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Cardinals should consider temporarily shutting down Star

Posted on by angelo

As the St. Louis Cardinals continue to position themselves as a playoff contender, they should consider temporarily sidelining one of their star players. Nolan Arenado is injured and playing through pain. He is having one of the worst seasons of his career. They will likely need him healthy and performing if they want to make the playoffs.

Cardinals should consider temporarily shutting down star player

Nolan plays through the pain

On June 19 in Miami, Arenado was hit by a bullet in the right elbow. It was a scary moment and he immediately fell to the ground holding his elbow. Arenado avoided a fracture, but the injury impacted the nerves in his hand.

“It gave me chills, my hand turned into a claw and it’s a little hard to move my fingers right now,” Arenado said after the game.

Less than a week before that incident, Arenado had been hit in the hand by a pitch and had to undergo X-rays. He avoided the injured list in both cases.

In addition to his high blood pressure injuries, Arenado has tendinitis in his left forearm. He received an injection to relieve the pain and told reporters he was feeling much better on June 25.

“When I hit, my left forearm hurts a little bit, but when I throw my right elbow, it hurts,” Arenado said. “So I have to push myself a little bit, and we’ll see where we can go from there.”

Underperformance in 2024

Arenado struggles both offensively and defensively in 2024. His .262 batting average is the second-lowest of any full season in his 12-year career. He has hit just seven home runs this year and is on pace to hit the fewest in a full season since his rookie year. He also has a lower hitting percentage than at any point in his career.

“He worked hard to get the ball in the air, on the shooting side and with authority,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of Arenado’s struggles over the weekend. “There’s not many who work as hard as Arenado. He’s frustrated that he’s not doing it as much as he wants to, but that’s not going to stop him from working.”

Defense was once the key to Arenado’s fame. He won the Gold Glove Award in his first 10 seasons as a professional. From 2016 to 2022, he was in the 96th percentile or better in the league for range. In 2023, he was in the 89th percentile. So far in 2024, Arenado is in the 37th percentile for defensive range, which is by far the worst of his career.

In Friday’s 9-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, Arenado made an uncharacteristic error in the fifth inning on what could have been an inning-ending double play. He dropped a hard-hit ball right at him, scoring a run. It ended Sonny Gray’s start and allowed four more runs to cross the plate that inning. Marmol acknowledged after the game that the play hurt the team.

“The play at third base leads to a bigger inning and the ball goes up a little bit. That could have ended it,” Marmol said.

Arenado does not want leave

While his struggles can’t be attributed to his injury, after all, he started the season struggling; they may help explain some of his issues. Struggling at times during the game due to injuries to both arms, Arenado could potentially need some rest. However, Marmol says Arenado doesn’t want it.

“He wants to be able to figure it out, and you can’t figure it out if you don’t have at-bats,” Marmol told MLB.com over the weekend. “So it’s not a conversation like, ‘Hey, he needs two days off.’ He doesn’t want two days off, he doesn’t want one day off. (Arenado) flies when you want to give him one day off. He wants to fight and figure it out and get the feel that he’s looking to have. So you put him in the lineup and you move on.”

Despite Arenado’s resistance to not having a day off, he doesn’t look like the player who established himself as the best third baseman in baseball at one point in his career. The Cardinals are in a position where they can afford to give him some time to rest and get back into shape; the question may be whether Arenado will allow it.

Main photo credits: Jeff Le-USA TODAY Sports