{"id":74875,"date":"2024-05-29T16:26:44","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T20:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=74875"},"modified":"2024-05-29T16:26:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T20:26:44","slug":"keynan-middleton-suffers-setback-in-rehab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/29\/keynan-middleton-suffers-setback-in-rehab\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Louis Cardinals Veteran Suffers Setback In Injury Rehab"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In hopes of contending this year, the St. Louis Cardinals prioritized adding pitching this winter. Unfortunately, the team&#8217;s lone reliever free-agent addition has yet to make his season debut, and it doesn&#8217;t look like it will come any time soon. According to Cardinals manager Oli Marmol, right-hander\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/middlke01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keynan Middleton<\/a> suffered a setback in his rehab and will receive an MRI on his right elbow and forearm on Friday. A procedure to address his ulnar collateral ligament appears likely.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/STLCards?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#STLCards<\/a> RHP Keynan Middleton is headed for further testing on his forearm. UCL replacement or repair surgery could be coming for the free-agent signee expected to be an integral piece of the STL bullpen. Middleton has yet to pitch in the 2024 season because of persistent pain.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; John Denton (@JohnDenton555) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnDenton555\/status\/1795848558563967341?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 29, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Middleton initially suffered a forearm strain during Spring Training and started the season on the injured list. He missed several weeks, but looked like he was nearing a return to the majors. The 30-year-old appeared in five minor league rehab games in mid-May, but was shut down after experiencing discomfort.<\/p>\n<p>The outlook on Middleton&#8217;s setback does not appear great, and imaging should reveal what type of procedure is needed.<\/p>\n<h2>Keynan Middleton Suffers Setback, To Undergo MRI<\/h2>\n<p>The Cardinals signed Middleton to a one-year, $6 million deal after he broke out in 2023. Split between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees, the righty posted a 3.38 ERA (132 ERA+) in 50 2\/3 innings. Middleton struck out a career-high 30.2 percent of opposing batters and excelled at inducing weak contact and ground balls.<\/p>\n<p>His breakout performance led the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/08\/02\/yankees-trade-deadline-2\/\" target=\"_self\">White Sox to trade him to the Yankees at the deadline<\/a>. He pitched well in the Bronx, but missed most of September with shoulder inflammation. While it&#8217;s unclear if the shoulder inflammation and this current arm issue are related, Middleton returned on September 29 and passed a physical when signing with St. Louis.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Keynan Middleton is another nice bullpen depth pickup by the FO<\/p>\n<p>2023 with CHW and NYY:<br \/>-50.2 IP<br \/>-30.2 K%<br \/>-10.8 BB%<br \/>-3.38 ERA<\/p>\n<p>His fastball sits 95-96 and also features a plus slider (.208 wOBA against)<\/p>\n<p>He&#39;ll generate whiffs for a team desperately in need of K&#39;s<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/STLCards?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#STLCards<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JO9eiQel1H\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/JO9eiQel1H<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adam Akbani (@AdamAkbani) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamAkbani\/status\/1753268543146094984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, Middleton is no stranger to injuries. He looked like a piece to build a bullpen around during his 2017 rookie season with the Los Angeles Angels. In 64 games, Middleton tossed 58 1\/3 innings, posted a 3.86 ERA (111 ERA+) and finished 17 games.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018 and did not experience a smooth rehab. He eventually came back late in 2019 and dealt with struggles and more injuries throughout the rest of his Angels tenure.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles let him go after 2020, and Middleton tossed just 60 innings in the majors over the next two season with the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks. He re-established himself as a high-leverage reliever in 2023, but it seems an UCL surgery will stunt his career once again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In hopes of contending this year, the St. Louis Cardinals prioritized adding pitching this winter. Unfortunately, the team&#8217;s lone reliever free-agent addition has yet to make his season debut, and it doesn&#8217;t look like it will come any time soon. According to Cardinals manager Oli Marmol, right-hander\u00a0Keynan Middleton suffered a setback in his rehab and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4683,"featured_media":74906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1071,35],"tags":[5860],"class_list":["post-74875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardinals","category-mlb","category-news","tag-keynan-middleton"],"modified_by":"Chris Drosehn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}