Jack Flaherty’s Cardinals future as clouded as ever after Thursday’s implosion

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Jack Flaherty was off to a decent start this season until he faced the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday afternoon.

Jack Flaherty was starting to look like his old self, but Thursday afternoon’s game may single-handedly ruin his confidence. Cardinals fans shouldn’t overreact to one start, but it went about as poorly as it could.

Flaherty lasted just over two innings and gave up 10 earned runs. Yes, he had more earned runs than outs recorded. Oli Marmol kept him in throughout, which given the status of the bullpen made sense. But at a certain point, Marmol had to save Flaherty from himself.

Yes, woof indeed.

Flaherty left the game after taking a ball off his hand. It’s unclear just how injured he was, but given the extent of the beating the St. Louis pitcher took today, removing him entirely was the right call.

Should Cardinals fans freak out about Jack Flaherty’s start?

It’s tough not to wonder what the hell happened to Jack Flaherty on Thursday. The former ace of this pitching staff hasn’t looked the same in years. He’s now given up 21 runs in his last four starts.

In 2019, Flaherty finished fourth in NL Cy Young voting. He was a centerpiece of the future, and emerged as the primary candidate to one day replace Adam Wainwright as the face of the pitching staff.

Now? Not so much. The Cardinals would have been better off trading their young ace than sticking with him, as we’ve seen the past few injury-riddled seasons. However, it’s easy to sit here and play shadow GM when we have the benefit of revisionist history.

Flaherty is in the final season of his current deal. If he continues pitching like he did on Thursday, an extension is unlikely in the offseason. Perhaps another team can fix him, but the Cardinals have done just about all the waiting they can.