Yet again, the Dodgers had a tough roster decision to make on Tuesday, with utilityman Tommy Edman set to finally return from an offseason ankle surgery that has sidelined him for the first 2 ½ months of this season.

But this time, it wasn’t one of the club’s young players that got the short end of the stick.

Instead, the Dodgers have elected to designate veteran bench bat Santiago Espinal for assignment as the corresponding move for Edman’s activation, manager Dave Roberts announced Monday night.

“Espy’s been great for us,” Roberts said, praising the limited contributions the former All-Star utilityman made while hitting .268 with a home run in 36 games this year.

“But,” Roberts added, “[with] the fit right now with our ball club, it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

Indeed, Edman’s return made Espinal’s role rather redundant for the defending two-time World Series champions.

Edman will primarily play second base (rotating into a platoon that currently includes Miguel Rojas and Alex Freeland) and left field (rotating into another platoon of Ryan Ward and Alex Call). He can also spell Max Muncy at third when needed, or Mookie Betts at short.

Whatever little playing time Espinal was getting before would have all but disappeared now.

Still, in most of their past roster crunches, the Dodgers had elected to keep (or, in one instance after he was briefly DFA’d last month, quickly re-sign) Espinal and send down one of their younger players for more regular at-bats in triple-A, instead.

This time, Freeland or Ward were the likely candidates for that; especially since Edman could have slotted into either of their roles platooning at second or left, respectively.

Instead, they both survived for now, continuing what have been the most prolonged stints of regular playing time in their big-league careers.

Freeland had already been optioned to the minors once this year, sent down with a .235 batting average and .646 OPS when Mookie Betts returned from an oblique strain in early May. The switch-hitter wasn’t gone for long, returning to the majors just a couple weeks later. However, his production has remained inconsistent, following up an 8-for-26 stretch with a 1-for-13 slump over his last six games. Overall, he now has a .230 average and .653 OPS on the season, albeit with largely strong defense at second.

Ward has been the more intriguing player recently, in what has been his first extended period at the MLB level after seven long years in the Dodgers farm system.

The 28-year-old rookie is batting .250 in 14 games this season, but flashing the raw power that forced his way onto the Dodgers’ radar in the minors. He has seven extra-bast hits (four doubles, three home runs), 11 RBIs (including four on a grand slam in Pittsburgh last week) and a .575 slugging percentage.

It’s a small sample for the left-handed hitter, and has included 13 strikeouts in 43 plate appearances (all but three of which have come against right-handed pitching).

But, after his long journey to the show, it has been enough to keep him around a little bit longer.

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