Inside The Cardinals

Cardinals Ace Suffers Concerning Injury During Spring Training Outing

St. Louis cannot afford to lose their top arm

Scott Neville

Cardinals Ace Suffers Concerning Injury During Spring Training Outing
Cardinals Ace Suffers Concerning Injury During Spring Training Outing /
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Will the St. Louis Cardinals open the season without their biggest acquisition of the offseason?

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak felt the need to make a splash following a season in which the pitching staff just did not have enough firepower to contend. He did so by landing ace Sonny Gray -- with a three-year, $75 million investment. 

Fans have been excited to get a glimpse of the 34-year-old tasked with heading the rotation this upcoming season. Unfortunately, his status for Opening Day just came into question.

Gray left his second spring training appearance early due to a hamstring injury against the Washington Nationals on Monday afternoon. The veteran walked off the mound with a trainer four outs away from finishing his scheduled three-inning outing. 

The highly-touted newcomer will likely not know the severity of the injury for a day or two -- following testing and seeing how it feels when he wakes up tomorrow. If he has to be shut down, that almost certainly will force a stint on the injured list.

St. Louis faithful will have to hope it will only be a minor setback and that he does not have to restart his throwing progression. 

Gray allowed one hit and recorded a strikeout through 1 2/3 innings on Monday. He was cruising early on, facing the minimum of five batters prior to the injury and not allowing any hard contact.

More MLB: Tigers Claim Cardinals Utility Man To Bolster Position Player Depth

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Scott Neville
SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the St. Louis Cardinals for FanNation's "Inside The Cardinals" on Sports Illustrated. Before starting "Inside The Cardinals", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join FanNation and the Sports Illustrated Media Group as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox."  After a few months as the top Major League Baseball site in the program, Neville sought expansion and pitched "Inside The Cardinals," one of the newest additions to FanNation and the Sports Illustrated Media Group. The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Cardinals" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu