St. Louis Cardinals David Freese will make season debut today

The St. Louis Cardinals have cleared 2011 World Series hero David Freese for duty today, and it’s come at a great time for the Cardinals ahead of their rivalry tilt with the Cincinnati Reds. The NL Central heavyweights will start their series today, and it will be the Cardinals home opener. The plan all along was to have Freese ready by the time the Cards home opener rolled around, and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweeted the good news out yesterday.

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Goold reports that the Cardinals will activate Freese from the disabled list prior to the start of the game, and he began his rehab stint on Friday to get back from the back injury. In his first rehab game for Triple-A Memphis, Freese played in seven innings total and notched an excellent two-run double for his lone hit.

After that rehab game, the 29-year-old third baseman said he felt good and was suffering no setbacks. Thanks to the fact that everything has gone flawlessly for Freese on the rehab front, the Cardinals plan to have him ready for today’s big game against the Reds has been fulfilled. We’ll see how he does in his first game back, and the Cards will likely shift Matt Carpenter over to second base now that Freese is in the fold again.