The St. Louis Cardinals will have a bit more time before possibly losing a player from their roster as the team announced today Jhonny Peralta (upper respiratory) has been placed on the 10-day disabled list and Tyler Lyons has been activated.
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Lyons opened the season on the disabled list as he finished working his way back from the right knee stress reaction that required off-season surgery. Earlier this week, he made his third rehab assignment start at Memphis. In the three games pitched, Lyons allowed just two runs in 14.0 innings pitched.
The move for Peralta is retroactive to April 16th as he did not appear in a game during the past series against Pittsburgh. Prior to the start of the series against the Pirates, St. Louis General Manager John Mozeliak acknowledged that Peralta’s .120 (3-25, 9Ks) start and two errors was not
“I hate to sit here and again, judge a player on simply on this body of work, but it hasn’t been good,” said Mozeliak at the time. “When you look at production, it just hasn’t been there. And I think that’s sort of the part that’s a little bit of a head scratcher because you look at the majority of players had really strong springs. Then to have the regular season start and be has flat as we’ve been or the inability to have success, it’s frustrating.”
Peralta is in the final year of his contract with St. Louis and will make $10 million this season. Due to a thumb injury last year, he was limited to only 313 plate appearances and hit 8 home runs with 29 RBIs. Though he did not hit a home run in Grapefruit League play, Peralta did look to have the strength back in his swing and ready for the upcoming season.
Now the Cardinals must decide what role Peralta will have moving forward–how to balance enough playing time for him to get out of the rough start but not hurt the team or the bigger issue of removing him from the roster.
In addition, with Lyons ready to be activated, the Cardinals were facing a different roster dilemma as essentially Matt Bowman is the only reliever with options to be sent to Memphis (AAA). Arguably the most consistent reliever thus far, Bowman is in the midst of a 17.2 innings scoreless streak, dating back to last September. He also threw 12.0 scoreless innings in the Grapefruit League this spring.
Both Lyons and Miguel Socolovich would have to clear waivers before the Cardinals could option them to the minors.
Tonight, Jedd Gyorko will start at 3rd base for St. Louis as they open a four-game series in Milwaukee against the Brewers.
photo credit: STLBaseballWeekly.com
#STLCards vs. Milwaukee (4/20)
Fowler CF
Diaz SS
Carpenter 1B
Piscotty RF
Molina C
Gyorko 3B
Grichuk LF
Wong 2B
C. Martinez RHP— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) April 20, 2017
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