Flaherty, who is scheduled to start Wednesday's contest against the Reds, does not have a defined innings limit for the season as of yet, Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com reports. "The good thing about the way Jack has pitched this year is he's thrown a lot of innings without facing a lot of batters or throwing a ton of pitches because he's been so effective," general manager Michael Girsch said. "We don't have a date or a number in mind."
The rookie has now thrown 157.2 innings across three levels of the Cardinals organization this season, which easily eclipses his 2016 total of 134 frames. Flaherty had originally been scheduled to not go beyond a 20 percent increase over last season's total in 2017, but the team now appears willing to be more flexible in that regard. The 21-year-old right-hander has a 6.00 ERA and 10:5 K:BB over nine innings across his first two big-league starts.