(Busch Stadium) The St. Louis Cardinals have been careful in their deployment of Trevor Rosenthal thus far on the season and it’s been hard to argue with that success. The right-hander has appeared in eight games and struck out 15 batters in 7.1 innings. He’s also been regularly been putting 100mph+ on the radar gun.
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Earlier this week, Mike Matheny discussed if Rosenthal would be able to maintain that velocity and effectiveness if pitching on back to back games.
“You’re going to be tempted to use Trevor as often as you can, but there’s a plan,” said Matheny. “And the plan basically starts with the medical team. They’ve got to get their hands on him and say what they see and how they feel. Then after that, we talk about the workload and we give him some input. So far, we’ve been very conservative and it’s paid off.”
“I don’t think it’s something that we’ve really been avoiding,” said Rosenthal of appearing in back to back games. “There’s just been one day so far when I felt like I could use some rest, but I still felt like I good pitch. So on that day we just decided to error on the side of rest.”
That day was this past Tuesday, after Rosenthal had pitched in four games and warmed for another. He had a “little bit of soreness” from the workload. Nothing unexpected.
“Anything that I’ve been talking to them about has just been a part of a plan that they put together to get me back and just continuing on that plan,” continued Rosenthal. “But other than that, I’ve been feeling pretty good and trying to stay ahead of the game and be preventative right now.”
And that means he is ready when called upon for back to back outings.
“It’s going to happen and I feel confident in it,” said Rosenthal. “It’s not necessarily in a rush to try and do, I just want to stay healthy and make it through the season.”
“Nothing special, we’ve just kind of put a really good routine in place with activation, stretching. Preventative and having a routine where I come in and do something everyday and I’m checking in with them. On-going communication of how I’m feeling. Hopefully, keep that up. A lot of it’s just on my part of going in, communicating. And if I’m maybe sore one day, a lot of times they’re able to help me out with that and get rid of it faster than if I tried on my own.”
A little bit of a modification to the plan was made in Spring Training, not because of oblique but because of overall work load increasing.
“I don’t feel a difference really,” said Rosenthal. “I feel the same. I’ve just been trying to really work hard and prepare for every game the best I can physically, mentally, and just trying do my best really and that’s it. Not taking anything for granted being here or being a part of this team and trying to help out as much as I can.”
photo credit: Scott Kane-USA TODAY Sports
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