MILWAUKEE -- Instead of flying back to St. Louis on Saturday to begin the process of getting a second opinion on his injured right knee or planning for a potential surgery, Masyn Winn chose to stay with his Cardinals teammates in at American Family Field.
Winn gave just about everything he had to his team over the past few months while playing hobbled at shortstop, and he simply wanted to see it through as long as possible even though he was unable to play because of a torn meniscus in his knee. Agreeing to end his season prematurely was painful enough for the 23-year-old Winn, but he got his wish of staying with his teammates throughout what will be his final road trip of 2025.
“I was hoping after having three days off that it'd feel a lot better,” said Winn, who saw the Cardinals surrender multiple late leads in a 9-8 loss in 10 innings against the Brewers. “But it's really tough to swing and really tough to take ground balls.
“The training staff noticed [the knee injury]. I was trying to hide it a little bit but I was in a lot of pain. And then we just made the executive decision to just shut it down.”
Winn got to see a first-inning homer from Iván Herrera, a third-inning homer by Brendan Donovan off an 0-2 pitch and another strong start by veteran right-hander Sonny Gray.
However, the new-look bullpen -- a surprising strength of the team since the trades of Ryan Helsley, Phil Maton and Steven Matz – was unable to hold onto 6-1, 7-4 and 8-7 leads as the Cards dropped to 0-5 on their road trip.
Milwaukee’s Caleb Durbin tied the game in the 10th with an RBI double off Kyle Leahy, and Andrew Monasterio singled him in for the win. The Brewers, who became the first MLB team to clinch a playoff spot earlier in the day, won on a walk-off for the the 11th time this season.
The Mets lost their eighth straight game earlier on Saturday, so the Cardinals stayed four games back of the National League’s final Wild Card slot.
“Our guys just want to continue to take their best shot as long as we’re still in this thing,” said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, whose club hasn’t won since getting back to .500 at 72-72 on Sunday.
Winn wanted to keep taking his shot at a historic defensive season as long as his damaged knee would hold up. Winn said an MRI in June showed a small tear in the meniscus, and he received an injection during the MLB All-Star break that he said offered him little relief.
Still, Winn authored one of the greatest defensive seasons in the rich history of the Cardinals -- a franchise for which Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith played the bulk of his career. In 129 games (127 starts), Winn committed just three errors. Not only is that the Cardinals record for fewest errors in a season by a shortstop – but it matched the error totals of Cal Ripken Jr. (1990) and Omar Vizquel (2000) for the fewest by a full-time MLB shortstop, per MLB.com research.
“The attention to detail of locking into every pitch [defensively] is difficult to do, but [Winn] didn’t give anything away,” Marmol said. “Hitters talk about not giving away any at bats, but locking in to every pitch is a real thing. He did a phenomenal job of taking pride in that. Even with the knee hurt, he was out there taking ground balls. With his approach and his routine, there was a lot of growth.”
Winn’s preparation now will center around a surgery that he experienced once before while in high school in suburban Houston. Winn said he had surgery to repair the meniscus in his right knee years earlier and he was back playing in 2 1/2 months -- a recovery process he thinks will likely stretch to four months.
First, however, Winn said he’ll head to either Florida or North Carolina for a second opinion prior to undergoing any procedure.
Something that might ease Winn’s pain could be his first Gold Glove and Platinum Glove, awards he is heavily favored to win. In addition to compiling one of the lowest error totals in the history, Winn is also MLB’s overall co-leader in Outs Above Average (plus-22) with Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. By cutting his errors from 18 in 2024 to three in 2025, Winn is hopeful he can win the top defensive honor.
“[A Gold Glove] would be fantastic,” said Winn, who played 1,107 2/3 innings defensively at shortstop. “That’s something I really wanted to win last year, but I had too many errors for it. So I'm hoping that I gave myself the best chance to win it. That'd be amazing, for sure.”