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Zack Thompson, Quinn Mathews, Sem Robberse, Tink Hence, Cooper Hjerpe, Ian Bedell, Chen-Wei Lin, Brycen Mautz . . . the list of casualties has gone on and on.

But there’s hope! Robberse and Hjerpe are sidelined into next season after needing repairs and the once-promising Thompson suffered a setback with his lat strain, but some other hurlers are getting healthier.

Mathews threw three shutout innings in a rehab start for Class A Palm Beach as he worked back from shoulder soreness. Hence continued his comeback from a ribcage strain by throwing 2 1/3 scoreless innings for Palm Beach Tuesday in his second appearance for that team.

Drew Rom (0-1, 1.10 ERA in five appearances at Palm Beach and Triple-A Memphis) is rebuilding endurance after finally overcoming shoulder injuries.

Michael McGreevy has pitched well at Memphis (5-1, 3.22 ERA) between his spot appearances for the Cardinals. At Double-A Springfield, key prospect Tekoah Roby (2-2, 3.09 ERA), 2023 draft pick Ixan Henderson (3-2, 2.63) and 2022 pick Pete Hansen (3-1, 2.88) are pitching well.

Writing for Baseball Prospectus, Jeffrey Paternostro gave Roby a nod:

After a 2024 season where he was both injured and bad — following several years of being either injured or good — Roby is off to a strong start in 2025. His upper-90s fastball has its zip and carry back, and it is downright explosive when he gets it up and in on righties. His low-80s curve is a sharp, plus downer and both his cutter and change should settle in at least average, flashing better. His stuff ticks down later on starts, likely a stamina issue for a pitching prospect who has barely scraped 100 innings total the last two seasons. But taken at face value, Roby has a plus-plus fastball and a deep arsenal of average-to-plus secondaries. That will get you back a lot of your former Top 101 prospect plaudits, even if we only have the good part of the “healthy and good” 2025 season so far.

At the big league level, successful minor league closer Matt Svanson and converted starter Gordon Graceffo have shown some promise in the bullpen.

While the Cardinals pitching scenario is less bleak than it was, the organization must build more depth in this year’s draft –- and also look to leverage surpluses at other positions into additional arms.

Here is what people are writing about Our National Pastime:

Bradford Doolittle, : “(Pete) Crow-Armstrong's (Cubs) emergence has made him one of baseball's best stories this season. Entering the season, we knew that PCA, as he's affectionately called, could post elite defense and baserunning metrics. If only he could hit! Would a leap from an 88 to a 145 OPS+ work? How about a pace that could see Crow-Armstrong post a 40/40 season? The strike zone numbers suggest a coming regression — more than five whiffs for every walk — but so far, so great.”

Johnny Flores Jr., The Athletic: “There are simply not enough words (at least words that I’m allotted to write) about how good PCA has been. His 3.1 fWAR and bWAR are second in all of baseball, while his 14 homers and 14 stolen bases are both in the top 10 of the league. He became the first Cubs player to have two separate six-RBI games in the same month, and his defense has been just as good, with a 100th percentile Outs Above Average mark. Budding MVP might be too kind for Crow-Armstrong. We’re watching a bona fide superstar rise before our very eyes.”

Jared Greenspan, : “The good news is that (Christian) Yelich, 33, is healthy again after a back injury truncated an MVP-caliber season last July. The bad news? The three-time All-Star hasn't quite looked like himself at the plate. A year after posting a 153 wRC+ — the 14^th best mark among hitters with at least 250 PA — Yelich has an 83 wRC+ heading into Memorial Day. The drop-off in production stems from poor underlying metrics, including a high strikeout rate and decreased sweet-spot rate. But perhaps a breakout is around the corner: Yelich posted seven hits, including a multi-homer game, over the weekend against Pittsburgh, the best that he's looked at the dish this season.”

R.J. Anderson, : “With apologies to other sellers, like the Chicago White Sox, I think the Pirates could have an interesting deadline -- and no, I don't envision them entertaining a Paul Skenes trade. Impending free agents Andrew Heaney and shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa are logical candidates to go, and it would only make sense to explore the market for relievers David Bednar and Dennis Santana. If the Pirates really want to get bold, how about shopping catcher Joey Bart? He was a savvy addition last April, but he's already in his late 20s and the Pirates could use the rest of the season to figure out what they have in young backstops Endy Rodríguez and Henry Davis.”

Bob Nightengale, USA Today: “Is there any other manager who could have his team sitting atop the NL with 14 pitchers on the injured list, missing three of their starters (Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki) and three of their opening-day relievers (Evan Phillips, Kirby Yates and Blake Treinen)? A year ago, (Dodgers manager Dave Roberts) brilliantly managed an injury-ravaged rotation and exhausted bullpen in the playoffs. Now, he’s being forced to do it all summer with a pitching staff in shambles, surrendering its worst ERA (4.15) at this juncture since 2010.”

Ben Clemens, FanGraphs: “The greatest thing about Skubal’s 2025, at least in my opinion? His single-minded pursuit of efficiency. For guys like Skubal, the worst result of a pitch is usually a ball. When hitters chase, he’s obviously doing well. When he throws a pitch in the strike zone, he’s comically dominant. Hitters are coming up empty very frequently when they swing at pitches in the zone, and even when they make contact, that’s not the end of the world for Skubal. Most of that contact is foul, and extra bases aren’t particularly devastating for him because he allows so few baserunners. But a ball doesn’t give him a chance for any of the good outcomes. It just increases his pitch count, with a chance of also walking the runner and juicing the bases. That creates the possibility for cascading failure – runners on base make pitches in the strike zone more dangerous, but pitches outside the strike zone might put even more runners on base, and so on. Not everyone could get away with this, of course. Throw a middling sinker like Skubal throws his top-shelf offering and it would get tattooed. But when you have his heavy-duty fastball and nasty secondaries, attacking the zone is strictly good.” 

Megaphone

“We’re just fighting, battling, trying to stack wins on top of each other. It hasn't been as smooth of a season as everybody is accustomed to, but that’s how baseball works. The seasons are never the same.”

Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, on playing catch-up in the National League Central.