Injury Update: Yamaico Navarro arrives in Baltimore, will replace Brian Roberts if needed

Nothing official has been announced by the Orioles, but after Dan Duquette indicated this morning that Brian Roberts is likely to hit the DL, and it appears that is even more likely with the arrival of Yamaico Navarro at Oriole Park. According to the Twitter account of beat reporter Eduardo Encina, Navarro has a locker and is now in the clubhouse in Baltimore. He has not been activated as of yet, which means right now he's here just in case. But to me it seems like almost a sure thing.

Roberts is scheduled to get an MRI today (and may well have already) and I have to think that the best case scenario is that he'll be out for 15 days on the disabled list. I know we're all keeping our fingers crossed that it's just a strained hamstring and that Roberts will be back ASAP, not only because he was off to a good start, but also because we all are very fond of him.

So what about Yamaico Navarro? He was picked up back in December from the Pirates for a minor leaguer named Jhondaniel Medina. He doesn't have much ML service time, just 71 games over three years, but in the majors and minors he has played every position on the diamond other than catcher and pitcher (although he has just 1 MiL game in CF and 3 at 1B). Over seven minor-league seasons he's put up an OBP of .350 and SLG of .437, although in his small sample at the ML level (just 168 PA) he's hit just .191/.244/.250.

Navarro is a right-handed hitter, and it remains to be seen if he would be used in a platoon with lefty hitting Ryan Flaherty, or if he'll just serve as the back up.