Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said that Carlos Martinez will have a “soft cap” on his innings next season if he wins a spot in the rotation. Currently, it’s expected that he’ll battle Marco Gonzales for the fifth starter’s job.
Martinez threw just 99 and two-thirds innings between the majors and minors last year. With St. Louis he started only seven of his 57 games in 2014. He also was primarily a reliever in 2013. While he was almost exclusively a starter in the minors, he has still never thrown more than 108 innings in a season as a pro, so the Cards are taking a better-safe-than-sorry approach.
What that “soft cap” might look like? Well, Mozeliak didn’t say. They’re just going to monitor him for fatigue and give him a lot of rest, one presumes, so they don’t have to pull a Strasburg and shut him down late.