Welcome to this year’s first Injury Report! This year, we will be adding a buy/sell/hold feature. Now, this isn’t saying to buy/sell/hold a player, but how I view their injury. Buy means if I want a player, their injury would not stop me from acquiring him. Sell means if I have this player on my roster, I will be looking to move on ASAP.
Sixto Sanchez – Shoulder Inflammation
Sixto Sanchez is dealing with mild shoulder inflammation. This is a very vague answer, and I’m afraid this will be a long, slow recovery process. I think best-case scenario, we won’t see Sanchez for the next 3-4 weeks.
Return date: Early/Mid May
Buy/Sell/Hold: Hold
Josh Donaldson – Hamstring Strain
Could baseball truly be back without the annual Josh Donaldson injury? The Twins are reporting that Donaldson is dealing with a mild hamstring strain. Given Donaldson’s soft tissue injury history, I think he will be out for at least a month. Donaldson hasn’t played in over 100 games since 2017. At this point, I have no reason to believe he will be able to reach 100 games in 2021.
Return date: Late May
Buy/Sell/Hold: Sell
Adalberto Mondesi – Oblique Strain
Adalberto Mondesi hit the IL right before Opening Day, and he has yet to resume baseball activities. I think the earliest Mondesi could return is in about 3 weeks. If I’m in charge of the Royals, I’m not letting him return for at least a month. I would take it slow with Mondesi’s injury history and let him fully heal before he returns.
Return date: Mid/Late May
Buy/Sell/Hold: Hold
Tim Anderson – Hamstring Strain
Tim Anderson is dealing with a minor hamstring strain. I wouldn’t expect him to be out for very long. As we all know, hamstrings are likely to linger if they don’t have enough time to heal. Hopefully, the White Sox and Anderson take their time and let this heal. If someone in your league is worried about this injury, I would be trying to buy him.
Return date: Late April
Buy/Sell/Hold: Buy
Michael Brantley – Wrist Contusion
The news coming out of Houston for Michael Brantley is as good as we could hope. They don’t expect to place him on the IL, and I would expect him to be in the lineup by the middle of the week.
Return date: End of the week
Buy/Sell/Hold: Buy
Chad Pinder – Knee Sprain
Chad Pinder will be on the shelf for the foreseeable future due to a knee sprain. We don’t have much news about the severity of the injury, but I’m worried this will be a long(er) absence.
Return date: End of May
Buy/Sell/Hold: Hold
Thanks for reading! As always, if there is someone else you have a question about, leave me a comment or find me on Twitter (@Jake_Rob17). I will get to them as I’m able to. Be sure to check back next week for the latest injury report!
Featured Image by Justin Paradis (@freshmeatcomm on Twitter)
Josh Donaldson played in 155 games for the Braves in 2019. It’s what landed his contact with the Twins.
Hey Jon thanks for the comment! You are absolutely right and I somehow skipped over that. But that still doesn’t change the fact that over the past couple years Donaldson hasn’t been able to stay healthy on a consistent basis. I have no reason to believe that he will be able to stay healthy moving forward and fully expect him to be back on this list at some point during the season.