St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was diagnosed with a “slight ligament tear” in his left thumb on Monday, and he’ll be shut down for the next week at least.
Manager John Mozeliak made the announcement, while at the same time providing a bit of good news that Adam Wainwright has been cleared for baseball activity, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Molina has "slight ligament tear" in left thumb, Mozeliak says. Wainwright cleared for baseball activity. Will try to be reliever #cardinals
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) September 21, 2015
Mozeliak hopes Molina will be able to return this year, and the team will reevaluate his status in five-to-seven days.
If the seven-time All-Star catcher is unable to recover in a timely manner, then St. Louis will have lost one of its key leaders at the worst possible time. The regular season is nearly finished, and the playoffs loom.
While Molina hasn’t been tremendously effective at the plate as a batter (.270 batting average and four homers), he is arguable the best player in the game behind it. For the Cards, it would be difficult heading into the postseason without him as the anchor for the team’s pitching staff.
Still, there is room for optimism. The fact that he’s dealing with a “slight tear” is far more encouraging than something more severe, but word coming out of the locker room that Molina struggled to hold a bat without pain indicates it might take more than a week for him to fully recover.