St. Louis Cardinals Pitcher Chris Carpenter Unlikely to Pitch in 2013

It is a familiar story, but once again, injuries have derailed a season for Chris Carpenter.

St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak announced on Tuesday that the veteran is unlikely to pitch at all in the upcoming season.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the news on Twitter:

Carpenter missed most of last year with various injuries, but returned for three starts at the end of the regular season. The team had enough faith in the veteran to give him three starts in the playoffs as well.

Although he had a 1-2 record in the postseason, his 2.63 ERA helped keep his team in games.

Now, it appears that he will once again be on the sidelines while his team plays the majority of the season.

When healthy, Carpenter has been one of the top pitchers in baseball during his time in the majors. He started his career with the Toronto Blue Jays, but his production really picked up when he went to St. Louis.

In nine years with the Cardinals, the ace has a 95-44 record, 3.07 ERA and 1,085 strikeouts. His peak was in 2005 when he won 21 games and was rewarded with his only career Cy Young Award.

He has also topped 220 innings pitched in four different seasons.

Unfortunately, he also threw fewer than 20 innings in three different seasons.

While it is easy to speculate that this will lead to the 37-year-old professional announcing his retirement, Rosenthal reports that he is more likely to stay on the disabled list all season:

"

Mozeliak says Carpenter likely to DL. By announcing retirement, Carp would forfeit $12.5M salary.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 5, 2013"

The pitcher remains under contract until the end of the 2013 season.

Carpenter has put together a great career; it is just unfortunate that injuries will once again play such an important role in it as he misses another season of baseball.