ST. LOUIS (AP) — The St. Louis Cardinals placed rookie infielder JJ Wetherholt on the 10-day injured list Sunday with right wrist tendinitis.
Wetherholt was hitless in his past two games, but is hitting .242 with 17 home runs, 48 RBIs and 88 runs scored as St. Louis' leadoff hitter. He had been managing pain for the past several weeks and was given the day off Thursday, with no improvement.
“These past three or four days have been pretty, pretty bad,”
Wetherholt said. "And then obviously, like had an off day. We’ve been trying to like incorporate maybe some rest with stuff like that, and my body just was not really responding to it.
“So the doctors kind of just said we’re losing that pain battle, so just kind of need some time.”
Wetherholt's production dropped off after the All-Star Game. His OPS was .755 in the first half but just .618 in 40 games since.
Wetherholt said he would visit a doctor in Arizona and then rejoin the team in Los Angeles during its nine-game road trip. He held out hope that he could return after the minimum 10 days, and manager Oliver Marmol was confident Wetherholt would return this season.
“I appreciate his eagerness and unwillingness to want to come out of the lineup,” Marmol said, “but at this point where we’re at, I think it makes sense to go ahead and do this.”
Infielder César Prieto was called up from Triple-A Memphis to replace Wetherholt. Prieto has three hits in 15 career big-league games.
With Gold Glove-winning shortstop Masyn Winn out with a broken thumb, the Cardinals started José Fermín at second base and Thomas Saggese at shortstop Sunday against Pittsburgh.
An elite defender at second base, Wetherholt had made his previous eight starts at shortstop following Winn's injury. Wetherholt said that move activated his arm more, but he was skeptical about whether it aggravated the injury.
“I don’t know if that played into it at all, but throwing was really fine, to be honest,” Wetherholt said. “It’s really just been swinging.”
Marmol said Winn was nearing a return and had a successful batting practice Saturday, although it is unclear whether he will be activated when rosters expand Tuesday or later in the road trip.
Winn fielded grounders during pregame warmups and remained on the field taking extra practice after other middle infielders had gone back to the dugout.
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