Albert Pujols is going to miss 4-6 weeks with a broken wrist he suffered in a collision during the St. Louis Cardinals' victory over the Kansas City Royals, but with the off-day on Monday the Cardinals avoided making a move to put him on the 15-day disabled list. With a few options for replacing the slugger—none of them, obviously, satisfactory—they could go a few ways when it comes time to utilize his spot on the 25-man roster. The most obvious option is to move Lance Berkman, their comeback player of the year candidate, back to his natural first base, but the Cardinals insist that's not the only thing they're considering.
If they do go another direction, it's likely to involve Mark Hamilton, the left-handed first baseman who's spent much of his minor league career stagnating behind the assumption that Albert Pujols would always be ahead of him in St. Louis. Hamilton's spent a few stints on the Cardinals roster as a mostly invisible pinch hitter, and was sent down just a few days ago to fortify the Cardinals' bullpen. Allen Craig is the Cardinals' primary platoon partner from the right side, but while he's on the disabled list for his own broken bone Hamilton would be spotted by fellow Memphis refugee Andrew Brown.
With Berkman's lack of range in the outfield and Jon Jay's hot hitting it makes little sense to maintain the status quo like that, but the Cardinals continue to insist it's a possibility.