Is Cardinals’ Nolan Arenado returning from injury vs. Cubs for Sunday Night Baseball?
The St. Louis Cardinals got their first win in the month of July against the Chicago Cubs, and they’re looking to make it two in a row. The other thing they’re looking for is if Nolan Arenado will be on the field after he missed the previous game with a right shoulder impingement.
At first, it looked like Arenado’s chances of playing were slim when looking at the lineup, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“No Nolan Arenado in the lineup. stlcards planned for him to go thru evaluations today to determine severity/recovery of right shoulder,” Goold wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Arenado was then spotted on the field testing his shoulder.
“Arenado is out testing his shoulder, sets it feels better, and he is going to make a case to be in the lineup. Says the off day is a factor here for extra recovery,” Goold wrote.
Arenado had missed two games earlier in the week against the Pittsburgh Pirates after jamming his index finger against the Cleveland Guardians. With him dealing with several injuries, there’s a chance that the Cardinals are just trying to be cautious with him.
He’s also been in trade rumors for some time, and injuries like this could hurt his value, or make teams not even want to trade for him due to the injury risk. There’s no mistake that Arenado hears the trade rumors, and he recently spoke about the team’s success despite what’s going on the outside.
“Just seeing everyone, one through nine, contributing, I like playing baseball like this, against the Cubs, where games matter,” Arenado said. “As you get older, that’s what you want to play for. You don’t want to play games just to play games. Individually, I’ve accomplished some things in this sport, and I just want to accomplish something team-oriented and special now, and win a World Series. This is the most excited I’ve come to the ballpark, for a series like this in about two years.
The Cardinals are currently 48-42 and in third place in the NL Central, and they can continue to gain ground in the division if they can keep winning.
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