The Cardinals are in full sell mode heading into the Aug. 3 trade deadline, and JoJo Romero was supposed to be exhibit A of what they had to offer. Instead, St. Louis just placed its best reliever on the injured list, and the timing genuinely stinks for everyone involved.
Cardinals Place JoJo Romero On Injured List t.co/mFVyMQMPGS
The issue isn't a dead arm or a tweaked hamstring, it's appendicitis, which is its own kind of problem for a guy who's supposed to be the centerpiece of trade calls. St. Louis backdated the move to July 14, meaning the earliest Romero is even eligible to return is next Friday, and that's assuming a clean recovery.
Romero's been a workhorse out of that bullpen, tossing 43 innings with a 3.35 ERA this year, a strikeout rate a shade over 23% and a ground ball rate near 48%. It's a step back from the 2.07 ERA he ran last season, but it's still the kind of lefty relief work that contenders line up for every July, and reports had already pegged him as the obvious trade chip on this roster.
That's what makes the injury sting beyond just the roster hole. Romero is in his final year of club control on a team that's almost certainly selling, and evaluators from MLB.com to ESPN had already flagged him as a lefty multiple teams would love to add. An appendicitis scare weeks before the deadline is the last thing you want attached to your best trade asset's file.
It's also a real bullpen problem in the short term. With Romero out, Justin Bruihl becomes the only left-hander St. Louis has in its big league relief corps, which is a thin margin for a team trying to navigate the stretch run while also fielding calls on half its roster. The Cardinals did shuffle the 40-man to cover the gap, selecting reliever Scott Blewett's contract and designating catcher Yohel Pozo for assignment.
The bigger question now is whether Romero is even healthy enough to be dealt by Aug. 3. If he can't get back on a mound and show scouts he's fine, suitors could cool off or push for a discount, and the Cardinals lose leverage on the one piece they were counting on to bring back something real. St. Louis has a week or so to find out how this shakes out, and the deadline clock isn't waiting on anybody's recovery timeline.