The St. Louis Cardinals have just suffered a tough loss in the back end of their bullpen after it has been announced that Jordan Hicks has sustained an arm injury. Hicks has been the Cardinals closer since bursting into the league last year with his violent velocity, throwing 100+ mph fastballs and sinkers. Mark Saxon of The Athletic has broken the news down regarding Hick’s diagnosis.
The #STLCards announced today that closer Jordan Hicks has a torn lunar collateral ligament (UCL), a diagnosis that often leads to Tommy John surgery. Release says the team is determining the next course of action.
— Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) June 24, 2019
In 2019 for the Cardinals, Hicks has appeared in twenty-nine games, closing out fourteen of them with twenty-eight and two-thirds innings thrown with thirty-one punchouts. Hicks has been their go-to guy and that is going to have to change with the UCL injury. For the Cardinals, this means that reliever John Gant will have to step into the closer role for the time being.
Gant’s 2019 campaign has allowed him thirty-five appearances, totaling forty-one and a third innings pitched. Through those thirty-five appearances, he has a 2.40 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, and thirty-seven punchouts to go with three saves on the year. Andrew Miller signed with the Cardinals in this past offseason and since then has not been anything special for the Cardinals, look for him to step up and hopefully get back on track. For now, it seems that Gant will look to be the Cardinals new shut down guy in hopes to stay competitive in a tough National League Central division.
The Cardinals now have to determine the plan of action for Hicks, if he will need to undergo Tommy John Surgery or not. Losing Hicks will put a bit of a damper on the Cardinals bullpen in a time where they cannot lose an arm like Hicks. Currently, the Cardinals are 40-37, sitting two games back of the NL Central-leading Cubs who are a half-game ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers.
