Cardinals News: Winn and Herrera on the mend, officer recognition, Matz to the rotation

The St. Louis Cardinals are ready to wrap up their home stand before heading out on a six-game road trip and have received welcomed news for some of their young stars. Besides the injury, the Cardinals hosted a nice pregame ceremony for an inspiring figure and will officially move to a six-man rotation.

Masyn Winn, Ivan Herrera progressing in baseball activities

Winn is the closest injured Cardinal to returning after he landed on the 10-day IL thanks to back spasms he experienced in the first inning of a game against the Phillies. Even with his initial positive outlook that he would not miss much time, the team decided to play it safe and place him on the injured list anyway. John Denton's most recent update on the shortstop is that he has progressed to playing catch and taking some swings in the cage. If Winn responds well to the uptick in activity, he will remain on track to be activated on Tuesday when the Cardinals play the Braves.

On the catching front, Herrera has progressed along with Winn but is further away from returning. At the time of his bruised knee diagnosis, it was assumed that Herrera would miss a minimum of four weeks, and we are just about at the two week point. The catcher's bat has been missed at times during his absence, but backup catcher Pedro Pages has stepped up in a big way, knocking in nine runs and throwing out four runners stealing. It will be interesting to see how the Cardinals plan to split the catching responsibilities when Herrera returns if Pages remains productive on both sides of the ball.

Cardinals honored officer battling cancer before Tuesday's game

Prior to Tuesday's game, the Cardinals had officer DJ Daniel take the field as the team honored his courage and perseverance. Daniel, who was sworn in to over 200 police departments across Missouri, was on the field for batting practice, met some of his favorite players, and threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Officer Daniel has spent the past six years battling brain and spinal cancer.

Steven Matz starts as the Cardinals move to a six-man rotation

At the end of Spring Training, the Cardinals announced that Matthew Liberatore had won the fifth starter job thanks to his dominant spring. This was a surprising outcome, as many thought the fifth spot was a competition between lefty Steven Matz and rookie Michael McGreevy, who each had strong springs of their own. At the time of the announcement of Liberatore to the starting staff, manager Oli Marmol also announced that Matz would make some starts when the team moved to a six-man rotation in mid-April.

That move has officially happened, as Matz is scheduled to start today's series finale against the Astros. The lefty has had a strong start to the season, throwing 11.2 innings to this point, all in relief. Even though he was stretched out during the spring, Matz will be on a 60-pitch limit for today's start. At minimum, Matz is expected to get another start next week, as the Cardinals do not have a scheduled off day until next Thursday.