The surgery to repair the torn quadriceps of St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams went well on Friday morning, but General Manager John Mozeliak shared there has been an adjustment to the timetable for his return.
“It was a complete tear, so in terms of thinking of it from a recovery standpoint, you’re probably looking at longer period then we had maybe hoped,” said Mozeliak, clarifying that it is expected to be closer to the four months rather than three months.
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“We’ll just see,” he added. “See how rehab goes and not ruling anything out today, but based on what I’ve been told it’s probably going to be longer rather than shorter.”
Both Mozeliak and Mike Matheny reiterated that Mark Reynolds will have the opportunity to be the everyday first baseman moving forward and there also does not appear to be an immediate move to supplement the bench.
“The right approach right now is just to be patient and just see how we play and see how things fit in,” said Mozeliak. “Obviously, when you think about the addition of Reynolds, originally it was all about strengthening the bench. Frankly, with the way guys have been playing, in terms of our outfield, not everybody can play anyway every night so I do think inherently that is stronger.”
Xavier Scruggs, Dan Johnson, and perhaps even Stephen Piscotty are all internal options at Memphis, though Mozeliak emphasized the Cardinals were not “desperate for coverage” at first base.
Though Jon Jay has his own first basemen’s glove and said he would be comfortable if called upon to step in at first base, Mozeliak downplayed the notion.
“The way that we would think about this right now, would be probably he would use Kozma, Tony Cruz, and possibly even Yadi in the scheme of things if you’re looking at it like for one game. If it became more significant, then I think we would have to re-think that.”
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