Cardinals’ Jhonny Peralta could be out 2–3 months with thumb injury

St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta could be out for two to three months after suffering a thumb injury.

St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta is expected to miss two to three months after suffering a left thumb injury, according to KSDK.com. According to general manager John Mozeliak, Peralta may have sustained a ligament tear and could be facing surgery.

“The medical team feels like right now the news is not going to be good,” Mozeliak said during Monday’s spring training game broadcast on Fox Sports Midwest. “It looks like the [ulnar collateral ligament] has been compromised. From where we stand, he’ll get one more opinion on it tomorrow, hopefully, and then from there, we’ll make a decision what that next step looks like.”

Peralta sustained the injury Saturday while attempting to field a ground ball and has left the Cardinals' spring training compound in Jupiter, Fla., to be examined by team doctors in St. Louis. If he takes the excepted amount of time to recover, Peralta could be out well into the third month of the season.

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“I would speculate you’re looking at sometime in the middle of June, end of June when you could expect him to return,” Mozeliak said. “A lot of it is, of course, on how therapy goes, but the overall operation itself is not overly complicated.”

Peralta played in 155 games last season and was named to his third All-Star team. He finished the season batting .275 with 17 home runs and 71 RBIs.