Central STL News

Masyn Winn, the St. Louis Cardinals shortstop, has ended his season early due to a torn meniscus in his right knee. Despite being unable to play, Winn chose to remain with his teammates during their road trip at American Family Field in Milwaukee rather than return to St. Louis for further medical evaluation or surgery.

“I was hoping after having three days off that it'd feel a lot better,” said Winn, who watched from the dugout as the Cardinals lost 9-8 in 10 innings to the Brewers. “But it's really tough to swing and really tough to take ground balls.

“The training staff noticed [the knee injury]. I was trying to hide it a little bit but I was in a lot of pain. And then we just made the executive decision to just shut it down.”

During Saturday’s game, Iván Herrera and Brendan Donovan each hit home runs for St. Louis, and Sonny Gray delivered another strong start on the mound. However, the bullpen—reshaped after trades involving Ryan Helsley, Phil Maton, and Steven Matz—was unable to maintain leads of 6-1, 7-4, and 8-7.

Milwaukee’s Caleb Durbin tied the game in extra innings with an RBI double off Kyle Leahy before Andrew Monasterio singled him home for the walk-off win. The Brewers secured their playoff spot earlier that day and have now won on a walk-off eleven times this season.

The loss dropped the Cardinals’ record on their current road trip to 0-5. Meanwhile, after another loss by the Mets on Saturday, St. Louis remains four games behind for the final National League Wild Card position.

“Our guys just want to continue to take their best shot as long as we’re still in this thing,” said manager Oliver Marmol. The team had reached .500 at 72-72 last Sunday but has not won since.

Winn revealed he had been managing his knee injury since June when an MRI showed a small tear in his meniscus. He received an injection during the All-Star break but experienced little relief.

Despite playing hurt, Winn completed what is considered one of the strongest defensive seasons in franchise history—an organization known for legendary shortstop Ozzie Smith. In 129 games (127 starts), Winn committed only three errors at shortstop—a new Cardinals record and equal to MLB records set by Cal Ripken Jr. (1990) and Omar Vizquel (2000).

“The attention to detail of locking into every pitch [defensively] is difficult to do, but [Winn] didn’t give anything away,” Marmol said. “Hitters talk about not giving away any at bats, but locking in to every pitch is a real thing. He did a phenomenal job of taking pride in that. Even with the knee hurt, he was out there taking ground balls. With his approach and his routine, there was a lot of growth.”

Winn will seek a second opinion before undergoing surgery—a procedure he previously had while in high school near Houston—which he estimates could require up to four months of recovery.

He remains optimistic about receiving defensive honors this offseason: “[A Gold Glove] would be fantastic,” said Winn, who played 1,107 2/3 innings defensively at shortstop. “That’s something I really wanted to win last year, but I had too many errors for it. So I'm hoping that I gave myself the best chance to win it. That'd be amazing, for sure.”