The St. Louis Cardinals will shut down Jaime Garcia for a month as the lefty deals with what the team called a shoulder strain. The Cards placed Garcia on the 15-day DL on Thursday but announced just two days later that he would be held out at least a month. Garcia visited with renowned orthopedist Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles on Friday, and the diagnosis for now is a strain in his throwing shoulder. General Manager John Mozeliak did say that surgery is not expected at this point.
Garcia was impressive in his first six starts of the season, posting a 2.78 ERA and allowing no home runs. But his season went off the rails over his next six starts, posting a 6.09 ERA that culminated this week with a disastrous two-inning start against the Astros.
The Cardinals promoted Joe Kelly from Triple-A Memphis to take Garcia's spot in the rotation. Kelly will make his major league debut on Sunday against the Indians.
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