St. Louis Cardinals Activate Ruben Tejada from DL, Option Greg Garcia to Triple-A

The St. Louis Cardinals will finally have the opportunity to use Ruben Tejada, who they thought would be their Opening Day shortstop.

After placing seven players on the disabled list over the past 17 days, the St. Louis Cardinals were about due to be able to actually get an injured player back. They accomplished that goal on Monday, activating infielder Ruben Tejada from the DL. To make room for him on the roster, infielder Greg Garcia was optioned to Triple-A Memphis.

Tejada, who was signed by the Cardinals on March 19, was expected to be the club’s starting shortstop for the first half of this season as Jhonny Peralta recovers from a thumb injury. However, Tejada suffered a quad strain on the last day of spring training, which forced him to have to begin the season on the DL.

His job looked quite safe over the season’s first few days as converted second baseman Jedd Gyorko kicked balls around at short.

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25-year-old prospect

was recalled for the season’s second game after outfielder

went on the DL, though, and since Diaz has been cast into a major role, he’s absolutely raked, hitting .406/.441/.813 with two homers and eight RBI in 34 plate appearances. At least for the short term, it looks like Diaz has a solid grasp on the starting shortstop job, as evidenced by

‘s decision to start Diaz on Monday night and park Tejada on the bench for his first active game in a Cardinals uniform.

The Cardinals are paying Tejada $1.5 million this season, so it should be interesting to see how much of a leash he’s given. He has experience filling a utility infield role and can provide solid, if unspectacular, defense at short, second, and third. With that said, Jedd Gyorko does pretty much the same thing, and the Cardinals still owe Gyorko $32 million. If the team needs to make a move at some point this season to accommodate a 13-man pitching staff, would they be willing to send down a guy like Pham and/or Jeremy Hazelbaker and operate with reduced outfield depth, or would they be willing to cut bait with Tejada, who is somewhat redundant at this point?

Next: What Have the Cardinals Really Lost to the DL?

The move is an unfortunate development for the 26-year-old Garcia, who has established himself as an effective contributor off the bench. Garcia led the club with nine pinch hits last season, including two doubles and a home run, and he homered in his only pinch-hit at-bat this season. Garcia, who has played in eight games this season while starting two, has a .600/.733/1.000 slash line through 15 plate appearances this season. He’ll go down to Memphis for now, but it’s very likely that he’ll be back in 2016, perhaps sooner than later if Diaz returns to earth and the Cardinals go back to Tejada as their starting shortstop.