By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today | @cbrown_STLBBT | April 7, 2016, 11:09 am CT
The Cardinals ‘next man up’ tactic will be put to the test early in the 2016 season, as the club could be without backup catcher Brayan Pena and outfielder Tommy Pham for a month as they recover from injuries sustained this past week, Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Pena, who injured his left knee when he slipped in the dugout during a Spring Training game, had surgery to remove a loose particle in the knee, and manager Mike Matheny said no other damage was discovered in the procedure. The 34-year-old has been placed on a roughly one month rehab program, but Matheny didn’t leave out the possibility of a quicker return.
Journeyman Eric Fryer will continue to serve as Yadier Molina’s backup while Pena, signed to a two-year, $5 million contract this offseason, is sidelined.
Meanwhile, the timeline for Pham, who suffered a strained left oblique in the team’s season opener, is much less clear. The fourth outfielder, who received an Opening Start in left field with Matt Holliday at first, met with doctors in St. Louis to confirm the severity of the injury before the club placed him on the 15-day DL.
“Could be a month. Could be sooner,” Matheny said. “Depends on how he looks, how he responds, and how good of a patient he is. That’s one you can push too hard too soon and it can turn into a real long time. He’s probably pushing the shorter end of that, but we have to make sure he’s following the protocol.”
GONZALES BATTLING ELBOW ISSUE
After being scratched from his scheduled start for AAA Memphis, left-hander Marco Gonzales will see orthopedist Neal ElAttrache in the near future to determine the severity of a left elbow injury, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch writes.
Gonzales has already seen a Cardinals team doctor, but the team to wait to announce any diagnosis until Gonzales receives the second opinion.
GM John Mozeliak said the 24-year-old first began feeling the discomfort on March 28, a week after he was reassigned to minor league camp.
MOLINA TIES SIMMONS
Three days after making a club-record 12th consecutive Opening Day start at catcher, Yadier Molina made his 1,380th start behind the plate on Wednesday, surpassing Ted Simmons for the Cardinals’ all-time record for starts at the position.
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