Cardinals 1B Allen Craig will miss at least another week
By Brad Rowland
We learned last week that St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Allen Craig did not have a broken foot as originally thought, but on Thursday, the news wasn’t great for a quick return to the lineup.
According to a published report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Craig will remain in a walking boot for another week, and thus, will be unable to return to the lineup for at least that long. Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak was quoted as saying that “everything is positive”, but reports indicating that Craig is walking around St. Louis in a boot don’t exactly indicate optimism.
This season, Craig has been absolutely tremendous. Over 563 plate appearances, he has a .315/.373/.457 slash line with 13 home runs and 97 RBIs. Although it could be debated for days and days whether hitting with runners in scoring position was a “skill”, Craig has been dominant for years in that particular circumstance, including this season’s 1.138 OPS (not a misprint) with RISP.
Fortunately for St. Louis, they can trot out a strong young prospect in Matt Adams at first base, but his promotion to a starting role hurts the bench, and this team is unequivocally better with Craig in uniform. It’ll be critical for the Cards to see Craig get some at-bats before the playoffs, and we’ll keep an eye on his status moving forward.