Padres Place Brandon Lockridge On IL Due To Hamstring Strain

The Padres introduced that middle fielder Brandon Lockridge has been positioned on the 10-day injured listing attributable to a left hamstring pressure. Infielder/outfielder Connor Joe has been recalled to take his spot on the energetic roster.

Lockridge, 28, isn’t an enormous star. He has simply 25 huge league video games to his title and a tepid line of .186/.239/.302 in these. Nonetheless, the harm is a big one for the Padres since this now means their beginning and backup middle fielders are each on the IL on the identical time.

Jackson Merrill is, in fact, the membership’s major choice up the center. He completed second in Nationwide League Rookie of the Yr voting final yr and the membership made a powerful dedication to him by signing him to a nine-year, $135MM extension a few weeks in the past.

Nonetheless, Merrill landed on the IL attributable to a proper hamstring pressure just some days after inking that deal. That meant that Lockridge all of a sudden turned the membership’s on a regular basis middle fielder. With Lockridge now out of motion attributable to his personal hammy pressure, the membership must get a bit inventive.

Tyler Wade appears to be Plan A. He entered yesterday’s sport rather than Lockridge and is beginning tonight’s contest on the market as properly. He’s a multi-positional defensive specialist however middle subject is one spot the place he doesn’t have a ton of expertise. He has 52 2/3 innings in middle, in comparison with lots of within the outfield corners and the infield spots to the left of first base. Even when he can deal with the place defensively, he isn’t possible to supply a lot with the bat. He has 865 main league plate appearances with a .217/.291/.289 line.

Per Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Joe had been enjoying some middle subject for Triple-A El Paso attributable to an harm suffered by Forrest Wall. Maybe that makes him a part of Plan B, although he has no main league expertise on the place.

There are some speculative suits on the roster. Jason Heyward has numerous middle subject expertise general however not a lot in recent times and he’s now 35 years previous. Fernando Tatis Jr. additionally has 86 innings in middle and will transfer over from proper, although that doesn’t appear to be the plan. He tells Annie Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune that he’s staying in proper, so far as he is aware of.

It’ll all be short-term, as Merrill will solidify the spot when he returns, however it’ll make for an attention-grabbing problem within the meantime. The Padres are baseball’s greatest staff in the meanwhile, out to a 13-3 begin, and they’ll naturally attempt to do no matter they’ll to maintain that momentum going.

Picture courtesy of Denis Poroy, Imagn Pictures