Welcome to this week’s Injury Report! Another week, another list of injuries to read. As always, my goal here is to inform everyone about the impacts of the injuries.
David Fletcher – Ankle Sprain
David Fletcher has been out since August 30th due to an ankle sprain. As long as Fletcher and the Angels let the ankle heal fully, I’m not worried about this impacting the rest of season performance. I would give it another week or so before I would expect Fletcher to return to the lineup.
Return Date: 1-2 weeks
Gio Urshela – Bone Spur
Gio Urshela is the latest Yankee to hit the IL. Urshela has been dealing with this bone spur for some time, according to Aaron Boone. Once Urshela comes off of the IL, he shouldn’t be impacted by this, but be on the lookout for an off-season surgery to remove the spur. He should only require the minimum stay on the IL.
Return Date: 8ish days
Juan Soto – Elbow Soreness
Juan Soto has missed three straight games due to elbow soreness. The Nationals are saying that his MRI came back clean, which is the best-case scenario for Soto and fantasy owners. I would imagine that Soto returns either today or Tuesday and will be just fine moving forward.
Return Date: ASAP
Jon Gray – Shoulder Inflammation
Jon Gray will miss some time due to shoulder inflammation, which may contribute to his recent struggles. The Rockies aren’t worried about the severity of this injury, and I’m not either. There is a chance that Gray isn’t ready to return once the ten days are up, but even if that’s the case, it would only be a minor delay.
Return Date: 8-12 days
Teoscar Hernandez – Rib Injury
Teoscar Hernandez has been dealing with a rib injury lately. Reports coming out of the Jays camp have been all over the place, with some reports saying it is a severe injury and others saying he might not require an IL stint. Hernandez should have another MRI today, and hopefully, that will clear up some of the confusion. I’m going to lean a little more on the cautious side for this one. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up missing a good chunk of the rest of the season. If Hernandez does return, I would be worried about this issue to bother him for the next couple of weeks and impacting his performance.
Return Date: 3 weeks – 4 weeks
Lance McCullers – Nerve Irritation
The Astros have placed Lance McCullers with nerve irritation in his neck. This is about as vague as you can get with an injury description, so I’m going to do my best to guess at what is going on. Let’s go over the best-case and worst-case scenarios here. Best case: a little nerve irritation from lifting/sleeping wrong/twisted neck in a funny way/etc. which could have led to a bit of irritation around his nerve.
Worst case: he has some encroachment on his nerves either by his first rib or surrounding muscles, causing him to have thoracic outlet type symptoms. Since we don’t have any information about what is going on, I’m worried that it could be TOS. If that is the case, we can consider McCullers to be done for this year and require surgery this off-season. Hopefully, we will get more information this upcoming week about what is going on with McCullers.
Return Date: Best case: 10 days
Worst case: 2021
Matt Chapman – Hip Strain
Matt Chapman has been dealing with hip soreness all season long. During the game Sunday, he had a flare-up and was removed from the game. Chapman should have had his MRI by now, and we will know how severe the strain is soon. I would expect a trip to the IL and for Chapman to need about 15 days to return. Once he returns, he should be good to go without having this linger around. But on the flip side, if Chapman doesn’t go to the IL, there is a good chance that he continues to battle through this for the rest of the season and has it impact his performance.
Return Date: 2-3 weeks
| Player | Team | Date Reported | Return? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charlie Blackmon | COL | 6/23 | Yes |
| Philip Diehl | COL | 6/23 | Yes |
| Ryan Castellani | COL | 6/23 | Yes |
| Hunter Bishop | SF | 6/29 | Yes |
| Delino DeShields | CLE | 7/3 | Yes |
| Miguel Sanó | MIN | 7/3 | Yes |
| Willians Astudillo | MIN | 7/3 | Yes |
| Nick Gordon | MIN | 7/3 | Yes |
| Edwar Colina | MIN | 7/3 | Yes |
| Tommy Pham | SD | 7/3 | Yes |
| Luis Madero | SF | 7/3 | Yes |
| Brett Martin | TEX | 7/3 | Yes |
| Freddie Freeman | ATL | 7/4 | Yes |
| Will Smith | ATL | 7/4 | Yes |
| Pete Kozma | ATL | 7/4 | Yes |
| Touki Toussaint | ATL | 7/4 | Yes |
| Josh Taylor | BOS | 7/4 | Yes |
| Darwinzon Hernández | BOS | 7/4 | Yes |
| Salvador Pérez | KC | 7/4 | Yes |
| DJ LeMahieu | NYY | 7/4 | Yes |
| Luis Cessa | NYY | 7/4 | Yes |
| Ricardo Sánchez | STL | 7/4 | Yes |
| Génesis Cabrera | STL | 7/4 | Yes |
| Junior Guerra | ARZ | 7/5 | Yes |
| Silvino Bracho | ARZ | 7/5 | Yes |
| Blake Cederlind | PIT | 7/5 | Yes |
| Socrates Brito | PIT | 7/5 | Yes |
| Elehuris Montero | STL | 7/5 | Yes |
| Kole Calhoun | ARZ | 7/6 | Yes |
| Angel Perdomo | MIL | 7/6 | Yes |
| Luis Urías | MIL | 7/6 | Yes |
| Joey Gallo | TEX | 7/6 | Yes |
| Brendan McKay | TB | 7/6 | Yes |
| Seth Beer | ARZ | 7/7 | Yes |
| Eduardo Rodríguez | BOS | 7/7 | No |
| Bobby Dalbec | BOS | 7/7 | Yes |
| Ryan O’Hearn | KC | 7/7 | Yes |
| Brad Keller | KC | 7/7 | Yes |
| Jesús Luzardo | OAK | 7/7 | Yes |
| Scott Kingery | PHI | 7/7 | Yes |
| Tommy Hunter | PHI | 7/7 | Yes |
| Mikie Mahtook | PHI | 7/7 | Yes |
| Jorge Mateo | SD | 7/8 | Yes |
| Jared Hughes | NYM | 7/8 | Yes |
| Daniel Norris | DET | 7/9 | Yes |
| Cam Gallagher | KC | 7/11 | Yes |
| Aroldis Chapman | NYY | 7/11 | Yes |
| Kenley Jansen | LAD | 7/12 | Yes |
| Wilfredo Tovar | MIN | 7/12 | Yes |
| Patrick Sandoval | LAA | 7/13 | Yes |
| Tyler Glasnow | TB | 7/14 | Yes |
| Anthony Santander | BAL | 7/15 | Yes |
| Derek Dietrich | CIN | 7/15 | Yes |
| Yoán Moncada | CWS | 7/16 | Yes |
| Matt Thaiss | LAA | 7/16 | Yes |
| Austin Meadows | TB | 7/16 | Yes |
| Yasiel Puig | FA | 7/17 | No |
| Nick Dini | KC | 7/17 | Yes |
| Daniel Tillo | KC | 7/17 | Yes |
| A.J. Pollock | LAD | 7/17 | Yes |
| Gregory Polanco | PIT | 7/17 | Yes |
| Fernando Abad | WSH | 7/17 | Yes |
| Dwight Smith Jr. | BAL | 7/18 | Yes |
| Isaac Paredes | DET | 7/18 | Yes |
| Alex Reyes | STL | 7/18 | Yes |
| José Martínez | TB | 7/18 | Yes |
| Julio Teherán | LAA | 7/19 | Yes |
| Ke’Bryan Hayes | PIT | 7/19 | Yes |
| Yoshihisa Hirano | SEA | 7/19 | Yes |
| Yonnny Chirinos | TB | 7/19 | Yes |
| Wil Crowe | WSH | 7/19 | Yes |
| Jakob Junis | KC | 7/20 | Yes |
| Dylan Moore | SEA | 7/20 | Yes |
| Jazz Chisholm | MIA | 7/21 | Yes |
| Hunter Dozier | KC | 7/22 | Yes |
| Randy Arozarena | TB | 7/23 | Yes |
| Juan Soto | WSH | 7/23 | Yes |
| Matt Davidson | CIN | 7/25 | Yes |
| Brad Brach | NYM | 7/25 | Yes |
| Jorge Alfaro | MIA | 7/26 | Yes |
| Garrett Cooper | MIA | 7/26 | Yes |
| Harold Ramírez | MIA | 7/26 | Yes |
| José Ureña | MIA | 7/26 | Yes |
| Miguel Rojas | MIA | 7/28 | Yes |
| Sandy Alcantara | MIA | 7/29 | Yes |
| Carlos Martínez | STL | 8/1 | No |
| Yadier Molina | STL | 8/4 | Yes |
| Paul DeJong | STL | 8/4 | Yes |
| Edmundo Sosa | STL | 8/4 | Yes |
| Rangel Ravelo | STL | 8/4 | Yes |
| Junior Fernández | STL | 8/4 | Yes |
| Kodi Whitley | STL | 8/4 | No |
| Ryan Helsley | STL | 8/7 | Yes |
| Austin Dean | STL | 8/7 | No |
| Lane Thomas | STL | 8/9 | Yes |
| Bruce Zimmermann | BAL | 8/14 | Yes |
| Yordan Álvarez | HOU | 8/14 | Yes |
| Keibert Ruiz | LAD | 8/18 | Yes |
| Cionel Pérez | HOU | 8/22 | Yes |
| Daniel Mengden | OAK | 8/29 | Yes |
| Total Known Positives: 99 | |||
| In-Season Positives: 24 |
As always, if there is someone else you have a question about, leave me a comment or send me a tweet (@Jake_Rob17)! I will get to them as I’m able to. Be sure to check back next week for the latest injury report!
Special thanks to Jon Becker (@jonbecker_ on Twitter) for his COVID-19 player list.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@freshmeatcomm on Twitter)
Any intel on Nelson Cruz?
Hey Pablo thanks for reading!
I’m not too worried about Cruz. I know he is out today too, but he should be back in the next day or so. Sounds more like the Twins are using this as a maintenance thing, trying to keep him fresh.
Thanks Jake. Hope to get Soto and Cruz back in the lineup today. Still have Giancarlo Stanton on IL. Is he cutable if he doesn’t come of IL this weekend?
Pham returning VERY quickly from broken hamate bone. Do you have any history on returns after broken hamate bones, any loss of power expected?
All the research shows that there is not a drop in power following a hamate fracture. Which goes against popular belief. I think it is a case by case basis, but we should expect Pham to not demonstrate any loss of power. The only thing that worries me is how fast he is returning, he could have a strength issue which would lead to a power issue. If he were on my team I wouldn’t rush to put him in my lineup unless I had no other option.
Great question!