St. Louis Cardinals: Jedd Gyorko activated and Ozuna stays

The St. Louis Cardinals are getting back their great utility man, Jedd Gyorko on Friday, what does that mean for the look of the roster?

The St. Louis Cardinals have been without one of their most underrated players thus far in the 2019 season but have no fear, Jedd Gyorko is back.

Jedd Gyorko had gotten off to a torrid start to Spring Training this year but after just a few games, he strained his calf which kept him out of games for the rest of Spring and left him sitting on the Injured List to start the year. This was more or less an odd injury and likely won’t have too many lasting effects.

The player who replaced Gyorko on the roster, Drew Robinson, has been shipped back to Memphis after he had a good enough Spring to fill a roster spot for a few days. I am not a huge fan of Robinson because of his .201 batting average and -0.5 WAR, but what do I know. Robinson will go back to serving as a versatile (even if underwhelming) depth piece at AAA.

Gyorko’s role is different this year (for now) than what it has been in the past as he no longer has a starting spot on the infield. That being said though, he will be the first man to fill a role on the infield if there is an injury. Welcome back Gyorko.

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The other part of this seemingly minor transaction is that Marcell Ozuna is not going to go onto the IL as of right now. I am not getting too deep into my frustrations with Ozuna so far in 2019, but in short, he has looked like a completely different player than he was in 2017 in so many ways.

Ozuna went for an MRI on his side on Tuesday and per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the MRI was encouraging to the Cardinals. The team has him in the lineup today, so I guess he’s good to go… You would almost think that with the way Ozuna has looked, maybe an IL stint for an injury, real or otherwise, would be good for him to be able to get a reset and get to a better spot physically.

The Cardinals obviously know more about the situation than any of us, so we will see how the situation continues to unfold. In the meantime, having Gyorko back on the bench will help with the depth at the Major League level.