Matt Holliday may not need DL stint for appendectomy - MLB

UPDATE: Finally, some good news for the Cardinals. Well, maybe.

According to the Associated Press, the Cardinals plan to wait a few days before deciding whether to place Matt Holliday on the disabled list following his appendectomy. He had the surgery yesterday and the Cardinals believe it’s possible that he could return before the end of a 15-day DL-stint.

Even if he needs to go on the disabled list, it sounds like he won’t need to miss 4-6 weeks, which is a very good thing.

Friday, 2:19 PM: I’m starting to think this just isn’t the Cardinals year. Either that or Drew didn’t pray hard enough while he was at baseball church in St. Louis yesterday.

Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports that Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday will undergo an appendectomy today and the recovery timetable is usually 4-6 weeks until “strenuous activity” is allowed, although Andres Torres of the Giants returned much sooner than that last year.

To replace Holliday, who hit a homer in yesterday’s loss to the Padres, the Cardinals will turn to some combination of Jon Jay and Allen Craig, perhaps in a platoon with the left-handed-hitting Jay getting the bulk of the starts.

Replacing the lost production, however, will be nearly impossible, as Holliday hit .317 with 28 homers and a .922 OPS last year in his first full season in St. Louis, ranking among the NL’s top 10 in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage.

St. Louis is already without ace Adam Wainwright, who underwent season-ending Tommy John elbow surgery in early March.

Houston Astros star Jose Altuve had surgery Wednesday on his broken right thumb, an injury that occurred in the World Baseball Classic and will significantly delay the second baseman’s 2023 debut.

The Astros announced that the 32-year-old Altuve had the procedure done in Houston and will stay there to begin his rehabilitation, with only one week left in spring training. The Astros will fly there on Sunday following their final Grapefruit League game in Florida, before playing a pair of exhibitions against their Triple-A team, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, in Texas.

Altuve was hit by a pitch on Saturday while playing for Venezuela in the WBC. He might not be ready to return to the lineup until at least late May. The eight-time All-Star and 2017 American League MVP batted .300 with 103 runs, 28 homers and 18 steals for the World Series champion Astros last season. Mauricio Dubón and David Hensley are the leading candidates to fill in for Altuve at second base.

Altuve isn’t the only Major League Baseball star who was hurt in WBC play, of course. Mets closer Edwin Díaz will miss the 2023 season because of a torn patellar tendon in his right knee as the freak result of an on-field celebration following a WBC win by the Puerto Rico national team.

BROWN DOWN

The Astros also scratched right-hander Hunter Brown from his scheduled start Wednesday against the Mets in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Manager Dusty Baker told reporters that Brown, who is ranked by MLB as the organization’s top prospect and competing for the last spot in the rotation, has discomfort in his lower back.

NOT QUITE READY

The New York Mets sent catcher Francisco Álvarez to Triple-A Syracuse, quashing for now the possibility of putting the prized 21-year-old on the opening day roster.

Álvarez, who made his major league debut with the Mets near the end of last season, had just three hits in 28 at-bats in Grapefruit League exhibition games. Ranked by MLB as the third-best prospect in baseball, Álvarez batted .260 with 27 homers and 78 RBIs in a combined 112 minor league games in 2022 at Double-A and Triple-A.

The Mets have newcomer Omar Narváez, a 2021 All-Star with the Milwaukee Brewers, as their primary catcher with Tomás Nido likely to play mostly against left-handed pitchers.

Speaking of the Mets, Díaz turned 29 on Wednesday – a rather subdued milestone for the right-hander considering his situation. Diaz nonetheless posted in Spanish an upbeat message on his Twitter account, thanking God for another year of life and describing his health as good and his outlook as positive in this initial stage of the roughly eight-month rehabilitation process.