STL Cardinals star will be out longer than hoped despite successful surgery

After successfully undergoing surgery on Wednesday to repair his fractured left forearm, St. Louis Cardinals catch Willson Contreras will be out longer than initially anticipated.

Cardinals manager Oli Marmol spoke with reporters on Thursday and said Contreras is likely looking at a 10-week absence rather than the 6-8 timetable previously floated around. However, the severity of damage to the 31-year-old backstop's arm remains unspecified, per John Denton of MLB.com.

Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras will be out longer than expected despite successful surgery

Contreras suffered the injury on Tuesday against the New York Mets when the bat of slugger JD Martinez hit the veteran backstop on the arm, to which he responded by screaming in blatant pain before being removed from the game. But if the Cardinals didn't instruct the three-time All-Star to position himself closer to home plate to improve his likeliness of getting low strike calls, they may have avoided the issue altogether.

To paint a more optimistic picture, Katie Woo of The Athletic noted that Contreras returning "by the All-Star break remains the goal." But there is no telling where the Cardinals, who have already been framed as trade deadline sellers, will be in that standings at that juncture in the season. Sitting at 15-21 and in last place in the NL Central, things are beginning to spiral out of control for St. Louis, losers of six of their past seven games.

Contreras was enjoying a solid start to the 2024 MLB campaign before hurting his arm, posting a .280/.398/.551 slash line with a team-high six home runs while driving in 12 RBIs. But now he will be out of the lineup for several weeks with a somewhat murky return date as he works his way to recovery in hopes of playing again before the season slips away from the Cardinals.