Adams has surgery, may miss four months

ST. LOUIS -- Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams underwent surgery on Friday to repair what team orthopedist Dr. David King found to be a full tear of Adams' right quadriceps muscle. Because the injury was more severe than initially evident on an MRI, Adams is expected to need approximately four months to recover.

The Cardinals had initially estimated a three- to four-month recovery timetable.

"It's really premature to understand what that that would look like, but our hope is that he has a full and complete recovery," general manager John Mozeliak said of Adams possibly returning before the end of the season. "Obviously, we expect Spring Training to be normal. In terms of whether we'd be able to have him available for late September or if we were to be playing in October, time would tell."

Adams suffered the injury running out a double in Tuesday's game. He was placed on the disabled list a day later and has handed everyday first base duties over to Mark Reynolds, who was signed in December as insurance for the position.

Mozeliak downplayed the need to go find first base help outside the organization. The Cardinals may still do so, but not until they give Reynolds an extended look as a starting position player.

"I'm not going to get into rumors or potential players that we may or may not have interest in," Mozeliak said, answering a question specifically about outside Ryan Howard trade chatter. "Right now, I think we have a good club, and let's just see how things play out. Injuries sometimes make you change direction on how you put a team out there, but Mark Reynolds was signed for a reason, and we're going to give him every opportunity right now."

The Cardinals also have internal Triple-A options in Xavier Scruggs and Dan Johnson, the latter of whom has played parts of nine seasons in the Majors. Both players could also factor into the bench makeup should the Cardinals feel they need a boost in that area. On the Major League side, Pete Kozma, Tony Cruz, Matt Carpenter, Yadier Molina, Ed Easley and even Jon Jay could all spell Reynolds at first base, if needed.

Over the winter, the organization discussed having top prospect Stephen Piscotty get some repetitions at first base to potentially open up another path to the Majors. It hasn't happened yet, and Mozeliak suggested little urgency to move Piscotty there now.

"Obviously, he played third base in college and was drafted as a third baseman, so I think the transition for him would be pretty easy," Mozeliak said. "But again, I don't feel like we're desperate for coverage at first. We have plenty of time. Somebody like an Xavier Scruggs, whose numbers are fairly comparable to Piscotty's, knows how to play first."