St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday is still recovering from a strained quad suffered on July 29. There's no timetable for the slugger's return, although he's making slow progress.
Continue for updates.
Holliday Takes Batting Practice
Wednesday, Sept. 2
Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Holliday could hit right now, but he has only just started running sprints.
He also quoted manager Mike Matheny, who spoke about Holliday's recovery:
It’s always good to see him back. But whenever you see a step forward, you have to realize it always gives the potential that something could come up and you’d take one back. But, him being on the field and what I’m hearing and what he’s doing inside the training room are all things pointing in a positive direction, pointing to him getting closer. What closer means isn’t very clear right now.
When asked what the sprints meant, Holliday told Hummel, “I haven’t run hard enough to say yet. I don’t think I’ll be able to have a real clear answer for that until they have me push it a little closer to a full hard run.”
However, the outfielder said he plans to be back by the postseason.
St. Louis is a team with World Series aspirations that has sat atop the National League Central for the majority of the season, but it needs the thunder in the middle of the lineup that Holliday provides.
Holliday is a four-time Silver Slugger winner and topped 20 home runs in nine different seasons and 30 on two occasions. He also boasted 13 career postseason long balls entering the 2015 campaign and is a proven bat in critical moments.
This is just the latest injury in a trying season health-wise for the Cardinals. To their credit, they have found a way to stay in contention throughout the year even though their ace, Adam Wainwright, has missed most of the campaign. Holliday and power hitter Matt Adams have also missed significant chunks of time, among others.
St. Louis will likely rely on trade-deadline acquisition Brandon Moss for now, although Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated pointed out that the Cardinals have options: “Thanks to the Cardinals' existing depth, that will leave manager Mike Matheny with an ample cast—Moss, [Mark] Reynolds, [Stephen] Piscotty, [Randal] Grichuck and Peter Bourjos—to cover first base, left field and center field, with Jason Heyward in right.”
While those names (outside of Heyward) don’t inspire fear in opposing pitchers like Holliday does, the Cardinals are well-equipped to deal with physical setbacks. They have done so all season, and this represents just another challenge.
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