Texas Rangers designated hitter Joc Pederson has a fractured right hand, manager Bruce Bochy announced after today’s game.
That’s a head stomp on top of the nut kick that was the very unpleasant and unenjoyable 10-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox, a defeat which put the Rangers at 0-5 on this road trip.
Pederson was hit in the hand with a pitch in the top of the fourth inning and ultimately came around to score, but ended up getting replaced by Kyle Higashioka the next time he was due up.
We will have to wait and see what the word is on the severity, but you’d figure at least six weeks before Pederson would be ready to return. Given that the Rangers are already starting Sam Haggerty in center field and have Tucker Barnhart, Ezequiel Duran and Kevin Pillar on the bench never playing, the team is not real well equipped to deal with this loss.
And yeah, I know folks are going to say it doesn’t matter because Pederson has been terrible this year, but he most likely was not going to be terrible all year, and in the last couple of weeks had actually put up some decent numbers.
Justin Foscue, Blaine Crim, Michael Helman and Dustin Harris are the position players currently in the minors who are on the 40 man roster. Foscue is on the injured list and Helman is currently playing in the Round Rock game, so either Harris or Crim is presumably coming up. I’d guess Harris, since he’s a lefthanded hitter, as is Pederson, but who knows.
Corey Seager is expected to be activated in the next week or so, which should help, and one would expect that he would likely be the primary DH for the time being. Evan Carter, meanwhile, is reportedly expected to go out on a rehab assignment next weekend.