St. Louis Cardinals’ Tommy Pham Returns from Disabled List; Matt Adams Placed on 60-Day DL
The St. Louis Cardinals made a series of roster moves that were more procedural than anything on Friday afternoon, as outfielder Tommy Pham was activated from the 60-day disabled list and optioned to Triple-A Memphis, while first baseman Matt Adams was transferred from the 15-day DL to the 60-day DL.
Interestingly, Pham and Adams were dealing with very similar injuries. Pham went down during spring training with an injury that was termed a “strained quad”, but as it turned out, it was more of a tear, and it caused him to miss nearly three months, stretching from March 13 until now. In similar fashion, Adams suffered an injury that was diagnosed as a quad strain, but he ended up having surgery on it shortly after and is now expected to spend the next 3-4 months recovering.
Pham will head back to Memphis and provide a huge boost to the Redbirds’ outfield, where prospect Stephen Piscotty has been joined by players such as natural infielder Ty Kelly and organizational players Mike O’Neill and Rafael Ortega in recent weeks. Pham, who went 7-for-17 (.412) in the early part of spring training this year before going down with the injury, will look to jump back in and continue that success that he showed in advance of the regular season.
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Despite the Cardinals’ current glut of outfielders, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Pham earn himself a call-up in short order if he hits well at Memphis. The Cardinals have little use for their last bench player, catcher Ed Easley, as he’s logged just one at-bat since his May 27 recall and has done little more than catch the ceremonial first pitch and warm up pitchers between innings. While having Easley on the roster is somewhat advantageous because it allows the Cardinals to more freely use the primary backup catcher, Tony Cruz, as a pinch-hitter and as an emergency backup infielder if necessary, Pham would likely be a more formidable pinch-hitting presence than either of the reserve backstops. It’d be hard to get him any time in the field with Peter Bourjos, Randal Grichuk, and Matt Holliday all playing well and Jason Heyward and Jon Jay previously having shown that they can be very effective big-leaguers, but Pham might be an upgrade at the end of the bench nonetheless.
Adams will likely miss the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery to repair the quad injury. He last saw action on May 26.