Cardinals Expert Addresses Chance Of Shakeup With Ex-All-Star

One thing that is the case in each sport in each year is that there always are overreactions.

That's not uncommon and there's nothing wrong with that. The St. Louis Cardinals have played 16 games so far and if you were to scroll social media at points you would think that the season was in the dog days of the summer with all of the takes and trade chatter out there.

St. Louis is just about 10 percent of the way into 162-game season which sounds like a lot, but there are still 152 games to be played including at least 1,368 innings left in the regular season barring extra innings. There's a lot of time left and the Cardinals have been better than expected, frankly.

There's a lot of fight in this team. One guy who has been talked about a lot, though is starting pitcher Miles Mikolas. The two-time All-Star is in the final year of his deal with St. Louis and there's been a lot of chatter about his future with the team. He obviously didn't get traded this past offseason, but some have been pretty loud about wanting him gone.

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch did a question-and-answer with fans on Tuesday and addressed the question about Mikolas and made it sound like he's not going anywhere soon.

"That said, Mikolas makes $16 million for a team that has guaranteed that salary, has advertised its wish to reduce payroll, and is unlikely then to cut him a check to go away so that they can spend his salary and more to cover those innings," Goold said. "So, yeah, he'll get more than April to be in the rotation. And if he builds on what he did this past weekend, doesn't that make sense?

"Even a team in 'transition' or trying to get more playing time for young players does need to get innings (regardless of what happens in those innings) from somewhere so as not to capsize the youth. It's not what fans want to hear, but it's the reality because those innings have to be pitched, and would you rather a young pitcher wear the tough ones or a veteran player used to shouldering a lot of innings."

This is perfectly fair even if people on social media think otherwise. Mikolas has made three starts so far this season and he's given the club a chance to win in two of them. He allowed two earned runs in 5 1/3 innings pitched in his first start and then three runs in his third start in 5 innings pitched. His second one against the Boston Red Sox was rough while allowing eight earned runs in 2 2/3 innings pitched.

One bad start skews his overall numbers, but he was solid in Spring Training with a 3.66 ERA in five outings and has been steady in two of his three starts so far this season. No reason to move on right now.

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