Matt Holliday Injury: Updates on Cardinals Star's Quad and Recovery

St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday was activated from the disabled list on Sept. 15, after a strained quad suffered on July 29 kept him sidelined for over a month.

On Sept. 12, Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said Holliday will be ready to play every day upon his return to the lineup, per Jim Hayes of Fox Sports Midwest.

St. Louis is a team with World Series aspirations that has sat atop the National League Central for the majority of the season, but it needs the thunder in the middle of the lineup Holliday provides.

Holliday is a four-time Silver Slugger winner who has topped 20 home runs in nine different seasons and 30 on two occasions. He also boasted 13 career postseason long balls entering the 2015 campaign and is a proven bat in critical moments.

This is just the latest injury in a trying season health-wise for the Cardinals. To their credit, they have found a way to stay in contention even though their ace, Adam Wainwright, has missed most of the campaign. Holliday and power hitter Matt Adams, among others, have also missed significant chunks of time.

St. Louis has relied on trade-deadline acquisition Brandon Moss, although Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated pointed out the Cardinals have options: "Thanks to the Cardinals' existing depth, that will leave manager Mike Matheny with an ample cast—Moss, [Mark] Reynolds, [Stephen] Piscotty, [Randal] Grichuk and Peter Bourjos—to cover first base, left field and center field, with Jason Heyward in right."

Those names, outside of Heyward, don’t inspire fear in opposing pitchers like Holliday does, and getting the outfielder back will allow the team to truly push for another World Series title.