By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today | @cbrown_STLBBT | May 27, 2016, 11:25 pm CT
By Paul Hadsall / CC Image / No changes made
Ruben Tejada’s time wearing the birds on the bat appears to be almost up.
Just over two months after he signed with St. Louis with the prospect of regular playing time at shortstop, “indications are” that the Cardinals will designate the infielder for assignment on Saturday to accommodate Matt Carpenter’s return from the paternity list, ESPN.com’s Mark Saxon reports.
After being released by the Mets in mid-March, Tejada, 26, latched on with the redbirds following Jhonny Peralta’s thumb injury, and appeared to be in line for significant at-bats at shortstop before the emergence of rookie Aledmys Diaz, who took the reigns at the position following a quad injury to Tejada himself on the last game of spring training.
By the time Tejada was activated on April 18, Diaz was surging with the bat, and the veteran of seven big league seasons found himself on the bench most days in the last month.
Now, with Greg Garcia’s stellar performance in limited playing time (8-13, including a home run on Friday) and the upcoming return of Peralta, it appears Tejada will be the odd man out when Carpenter is activated from the paternity list on for the third game of a four game series in Washington, D.C..
Saxon writes that Tejada was in discussions with Cardinals traveling secretary C.J. Cherre following the team’s 6-2 win over the Nationals on Friday night.
Tejada has been playing on a guaranteed $1.5 million deal he signed with St. Louis back on March 19, and is hitting just .176/.225/.235 with 3 RBI in 34 at-bats this season. He has the right to reject an outright assignment to the AAA level.
