ST. LOUIS -- The Cardinals placed Gold Glove shortstop Masyn Winn on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Saturday, and recalled infielder Nolan Gorman from Triple-A Memphis on Tuesday.
Winn injured his left thumb sliding into second base after a seventh-inning double in last Tuesday’s 3-0 win at Cincinnati. He last played on Friday, coming in as a defensive replacement in a 7-6 loss against the Phillies.
Though Winn’s ailment primarily impacts his ability to swing a bat, the Cardinals opted against deploying him for even defensive replacement purposes over the rest of the weekend in order to minimize the number of games he is forced to miss amid an IL designation.
“We made the decision before the game to stay away from him that last day, because we had a feeling with the imaging we were about to do when we got back home that … there’s something there, he was not recovering,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “That would allow us to backdate it and gain those three days. So, I’m glad we did, because we’re now on our third or fourth day into the 10-day.”
Backdating the move to Saturday should allow for Winn’s 10th day on the IL to come on the team’s day off ahead of the next road trip, which begins on Sept. 1 in Los Angeles, facing the Dodgers.
“It made sense not to try to manage this,” Marmol said. “Play in a game, being off a day, seeing how he comes in every day to see if the pain tolerance -- like, it’s just, let’s give you the seven days, get on the other side of it and go from there.”
In 122 games, Winn is slashing .238/.314/.326 with 19 doubles and 51 RBIs. He has just eight errors.
Gorman returns to the club after he was optioned in mid-June. In 62 games, the 26-year-old slashed .194/.279/.318 with seven homers and 26 RBIs. At Memphis, Gorman posted a .758 OPS in 46 games while delivering 13 homers and 29 RBIs.
Gorman’s recall comes just a handful of days after the veteran infielder had made it a point to reconnect with Marmol. The 26-year-old infielder wanted to make sure the big league club knew where his head was at -- and that he was ready to contribute.
“I know he had a busy road trip,” Gorman laughed. “But yeah, I was trying to connect with him. I really wanted to understand what I needed to do to get back here and help these guys out. Just kind of expressed my confidence in what I’d been working on and just give them the feeling that I’m not just down there sulking or depressed.
“It was a good conversation that we had and I think we’ve got a pretty good relationship to be able to be honest with each other and go from there.”
Marmol came to understand from that conversation where Gorman stood, and with the need arising for Winn to take some extra time to allow his thumb to heal, suddenly, the time for a promotion was right.
“I was able to talk to him about four or five days ago and he felt a lot more confident as to his work and how he’s going about it and what he’s trying to do in the box and executing upon those things,” Marmol said. “So, we have a need with Masyn going down. He comes up and he’ll get an opportunity to mix and match into the lineups and see what we’ve got.”
With rookie second baseman JJ Wetherholt capable of holding down starting shortstop duties in Winn’s absence, Gorman could theoretically factor into the Cardinals’ plans at third base, second base or designated hitter.
Gorman was in the lineup against the Orioles on Tuesday at Busch Stadium, batting sixth and serving as the DH. He went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his return.