SEATTLE — Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn will play out the remainder of the season despite suffering a slight tear in the meniscus of his right knee, the team confirmed Wednesday.
Winn is expected to undergo arthroscopic surgery in the offseason, but after evaluation by the Cardinals’ medical staff, he has been cleared to continue playing as long as he can tolerate the discomfort.
Team doctors have determined that Winn won’t risk further injury by playing in the club’s remaining 16 games, and he should have a “normal” offseason and be ready for 2026, barring any setbacks.
Winn was a late scratch from Tuesday night’s lineup, prompting Thomas Saggese to fill in at shortstop. Infielders Brendan Donovan and Nolan Arenado are both nearing returns from the injured list, which will help the team with depth. Donovan played six innings with Double-A Springfield Tuesday on rehab and could rejoin the big league club Friday. Arenado was slated to begin his rehab assignment Wednesday and could be back as soon as Monday.
Winn acknowledged that he hates missing games, but that he’s taking a pragmatic approach to his injury.
“I want to be in there,” Winn said. “Obviously some stuff is probably going have to be done this offseason to help me out. But I want to finish this year as strong as possible. Just going forward, if I’m going to play the rest of this year out, maybe taking a day here and there isn’t a bad idea.
“I don’t know too much about knees, but I was told I probably can’t do too much worse to it by playing on it.”
Asked about whether the injury is limiting his performance, Winn said, “I don’t think so … my speed might be a little bit worse, but I feel like, especially on defense, if I have to go make a play, adrenaline just takes over. And then I’ve got to deal with the repercussions for five or 10 minutes after that. But I feel like I don’t think it’s hurting me too badly.”
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol praised Winn’s openness.
“We’ve agreed that if it’s not feeling good enough to go that we would give him the day,” Marmol said. “And he’s been amazing at communicating that.”
