Dylan Carlson is running out of time on the Cardinals roster for an obvious reason

Outfielder Dylan Carlson may be running out of time to stay on the roster for the St. Louis Cardinals. Once the team's top prospect, he drew comparisons to players such as Albert Pujols and Oscar Taveras, though that hasn't worked out just yet.

Carlson was on track to claim the starting center field job with Tommy Edman out before suffering a sprained AC joint in spring training, and since returning from the injured list, the young outfielder hasn't quite found his rhythm.

Players like Edman and Lars Nootbaar are on their way back after missing significant time due to injuries, and this will create yet another logjam in the outfield, and it could squeeze Carlson out of a spot.

In her recent article in The Athletic, Cardinals insider Katie Woo discussed how this will impact Carlson, proposing the idea of trading the young outfielder to a place where he can get more playing time.

Cardinals outfielder running out of time with injured players returning

When Edman and Nootbaar return, St. Louis is going to have some questions to answer with their outfield. Michael Siani has performed well on the defensive side, and his offense appears to be improving, so it's hard to take him out of the lineup.

Alec Burleson and Brendan Donovan have also performed well, but in order to get an offensive boost, St. Louis will need to have both Edman and Nootbaar in the lineup.

As such, it's going to be hard for the Cardinals to fit Carlson into the shuffle, and a trade may be likely. St. Louis needs a front-end or middle-of-the-rotation arm to bolster its pitching staff, and they also could use an extra bat to improve the offense. Carlson hasn't been providing much offense. The 25-year-old is struggling to the tune of a .198 average, but Woo explains that with more playing time elsewhere, he could finally blossom into the star he was meant to be.

It will be interesting to see how the Cardinals approach this deadline and what they will end up doing with Carlson, but it's clear that the young outfielder may soon find himself out of the shuffle with some of the team's key players about to return from the injured list.

Woo notes that carrying five outfielders doesn't make a lot of sense for the Cardinals, and trading from that plethora of outfielders may get them what they need.