DOWNTOWN — The deal was announced late Tuesday night, it came together swiftly Tuesday afternoon, but the Cardinals had been eyeballing Felipe Lopez as an answer to their middle infield quandary for at least a couple weeks.

Shortly after the switch-hitting utility infielder cleared waivers Tuesday afternoon, the Cardinals called, offered and signed Lopez for the stretch drive. Lopez lands on the Cardinals’ bench a week after the Washington Nationals released him. To make room for Lopez on the roster — and, pragmatically, in the field — the Cardinals optioned Brendan Ryan to Class AAA Memphis, where he will be an everyday player, possibly at a variety of positions for the Redbirds.

Lopez “provides a better player for that spot,” manager Tony La Russa said after the club’s 6-4 victory against the LA Dodgers. “(Ryan) wasn’t playing enough. We’ll see him in September.”

Added GM John Mozeliak: “It does two things: Offensively, it allows us to add a little more punch to our lineup. It allows Ryan to go down and get his at-bats.”

Tireless columnist Bernie Miklasz already has his rapid-response take on the acquisition up at his blog, Extra Points. Bernie runs down all the statistics, the career year (All-Star, c. 2005) and the damning quotes about Lopez’s departure from Washington, where GM Jim Bowden attempted to revive the infielder he had in Cincinnati (see: All-Star, c. 2005). There are also the standard locales for stats:

• Lopez’s player page at ESPN.
• Lopez’s 2008 splits from Yahoo!
• Lopez’s player page at MLB.com.
• Lopez’s page at Baseball-Reference.com.

La Russa met with Ryan after the game to tell him about his demotion. Ryan had played sporadically over the past few weeks, scoring a few starts in Atlanta and cracking a couple hits. But overall, his playing time had gone the way of his average and production. During their meeting, La Russa assured the young middle infielder that he would return in September.

The Cardinals view Lopez as a shortstop, a second baseman, a viable backup to Troy Glaus at third base and — according to the La Russa Rule of Fielding — an outfielder. Lopez has actually played as many games in left field this season as he has at shortstop, the position he was an All-Star at a few seasons ago. Lopez started 104 games at shortstop in 2007 for Washington, finishing the season with 20 errors and a .957 fielding percentage.

He’s mostly played second this season, starting 69 games there for the Nats.

That leaves the Cardinals with three second basemen on their roster, with Aaron Miles and Adam Kennedy recently sharing that position. Lopez’s slugging percentage of .314 this season is the lowest of the three — Miles is at .394 and Kennedy is at .335 — though his .388 career would be an enhancement in the part-time role the Cardinals’ professed Tuesday night.

Lopez has also been a contributing player on the road this season, much more than in the Nats’ new ballpark. The splits link above will show you this as well: His 100 games split evenly — 50 home, 50 away — and Lopez has …

.172/.257/.236 in 157 ABs at home (Nationals Park).

.292/.349/.387 in 168 ABs on the road.

The Cardinals and Nats discussed, superficially, a deal for Lopez before the nonwaiver trade deadline, but Mozeliak said it never had much momentum. The read then was that Lopez possibly would be available as a free agent in the near future. When he cleared waivers Tuesday, the Cardinals dialed his agent and extended an offer with a description of the opportunity.

“The element of (his) game is defensively he’s a plus player,” Mozeliak said. “Offensively, he may add a little bounce to our lineup, which I think is important.”

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