the Cardinals are a winning franchise and despite Wainwright's injury, they should be in the top two in the NL Central and in the talk for the playoffs. Pujols will have another great year and will worry about his contract after the season. As for Wainwright, he will go through surgery and doctors say he should return to form. There have been pitchers who have come back from Tommy John better than before and if that's the case here, good luck hitters. However, the immediate future doesn't look good in St. Louis and it could be a bad calendar year for Redbird fans.

Photo courtesy of waiversharks.com