Cardinals answer fan call for heavy-hitting hot corner bat and refresh bullpen

The back end of the order has suffered enough. The St. Louis Cardinals have made the call and promoted power prospect Blaze Jordan from Triple-A Memphis to make his major league debut in Minnesota. Jordan will be called up, while the slumping Nolan Gorman will be demoted to work on making contact more frequently. To refresh the bullpen, Hunter Dobbins has been shipped to Memphis, and Chris Roycroft makes his return to the majors. Ramon Urias was moved to the 60-day injured list to make space for Jordan on the 40-man roster.

Jordan has been called up from Memphis to fill the massive offensive hole at third base. Nolan Gorman, who was finally getting his unencumbered runway, has been one of the worst players with the bat all season, and Jordan should get the vast majority of the playing time at third right away. Jordan is starting at third base and hitting eighth in today's series opener against the Twins.

Blaze Jordan could take short and long-term hold of the hot corner for Cardinals

When Jordan was acquired from the Red Sox in the Steven Matz trade, he struggled with Memphis and was left unprotected in the Rule-5 draft despite hitting well during his minor league career. That left him on the outside looking in to a roster that needed some power, and even with the Cardinals holding firm to a playoff spot, Chaim Bloom has not been shy to ruffle the clubhouse feathers to fill some holes with internal options.

After shuffling through Ramon Urias, Thomas Saggese, and Jose Fermin, Blaze is the next player in line to take hold of a third base spot that nobody has seemed willing to grab. Despite the negative, and mostly inaccurate, reporting of his defensive usage in Memphis, his clearest path to playing time is at third and Oli Marmol could slide him into the lineup there right away. In his career, Jordan has played more games at third than anywhere else, so he is not uncomfortable at third and can make the routine plays.

Chris Roycroft looks to seize his opportunity in the Cardinals bullpen... again

On the pitching side, the Cardinals' usage of a six-man rotation lasted one turn through as Hunter Dobbins has also been sent on the shuttle to give Marmol a fresh arm. Dobbins has impressed in his four outings with the big league team and is being given the opportunity to remain on a normal schedule while pitching in Memphis. Should Dustin May be traded or another starter go down with an injury, Dobbins will be up as soon as possible.

His demotion brings the Chris Roycroft experience back into the St. Louis bullpen that has been trying to fill the middle-inning roles all season. After Matt Svanson and Ryan Fernandez went through their own struggles along with Roycroft, the other two had received their chance at redemption with solid results. Now that Fernandez is injured and the team is moving back to a traditional five-man rotation, they needed another arm that could fill those innings and Roycroft was the next healthy option on the 40-man roster.

Roycroft has a 5.84 ERA in the minors this season but has significantly cut his walk rate while in Memphis. He has only walked one batter over his last 8.1 innings and has struck out seven. If he has unlocked something with his command, it will be a boost to the bullpen to have Roycroft fill the open spot.

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