By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today | @cbrown_STLBBT | March 8, 2016, 11:50 pm CT
By Keith Allison / CC Image / No changes made
Updated 3/9 at 7:40 am CT with Molina in Wednesday’s lineup:
Three days after tearing a ligament in his left thumb on a routine ground ball, Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta traveled to St. Louis on Tuesday get a second opinion from a hand specialist, Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Hummel writes it’s very possible Peralta could have surgery on the Wednesday visit, which would sideline him for the roughly 2-3 months GM John Mozeliak predicted on Monday.
[Related: Jhonny Peralta suffers likely torn thumb ligament, could miss 2-3 months]
Before leaving Cardinals camp on Tuesday, the veteran told reporters, “It feels the same. We’ll see tomorrow what the doctor says.” Peralta also said that Yadier Molina, who had two similar thumb surgeries this offseason, advised him it might be better to get the surgery out of the way rather than have the injury linger.
With Peralta likely on the shelve for a few months, the team has begun the process of evaluating alternatives at the position, including in-house options Jedd Gyorko, Greg Garcia, and Aledmys Diaz. Getting the start at shortstop on Tuesday, Diaz went 4-4 with two doubles and a pair of RBI singles in Tuesday’s win over the Twins, something that didn’t go unnoticed by manager Mike Matheny.
“We’re just happy for him that he had a big day today when there is obvious more attention put on him and the position right now,” Matheny told reporters, including MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch. “I think that’s an asterisk next to it that it wasn’t just another Spring Training game. This was a day when he was put on the spot and we watched how he responded. I thought that was better than just 4-for-4 and driving some runs in.”
Read more about Diaz and the other two main in-house options at the position to fill in for Peralta here.
Mozeliak said on Monday that the team would wait to receive further word on Peralta’s injury before potentially looking outside the organization, and ESPN’s Jayson Stark reported on Tuesday that the club has not yet made any calls to other teams about a trade for a shortstop.
If the Cardinals do decide to look to the trade market, one executive told Stark that Braves shortstop Erick Aybar would likely be at the top of the team’s list of potential candidates.
MOLINA TO MAKE SPRING DEBUT WEDNESDAY
As he continues to progress well following two offseason thumb sugeries, Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina will make his Grapefruit League debut on Wednesday, batting ninth in Mike Matheny’s lineup.
Although Molina took dry swings on Tuesday for the first time since his surgeries, a very positive development, the veteran isn’t yet ready to swing in games, and the team will pull him after a few innings so as to get him a few innings behind the plate before his spot in the order comes up.
Molina will be catching new starter Mike Leake in his Cardinals debut.
While the team is still unsure whether Molina will be ready to play on Opening Day without restrictions, it’s clear things are certainly trending quickly in the right direction for the 33-year-old backstop.
MARTINEZ SET FOR FIRST SPRING START
Starter Carlos Martinez, on a modified schedule this spring after a shoulder injury prematurely ended his 2015 campaign, threw a two-inning simulated game on Tuesday in advance of his first start of the spring, which he told Hummel will be on Friday against Atlanta.
The redbirds fully expect the young right-hander to be fully ready for the start of the regular season.
