The Cardinals’ Jhonny Peralta is nearing a return from thumb surgery, but he might not be their everyday shortstop when he comes back, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Redbirds want to continue playing standout rookie shortstop Aledmys Diaz, possibly their long-term solution at the position, and have had conversations with both Peralta and third baseman Matt Carpenter about lining up at multiple spots. Peralta has been playing third (he has previous major league experience there) and short during his rehab assignment, while Carpenter could move back to his former position – second base – or first base, where he started Saturday. “I feel like it’s going to create a fresh opportunity for us, but I also feel like given what you’re seeing out of Diaz at his age (25) you really need to see him develop at shortstop,” said general manager John Mozeliak. “We want to keep him developing and also figure out the right combination to win games. We need to have at least one player moving around. We need one of the veterans to say, ‘Hey, I’m willing.’”
Now for some notes on a couple of teams from the AL Central…
- Indians right-hander Carlos Carrasco, out since late April with a hamstring injury, is close to rejoining the club. He could make one more rehab start or get back on a big league mound even earlier than that, general manager Mike Chernoff told MLB Network Radio on Sunday (Twitter link). Prior to his injury, Carrasco pitched to an outstanding 2.45 ERA in 22 innings while putting up strong strikeout and walk ratios (8.18 and 2.05, respectively, per nine innings).
- Having already lost Mike Moustakas for the season and Alex Gordon for an extended period of time earlier this week, the Royals suffered yet another scare to a cornerstone player Saturday when catcher Salvador Perez left their game against the White Sox after colliding with third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert. Fortunately, an MRI showed no structural damage (only a quad contusion), meaning Perez will miss just 7-10 days, manager Ned Yost told reporters (Twitter link via Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star). The Royals will not place Perez on the disabled list, tweets Dodd.
- With Perez temporarily unavailable, the Royals have recalled catcher Tony Cruz from Triple-A Omaha and optioned reliever Peter Moylan, Dodd was among those to report (via Twitter). Cruz, who owns a .220/.262/.310 line in 633 career major league plate appearances, hit .278/.352/.417 in 122 trips to the plate with Omaha before today’s promotion. Moylan has thrown 7 1/3 innings of two-run ball for the Royals this year, striking out seven and walking two.
- While the Indians have one of the majors’ lowest payrolls, salary has never been a deciding factor for them around the trade deadline, Chernoff said (Twitter link). “It’s almost always about players and the return you have to give up,” he stated.
Wow, the Royals are going to play the next 10 days with a 24-man roster? That doesn’t seem wise at all. I know they love Perez, but is there any consideration from the team that the reason his hitting has declined precipitously might be because they never give him games off? Why not give him a two-week breather and play with a full bench? They’ll need Perez more later in the season.
It’s not that hard to play with24 in the AL.
It’s a four man bench though, and the Royals have a starting catcher and third baseman who will need to be hit for in late-close situations. And the starting rotation lacks length, so a six-man bullpen isn’t going to cut it. Once they get back to 7 they have a three-man bench, which includes the backup catcher no manager ever uses, so you’re down to one infielder and one outfielder.
But mostly, this should obviate the need for the Royals to find more rest for Sal Perez. He’s played – by far -the most innings behind the plate over the last few years. And I know KC loves his leadership and defense. But. The toll of all those games is clearly affecting the offensive part of his game. Look at his stats after around July the last two seasons – he’s fallen off a cliff with the bat. Catching in the summer is hard and wearying, and it’s clearly draining him. And doesn’t Perez just seem like the guy who’s going to try to come back early from this injury and re-aggravate it?
Isn’t it a little early to proclaim Diaz as the long term solution at short for the Cards?
Fair point. I changed the wording a bit.
The Cardinals do need to find the right combination to win games or they will be passed up by the Brewers.
The combination they need is get their pitching going. The offense is fine.
It’s been much better lately.
Hey Clevenger, you are the captain of the all ugly team! Get a haircut. It’s not helping at all!
Cards need to remember Diaz’s defense has been terrible at SS, but maybe the more he plays, the better he’ll get
I think a majority of the mistakes are the pace of game. Playing more he will get better. It seems like the game speeds up on him at times. Only way to fix that is keep running him out there.
I recently had a person, associated with the Cardinals, confide in me, that some of the players are very disgruntled with their Manager for a number of reasons. One was there is never a consistency to any of his line ups, except for Holiday. He throws in the towel every Sunday, always an inferior line up on Sundays! Let’s the games get too out of hand early without making a pitching change. Plus, they feel he handles the relief staff very inefficiently, and again, stays with a pitcher in trouble, way too long. I know there it was publicly known when the Cards left Spring Training, does this all play into it??? The Honeymoon is over.
I am not a fan of Matheny, but if the players are worried about lineups and bullpen usage, that’s on them.
Matheny has been better than ever (not saying much) this year about using platoons and his bullpen. The pitching and defense just simply need to be better
First of all . Sure someone close to the cards told you that ? I doubt it . Second your just repeating every bad comment about managers in St. Louis for the last 20 years . The bottom line is the starting pitching has been horrible . The line up has hit , the bench has hit , and more is on the way with JP , but if OH and Broxton keep pitching two thirds of the 6th and 7th innings it don’t matter who the manager or offense is .
Diaz has made too many errors to play SS. The Cards built the team on contact pitchers that are looking bad from the bad defense. But Diaz isn’t the only problem. Wong and Gridchik need to go down to AAA and learn to hit again. Gyrko, Wong, Moss, Pham, Garcia, Diaz, Adams, Holiday, and Gridchik all have problems with defense or at the plate. This isn’t Matheny, this is Mozalik putting a team together that has too many players that need AB’s to play the way they they are known for. They need to make a big trade and spend some real money. Get rid of all these mediocre players and get a star OF and clean up the infield with two full teams of players.
Ha! I stirred up a hornets nest as I intended to do! Ha! I totally agree with everyone who reacted to my post. By doing what I did generally gets responses from devout, intelligent Cardinal fans who also sees problems with a team you’ve seen overcome adversity on a regular basis for years. I especially agree with you dtw. It’s not just Matheney and his philosophy of managing. He can only be as good as the General Manager who is in charge of developing and/or obtaining top grade players to continue to be a contender in the Central Division. I also agree that currently the GM has an abundance of mediocre to above average players and they have got to spend money and talent to obtain that consistent, proven, young, superstar clean-up hitter-(rumor is Trout is available for the right price and deal)-