Bad news out of Cardinals camp, as they may now be without their starting shortstop for a long time:
Jhonny Peralta suffered a left thumb injury on Saturday. Early indications are that he tore a ligament, could miss 2-3 months.
— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) March 7, 2016
Jhonny Peralta has a torn ligament in his left hand, similar to Molina's injury. Headed for 2nd opinion. Absence could be lengthy #Cardinals
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) March 7, 2016
Peralta will head back to St. Louis to receive a second opinion; #STLCards will get better feel for severity/recovery after that.
— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) March 7, 2016
Peralta, 33, had his worst season offensively and defensively last year in a very long time, but he still projected to be an important member of the Cardinals in 2016, worth anywhere between two and three wins.
[adinserter block=”2″]If he misses three months from here, and then has to rehab a bit to get ready, it’s possible he won’t be back with the Cardinals until June. The Cardinals do have a plausibly capable back-up in Jedd Gyorko, acquired this offseason for Jon Jay, but he had been set to be something of a utility guy and platoon-mate for Kolten Wong at second base (Wong crushes righties, but really struggles against lefties). In extremely limited duty at shortstop last year with the Padres, Gyorko’s defensive metrics were very poor.
This could be a really serious issue for the Cardinals if Peralta has to miss a lot of time. And recall, the Cardinals are already dealing with the possibility that Yadier Molina could miss the start of the season with a thumb issue of his own.