Adam Wainwright out for season, Cardinals to promote from within

St. Louis Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright has been placed on the disabled list after hurting his Achilles and ankle while batting over the week, and the fear is he will be out for the rest of the season, according to Ken Rosenthal.

Wainwright is officially out for the season:

Wainwright has a torn Achilles in left foot. Surgery this week, per Mozeliak. Out for season.#cardinals #STLCards

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) April 27, 2015

In the wake of a star pitcher hurting himself while at the plate, the debate over the designated-hitter being required in the National League heated up again, with comments from Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer, who also injured himself while in the batters box.

"If you look at it from the macro side, who'd people rather see hit -- Big Papi or me?" Scherzer said. "Who would people rather see, a real hitter hitting home runs or a pitcher swinging a wet newspaper? Both leagues need to be on the same set of rules."

Where do the Cardinals go from here?

It is almost impossible to replace the production that Wainwright brings to the table, but the Cardinals want to explore internal options first.

Left-handers Tyler Lyons, Tim Cooney, Marco Gonzales, Jamie Garcia and righty Zach Petrick were all named as potential replacements by general manager John Mozeliak, according to Rick Hummel. Both Gonzales and Garcia are on the disabled-list themselves, and won't be immediate options to replace Wainwright in the rotation.

What if the replacements don't work out?

That is an option that Mozeliak envisioned when discussions potential replacements, and was very clear that the Cardinals wouldn't be against looking outside of the organization to find a starter.

"If you get into May and early June and you don't feel like the internal options are the solution you were hoping for then you might have to look outside," Mozeliak said.

Obviously when discussing the starting pitching market, the name Cole Hamels is at the top. Now, at this current moment there is nothing linking the two teams together, but as the season wears on and depending on how the replacements work out, there is a match made between these two teams.

The Philadelphia Phillies want to dump Hamels and his contract and begin their rebuild, while the Cardinals are prospect rich and can put together a competitive deal.