Doctors sideline Chris Carpenter indefinitely.

Chris Carpenter has nerve irritation that has caused weakness in his pitching shoulder and the St. Louis Cardinals’ ace will be sidelined indefinitely.

The Cardinals made the announcement Friday, after Carpenter was evaluated in St. Louis this week. The team says there is no new nerve injury and the cervical disc injury that occurred earlier in spring training is a “non-issue.”

This seems to happen to Chris every four years, as he suffered a similar problem in 2004 and 2008.

With Adam Wainwright returning after a season lost to injury, and the addition of Carlos Beltran, the Cardinals put themselves in good shape to sustain or even improve their win total despite the loss of Albert Pujols. Losing Carpenter puts them back to even, depending on how well Lance Lynn performs in Carpenter’s spot. The Cardinals may be more likely to take a wild card than win the division now. That worked out quite well for them in 2011.