Cardinals place lefty Packy Naughton on 15-day IL with forearm strain

The Cardinals placed left-hander Packy Naughton on the 15-day injured list, as Naughton is suffering from a left forearm strain. 

Genesis Cabrera has been called up from Triple-A to fill Naughton’s place in the bullpen with another southpaw.

There wasn’t much doubt that Naughton would need some type of visit to the IL after he removed himself from Friday night’s 4-0 loss to the Brewers. Naughton entered the game in the eighth inning, retired two batters and then walked Christian Yelich before motioning to the Cardinals’ dugout that something was amiss. 

The club has yet to comment on the severity of Naughton’s strain or if the worst-case scenario of Tommy John surgery is being considered, but Naughton will almost certainly miss more than 15 days while recovering.

Naughton (who turns 27 later this month) is in his third Major League season, after initially being selected by the Reds in the ninth round of the 2017 draft. The Angels acquired Naughton as part of the trade that sent Brian Goodwin to Cincinnati at the 2020 trade deadline, and St. Louis claimed Naughton off waivers from Los Angeles prior to the start of the 2022 season.

With both the Angels in 2021 and the Cards last year, Naughton has spent a lot of time shuttling back and forth from Triple-A, working as both a spot starter and increasingly as a reliever with St. Louis. The more permanent move to relief work has seemingly bumped up Naughton’s strikeout rates, while he has continued to exhibit the solid control that has helped up rise up the minor league ranks. 

Naughton has a 3.69 ERA over 453 1/3 innings in the minors, and a 4.98 ERA over his 59 2/3 frames as a big leaguer, which includes five innings of scoreless ball this season.

It hasn’t been a smooth start to the season for the Cardinals bullpen, and losing Naughton won’t help matters. Cabrera joins Zack Thompson as the only left-handed members of the relief corps, though JoJo Romero is at the Triple-A level. 

Between a dropoff in strikeouts and an increase in his home run rate, Cabrera struggled to a 4.63 ERA over 44 2/3 innings for St. Louis last season, and a good spring training performance wasn’t enough to win him a spot on the Opening Day roster.