The Cardinals are activating Ramón Urías off the 60-day injured list today, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He is in today’s starting lineup as the second baseman. To clear an active roster spot, the team is placing Everson Pereira on the 10-day injured list with a bruised left hand. The Cardinals have a couple open spots on the 40-man roster, so no additional move is needed there.
Urias signed a modest $2MM deal with St. Louis during spring training. He appeared in 25 games early in the season, batting just .158/.279/.316 with a 71 wRC+ in 68 plate appearances. He went on the 10-day IL on May 5th for right elbow lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow). Urias started a rehab assignment, but he only lasted two games before the Cardinals paused it and transferred him to the 60-day IL. He has been out for almost four months.
Urias has taken 45 plate appearances with Triple-A Memphis since beginning a new rehab assignment in late July. Combined with his seven plate appearances from the first assignment, the infielder is batting .184/.231/.327 with a 32.7% strikeout rate for the Cardinals’ top affiliate. Those are obviously not encouraging numbers, though it’s more important to both the player and team that Urias is back to full health.
St. Louis is currently one game over .500 and 4.5 games behind the Padres for the last NL Wild Card spot. The team is pretty set as far as infielders go. Masyn Winn is a below-average hitter but an excellent defender at shortstop. Alec Burleson has 21 home runs and a 132 wRC+ at first base, and JJ Wetherholt has shined both offensively and defensively en route to a 4.5 fWAR season, leading the team’s position players.
Blaze Jordan is a relative weak point at the hot corner, as he’s running just a 73 wRC+ in 189 plate appearances since his contract was selected in June. He doesn’t come with a top prospect pedigree, but he is only 23 and was hitting well at Triple-A before getting promoted to the Majors. Urias has been a below-average hitter since the start of 2025, so he figures to serve as a backup infielder and defensive replacement rather than take over for Jordan.
Pereira was claimed off waivers from the White Sox earlier this month. He’s gotten into 11 games for the Cardinals since that claim, putting up a 147 wRC+ in a small sample of 23 plate appearances. That brings him up to a 109 wRC+ in 111 plate appearances this year, including his prior work for Chicago. Pereira was on the roster as a fourth outfielder, so José Fermín figures to get more outfield reps while Urias takes over as the main infielder off the bench.
Photo courtesy of Erik Williams, Imagn Images
