The Cardinals announced today that 3rd baseman Troy Glaus will miss 12 weeks, including the first month of the regular season, after surgery yesterday for “debridement of his right shoulder.” According to the amazingly helpful Wikipedia, debridement is removal of dead, damaged or infected tissue.

When you lose a guy that had 27 homers and 99 RBI last season, that’s usually a bad thing. But fortunately for the Cardinals, Glaus is admittedly useless in April anyway (0 home runs and 15 RBI in the first 24 games last year, because he’s a warm weather hitter), and they have options.

St. Louisan David Freese hit .306 with 26 homers and 91 RBI last year in his first year at Triple A Memphis. After coming over in the Jim Edmonds deal, Freese got off to a slow start, too…but rumbled down the stretch and figured out Triple A pitching.

The Cardinals’ first round pick last June, Brett Wallace, had amazing pro start. Between the Redbirds’ Quad Cities and Springfield outposts, Wallace hit .337 with eight home runs and 36 RBI in 54 games. He can also play some third…and is clearly in the Cardinals near future plans.

Throw in Allen Craig, who it .304 with 22 homers and 85 RBI at Springfield, and the Cardinals have some big time candidates to fill in for Glaus for a month.

If someone was going to get hurt and miss the first month, Glaus is the luckiest loss the Cardinals could have asked for.