JUPITER, Fla. — Cardinals reliever Tyler Johnson left the campus yesterday wary of what awaited him and his shoulder in a scan of the sore joint, but he returned Tuesday with two words worth their weight in relief:

“No surgery,” he said before meeting with trainers early this morning.

Johnson has a strained rotator cuff and tendinitis, he said, and he will be shut down for a week. After giving the shoulder time to heal the Cardinals will re-evaluate his status and schedule a throwing program to get him back on the mound. Johnson told reporters that his recovery will be based around strengthening the shoulder. That is according to P-D scribe Joe Strauss, who was with reporters who spoke to Johnson.

The lefty was to throw in Saturday’s game, but stopped during his warmup after telling coaches he didn’t feel right. In an immediate examination, a team doctor discovered what was called “tightness and weakness” in the left shoulder. Johnson had an MRI on the shoulder taken Monday, and he just disclosed the results of the tests to reporters before the start of workouts this morning.

He missed nearly two months of last season with biceps tendinitis in the same arm.

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