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The St. Louis Cardinals placed shortstop Masyn Winn on the 10-day injured list Saturday because of lower back spasms.

In a corresponding move, the Cardinals activated second baseman Nolan Gorman (strained right hamstring) from the 10-day IL.

Winn injured his back in the first inning of Friday’s 2-0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. He fielded a high chopper, avoided stepping on second base and threw to first to retire Trea Turner. Winn exited in the second inning, and after the game said he didn’t want to go on the IL.

“It was similar (to the spasms of 2024). Last year was actually a little bit worse,” Winn said after the game. “I’ve just got to get through this one after the muscles spasmed up. … I’m probably out for (Saturday), but hopefully it feels better in a couple of days.”

Instead, after talking with Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, Winn agreed that the best approach was rest and rehabilitation.

“He’s a competitor, but at the same time once we talked through it, he was like, ‘Man, I get it, but if this was a different time of year I’d really push. But I understand that it’s better to get this behind us and get it feeling good instead of letting this linger a couple of months,'” Marmol said of his discussion with Winn. “So he definitely understood that.”

Thomas Saggese, who played shortstop after Winn exited as well as in Saturday’s 4-1 home loss to the Phillies, and regular second baseman Brendan Donovan could replace Winn in the lineup.

Winn, 23, is batting .222 (10-for-45) with one home run and three RBIs in 13 games. Winn, who made his MLB debut in August 2023, is a career .249 batter with 18 homers, 72 RBIs and 34 doubles in 200 games.

St. Louis selected Winn in the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft.

Gorman, 24, had not played since April 1 before going 0-for-1 as a pinch hitter and second baseman in Saturday’s game. He is 4-for-9 with one homer and one RBI in three games.

The Cardinals picked Gorman 19th overall in the 2018 draft. He is a career .224 hitter with 61 homers and 162 RBIs in 318 games since the 2022 season.

“(On Friday) he was really pushing and not wanting to miss a whole lot of time and not needing at-bats with what he was doing (in the batting cages) and his running progression stuff,” Marmol said. “So he’s happy that we’re not stringing this along and sending him down to get at-bats. … Even with this (Winn) move today, (Gorman) was pushing to be back. Even if this (Winn injury) didn’t happen, he was really pushing us to be back today. So it worked out where we could make the move.”

–Field Level Media