The thumb injury to Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is more severe than known.
Rodgers’ injury, suffered during a 27-22 loss to the Giants in London on Oct. 9, is actually an avulsion fracture of the thumb, sources say. It is serious enough that surgery is almost always the answer to fix this type of injury, according to people with knowledge of Rodgers’ fracture.
An avulsion fracture can happen when extreme force — such as a hit from Giants linebacker Oshane Ximines — causes the ligament to rip away from the attachment, taking some bone with it. Essentially, it is a fracture and a torn ligament, resulting in joint instability.
That can affect grip, accuracy, and basically everything a quarterback does with his hands on the football.
Rodgers has not missed a game since suffering the injury and will play today against the Eagles. Rodgers told reporters on Wednesday that surgery has not been considered this season.
He has been listed on the injury report (right thumb) since Week 6 and has been limited in several practices. This week, for instance, Rodgers was limited on Wednesday, practiced fully on Thursday and Friday, and was off the injury report by Friday night.
The thumb injury first came to light when a Packers fan and podcaster named Big B asked Rodgers about the injury during his Make-A-Wish weekend, and Rodgers admitted it was broken.
“His thumb was still really bruised and swollen last Saturday,” said Big B, of the Underage Packers Podcast.
Rodgers is on pace for one of the worst statistical seasons of his illustrious career, missing throws he usually makes. He also is on track for the second-worst passer rating of his career. He has shrugged off the injury whenever asked.
“I think I’ve had worse injuries I’ve played with,” Rodgers told reporters this week, adding that while his thumb was worse earlier in the season, it hasn’t really gotten much better, either. “There would be a couple plays every game, maybe a snap slightly inside or a hit that might jolt it a little bit. Just dealing with the occasional kind of dull pain and working through it.”
As one source explained, if it hasn’t healed by now, surgery is almost always the only way to help it heal. Clearly in this case, that would come only after Rodgers is done playing for this season.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Aaron Rodgers never felt the need to get into details about his right thumb injury for one reason: It was never going to keep the Green Bay Packers quarterback from playing.
That’s why it wasn’t until Wednesday when he finally — and reluctantly — confirmed that it was indeed broken.
“It doesn’t make a difference with me playing,” Rodgers said. “It doesn’t make a difference. You saw the tape on my thumb. Didn’t make a difference.”
Rodgers has been dealing with the injury since he was sacked by Giants linebacker Oshane Ximines on the final play of the Packers’ Oct. 9 game in London. Rodgers attempted a Hail Mary, but Ximines hit Rodgers’ throwing arm and forced a fumble. Immediately after the play, Rodgers came up flexing his right hand.
Rodgers was asked specifically on Oct. 26 if his thumb was broken. He replied at the time: “My thumb is hurt.”
Even when Pat McAfee asked Rodgers on Tuesday during his weekly appearance on McAfee’s show if the thumb was broken, Rodgers just said he had played with broken fingers before without elaborating on this injury specifically.
“I think I’ve had worse injuries I’ve played with,” Rodgers said Wednesday. “Definitely a challenge, but the days off helped. Feeling better this week.”
He was back at practice Wednesday after an extended break following the Packers’ loss to the Titans last Thursday, when Rodgers’ accuracy was perhaps at its worst. He missed throws at critical times in the second half to Allen Lazard and Sammy Watkins that he described as passes he’d complete 99 times out of 100. Still, he insisted the thumb injury had nothing to do with those misses.
“There’s one in every 100 that doesn’t come off the right way,” Rodgers said.
When asked whether he’s just saying that because he doesn’t want to sound like he’s using the thumb as an excuse, Rodgers said: “I think it’s the truth. My thumb was hurting a lot worse in the Dallas game, and I put the ball where I wanted to.”
Indeed, Rodgers had pinpoint accuracy just five days earlier in a win over the Cowboys. As a whole, however, Rodgers’ accuracy numbers have been down since the injury. He completed 69.7% of his passes with eight touchdowns and three interceptions in the first five games of the season with the Packers at 3-2. In the next six, of which the Packers have won only one, his completion rate dropped to 62% with 11 touchdowns and four interceptions.
However, Rodgers said he has had other injuries that have impacted his ability to throw more than this one.
“When I hurt my knee in ’18, you throw from the ground up, so that was definitely difficult on the footwork, plant leg,” Rodgers said. “When I broke my index finger in college, that was probably a slightly more important finger to deal with. I remember I was at practice and Coach Tedford said, ‘I don’t care what’s hurting, you’ve got one day off and if you miss another day of practice, you’re the backup again.’ So there was no choice.”
Unlike Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who needed his fractured thumb surgically repaired earlier this season and missed five games, Rodgers said surgery was never considered and won’t be needed after the season unless something else happens.
“I don’t know what [Prescott] had, but it probably wasn’t,” Rodgers said when asked if his injury was as severe.
Rodgers and the Packers had five days off before they returned to the practice field on Wednesday to prepare for Sunday’s game at the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I hope it helped his thumb,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. At 4-7, the Packers can ill afford many more — if any — losses and still have a chance to make the postseason. Some have likened this to the 2016 season, when the Packers were 4-6 and heading to Philadelphia when Rodgers said he thought they could “run the table.”
However, the Eagles team Rodgers & Co. faced six years ago was 5-5. This one is 9-1.
“I feel confident we’re going to go out and play well,” Rodgers said. “But I don’t think this is the last stand.”
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The hit that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers took on the final play of Sunday’s loss to the New York Giants in London kept him out of practice on Wednesday but should not affect his status for Sunday’s game against the New York Jets.
Giants linebacker Oshane Ximines sacked Rodgers on a Hail Mary attempt. He hit Rodgers’ throwing arm and forced a fumble. Rodgers could be seen flexing his right hand as he walked off the field.
“In the moment, you’ve still kind of got the adrenaline going,” Rodgers said Wednesday of the hit. “Once the adrenaline wore off and got on the bus, got back to the airport, got on the plane, I knew it was banged up a little bit but it’s gotten better every day.”
“He’s not going to practice today,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said before Wednesday’s practice. “But I don’t think we have much concern as far as game day.”
Rodgers said he spent most of the practice time doing rehab work on his thumb.
“I’ll try and get back out there and practice tomorrow and see how it feels and be fine by Sunday I’m sure,” Rodgers said.
Jordan Love handled the starting quarterback snaps in practice.
Rodgers is 3-0 in his career against the Jets but is off to a slow start. His QBR of 44.6 is the lowest through the first five games of a season that it has been in his career.
“Well, I think I’m playing as well as I can at times. I expect that typical stretch coming up at some point where we get really hot. Hopefully it starts this week. But I think that’s right around the corner,” Rodgers said, when asked whether he has played up to his standards.
The Packers are looking to avoid their first 3-3 start since 2012 in a game that pits LaFleur against his brother, Mike (the Jets’ offensive coordinator), and one his best friends in Jets coach Robert Saleh.
Phillies star Bryce Harper fractured his left thumb on a hit-by-pitch Saturday night, a development that necessitated an immediate injured list stint. He’s undergone further testing over the past two days to determine the next steps in his treatment, and it seems as if the reigning NL MVP is likely to go under the knife.
Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Harper “is expected to need surgery” to repair the fracture. That procedure wouldn’t necessarily end his season, but Lauber indicates it’d cost him at least two months. Even in the (seemingly unlikely) scenario where Harper avoids surgery, he’s looking at a four-to-six week absence at minimum, per the Inquirer.
On the one hand, it’s encouraging to hear that Harper anticipates making a return this season even if he does need to undergo a procedure. Yet the development that he’s likely headed for surgery that’ll cost him eight-plus weeks is obviously a brutal blow for a Philadelphia club that hasn’t staked a strong claim to a playoff spot to this point. The Phils enter play Monday owning a 39-35 record, placing them a game and a half back of the Cardinals for the final National League Wild Card spot (with the Giants also sitting a game above them).
That solid but not excellent showing has been in spite of another stellar year from Harper. He’s hitting .318/.385/.599 with 15 home runs through 275 plate appearances, offense that checks in 66 percentage points above the league average by measure of wRC+. That’s not far off the 170 mark from last season that resulted in his second career MVP. Playing through a UCL tear in his throwing elbow has relegated Harper to designated hitter for much of the season, but he’s remained one of the sport’s most productive offensive players.
Offseason signees Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber will split time between one corner outfield spot and DH while Harper’s out of action. The Phils recalled Mickey Moniak over the weekend to join Odúbel Herrera and Matt Vierling as other options for interim skipper Rob Thomson. Philadelphia grabbed Oscar Mercado off waivers from the Guardians this afternoon to add a center field-capable depth player to the mix. Mercado has followed up a solid 2019 rookie showing with a trio of subpar seasons at the plate that eventually squeezed him off Cleveland’s roster.
Claiming Mercado certainly won’t preclude the Phils from further addressing the outfield over the next five-plus weeks. Center field was likely to be a target area even before Harper’s injury, and probably losing the star slugger through the end of August only figures to increase the club’s urgency for other upgrades. Andrew Benintendi, Anthony Santander, Michael A. Taylor, David Peralta, Tommy Pham and, if the Mariners don’t right the ship in the coming weeks, Mitch Haniger, are among the host of outfielders who could be available at the deadline.
Philadelphia Phillies slugger and reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper suffered a fractured left thumb Saturday night against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park (GameTracker). Harper took a 97-mph Blake Snell fastball to the hand and exited the game immediately. The Phillies announced the fracture soon thereafter and say Harper will undergo additional tests in the coming days. They did not provide a timetable for his recovery.
Here’s video of the errant pitch. Snell apologized and, although in obvious pain and understandably upset, Harper appeared to tell Snell he knows he didn’t hit him intentionally as he walked off the field.
Harper has been limited to DH duty most of the season by an elbow ligament injury. Nonetheless, he was having a fantastic season, and took a .320/.385/.602 batting line with 21 doubles and 15 home runs into Saturday’s game. He ranks seventh in baseball in extra-base hits (37) and eighth in total bases (145). Simply put, Harper is irreplaceable.
“Things happen for a reason,” Harper told reporters, including MLB.com, after the game. “Everybody says that. This reason sucks right now, but at the same time, it is what it is. I’ve got to be positive. I’ve got to be positive for the guys in here. I know they’ll pick up the slack. I’m just really bummed for the organization, the guys, the city of Philadelphia, the fans. I love running out there and playing every day. Definitely bummed.”
Harper was having one of the best seasons of his career, despite playing since mid-April with a torn UCL in his right arm. He was batting .318 with 15 home runs, 48 RBIs and a .984 OPS. He ranks fifth in the NL in batting average, sixth in on-base percentage (.385) and second in slugging percentage (.599).
The Phillies will place Harper on the 10-day injured list on Sunday. Triple-A Lehigh Valley outfielder Mickey Moniak will take his place on the roster. They hope he arrives in time for the series finale Sunday.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Phillies interim manager Rob Thomson said. “But they’re not going to cancel any games. We’ve got to play.”
Thomson said the Phillies will rotate Harper’s DH role with Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber and others. But every hitter will need to step up.
They know it.
“It’s devastating, to say the least,” Castellanos said. “He’s having an All-Star, MVP-caliber year. To lose him for any amount of time is too long. We’re all going to have to step up. Me, definitely included. To carry the weight that we’re going to be missing, it’s got to be done.
“We are where we are and we’ve won the games that we have, and I still think that there’s a better version of Rhys [Hoskins], I think there’s a better version of J.T. [Realmuto]. There’s a way better version of myself. I think it’s only a matter of time before all those show up. If they show up at the same, baseball can get real fun, real quick.”
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski mentioned the Braves won the World Series last year without Ronald Acuña Jr., who suffered a season-ending knee injury on July 10.
They finished the regular season 44-29. The Padres have not had Fernando Tatis Jr. this season. They are 45-29.
Chase Utley broke his right hand on July 26, 2007. He returned Aug. 27. The Phillies went 15-13 without him.
“I mean, you just have to do that,” Dombrowski said. “You lose good players. Again, I don’t know how long he’s going to be out at this point, but, hopefully, he’ll be back at some point. We just need to carry on from here on and do the best job that we possibly can. We’ve still got a lot of good hitters in the lineup.”
It is unknown if Dombrowski will try to make an external move to bolster the lineup. It is too early to say how Harper’s injury might alter the team’s plans for the Aug. 2 Trade Deadline.
“This just happened,” Dombrowski said. “We need to see how we play. I’m still hopeful we’ll play well. We still have a good club.”
Harper dropped to the ground as soon as the pitch hit him. It looked bad, and it was. Dombrowski and others thought it hit Harper’s face, which happened to him in April 2021 in St. Louis. Harper somehow walked away from that one with only a bruised forearm from the ricochet.
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“I kind of wish it would have hit me in the face,” Harper said. “I don’t break bones in my face. I can take 98 to the face, but I can’t take 97 to the thumb.”
Harper eventually got up. He shook as he held his thumb. Frustrated, he shouted at Snell. The two have known each other for years. They texted each other during the game. Harper said they are fine.
“Obviously, I felt terrible hitting him,” Snell said. “We’ve talked; we’ve handled it. It was never anything. It’s just emotional. He plays with a lot of passion, and I can understand why he’d be upset. I’m just as upset as he is.”
The recovery time for some fractured thumbs seems to be four to six weeks. Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson fractured his right thumb earlier this month. Giants first baseman Brandon Belt fractured his thumb last September. Realmuto fractured his right thumb in February 2021.
Each received an estimated recovery of four to six weeks.
But again, Harper won’t know the severity of his fracture until next week.
“I’ve never broken anything in my life,” he said. “This is new to me. … It’s a bummer.”
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Todd Zolecki has covered the Phillies since 2003, and for MLB.com since 2009. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook .
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In the interim, the Phillies figure to have Kyle Schwarber or Nick Castellanos share DH duty with the more defensively competent Matt Vierling seeing steadier playing time in the outfield. Mickey Moniak, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft, is hitting .279/.326/.558 in Triple-A and could get a look. Of course, the Phillies could make a trade depending on the length of Harper’s recovery.
Needless to say, losing Harper for any length of time is a devastating blow for a Phillies team trying to climb into the postseason mix. They are 15-6 since replacing manager Joe Girardi with bench coach Rob Thomson earlier this month. Among National League teams, only the Atlanta Braves (18-4) have a better record in the league during that time. Sportsline projects the Phillies chances of making the playoffs at 17.2% if Harper is sidelined for one month.
Even with the post-Girardi hot streak, the Phillies came into Saturday three games behind the third and final wild card spot. The Phillies have not been to the postseason since 2011 and have the NL’s longest postseason drought.
The Phillies’ worst-case scenario played out Saturday night as Bryce Harper suffered a fractured left thumb and is out indefinitely.
Harper was hit in the thumb by a 97 mph Blake Snell fastball in the fourth inning in San Diego. He immediately fell to the ground, clutching his left hand and writhing in pain. Visibly frustrated, Harper said something to Snell, who was apologetic and replied that it was unintentional. Harper shouted back to Snell that he knew it was not on purpose.
He will be re-evaluated in the coming days to determine the path to recovery and whether surgery is required.
Harper is as irreplaceable as any player in baseball. The Phillies just got a taste of it earlier this week when they scored a combined five runs in three games he missed with a blister. Harper has again been one of the best hitters in baseball, entering Saturday’s game hitting .320/.385/.602 with 21 doubles, 15 homers and 48 RBI despite missing nine games. He has six more extra-base hits than anyone in the majors since last year’s All-Star break.
“It’s tough, the year he’s having, the person he is,” Kyle Schwarber said on the broadcast postgame. “It’s a tough blow but we’re going to have to overcome it. It’s obviously going to be tough but I think that this ballclub can handle that type of blow. We’ve got a lot of good players and we’ve got to step up one by one and not do too much, just be ourselves, but when guys’ numbers are called, we’ve got to answer the bell.”
It’s been another trying but productive year for the reigning MVP. He hasn’t been able to throw or play the field since the second week of the season because of a small tear in his UCL. He was set to have the elbow re-examined next week. He also missed time earlier this week after a blister on his hand became infected.
The result of Saturday’s game, a 4-2 Phillies win, was almost an afterthought in light of Harper’s injury. The Phils will need more from several hitters, specifically Nick Castellanos, who has fallen short of expectations to this point. They are also without Jean Segura, who is out until early September after breaking his finger on a bunt attempt.
The trade deadline is a little more than five weeks away and the Phillies could set their sights on an outfielder or DH. In the meantime, Mickey Moniak is on his way back to the big leagues.
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Bryce Harper’s season may be in jeopardy, after the reigning NL MVP suffered a fractured thumb in Saturday’s game against the Padres. Facing Blake Snell in the fourth inning, Harper had to duck to avoid a 97mph fastball that sailed up and in, but the pitch still hit Harper in his left hand, leaving the Phillies slugger in visible pain.
Harper immediately left the game, and the Phillies announced shortly afterwards that initial tests revealed the fracture. More details will be known after further tests take place, and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters (including The Athletic’s Matt Gelb) that it is too soon to tell if Harper will need surgery. As such, the door isn’t closed on a potential Harper return, as Dombrowski is “hopeful he’ll be back at some point.”
If surgery is required, Harper is in danger of missing the remainder of the 2022 campaign. While every specific injury is different, for comparion’s sake, Jean Segura was given a recovery timeline of 10-12 weeks after the Philadelphia second baseman suffered his own fractured finger in late May and had to undergo surgery.
Losing Segura was a brutal enough outcome for the Phils, yet the team rebounded to post its best month of the season. The Phillies had a 22-29 record under former manager Joe Girardi, but after Girardi was fired and Rob Thomson was elevated from bench coach to interim manager, Philadelphia promptly went on a 15-6 run over Thomson’s first 21 games as skipper.
That run got the Phillies back up over the .500 mark (37-35) heading into tonight’s action, and three games out of an NL wild card berth. However, it is hard to imagine Philadelphia staying in the race without Harper’s contributions to an overall underwhelming lineup. With Harper and Segura out, Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins are the only regulars hitting well above average.
Harper has already been playing through pain, as a small UCL tear has limited him to DH duty for over two months. In the big picture, Harper monopolizing the DH spot hasn’t helped Philadelphia, as Schwarber and Nick Castellanos have been forced into everyday corner-outfield roles, much to the detriment of the Phillies’ defense. (And possibly Castellanos’ offense, as he has had an underwhelming year at the plate.) On the plus side, Harper’s own bat has still been on fire, as he carried 15 home runs and a .320/.385/.602 slash line into tonight’s game against the Padres.
Harper’s UCL tear further complicates matters. If the Phils fall behind in the postseason race, Harper might decide to stop delaying the inevitable and get elbow surgery, thus shutting him down for 2022 but likely ensuring that he’d miss little or none of the 2023 season.
Injuries have long been a subplot of Harper’s career, yet he has been relatively durable in recent years, playing in 515 of a possible 546 games from 2018-21. Through it all, Harper has continued to produce at a Cooperstown-ian level, including his MVP campaign last year. After previously winning NL MVP honors with the Nationals in 2015, Harper became the fifth player in baseball history to win an MVP on multiple teams, as he hit .309/.429/.615 with 35 home runs and a league-best 42 doubles with the Phillies last season.
Unfortunately, that production could only help the Phils to an 82-80 record — enough to snap a streak of nine consecutive non-winning seasons, but not enough to get the club back into the playoffs. Harper’s 13-year, $330MM contract makes him an easy target for criticism, yet the Phillies’ lack of on-field success is hardly Harper’s fault, given his huge numbers over three-plus years in Philadelphia.
In the near term, Harper’s absence frees up the DH spot for a Schwarber/Castellanos timeshare, which can create an opportunity for a big defensive upgrade. Dombrowski said that Mickey Moniak is being called up to take Harper’s spot on the active roster, though Moniak is hardly an ideal everyday solution. For now, the Phillies’ plan would seem to consist of having one of Castellanos or Schwarber at DH in a regular lineup, the other in a corner outfield spot, and a rotation of Moniak, Odubel Herrera, and Matt Vierling covering the other two outfield positions. Down on the farm, Scott Kingery, Justin Williams, Jorge Bonifacio, and Dustin Peterson are all options, though none are on the 40-man roster.
A trade would be one way for the Phillies to address the situation, as even if Harper is gone for the season, the Phils aren’t immediately going to wave the white flag on their chances of finally ending their playoff drought. That said, Dombrowski could wait on Harper’s status before determining the extent of a future move — if Harper could avoid surgery, that could increase the chances of the Phillies acquiring a more proven everyday outfielder, rather than perhaps a complementary piece.
For Phillies fans looking for a silver lining, the obvious comp is the 2021 Braves, who were only 44-44 when Ronald Acuna Jr. tore his ACL last July 10. While Atlanta seemed doomed, the Braves instead revamped their outfield mix by trading for Eddie Rosario, Joc Pederson, Adam Duvall, and Jorge Soler prior to the trade deadline, and ended up rolling all the way to a World Series championship.
While it may be far-fetched to think that such a scenario could happen for another NL East team in a second consecutive season, Dombrowski is no stranger to aggressive roster shuffling. The way the Phillies have rebounded in June has breathed new life into the team’s season, and it would take an immediate and sudden downturn for Philadelphia to shift into seller mode before the deadline.
Colorado Avalanche center Nazem Kadri underwent thumb surgery on Monday, sources confirmed to ESPN.
It’s unclear if Kadri will be able to return this postseason. The Avalanche had already ruled out their second-line center for the remainder of the Western Conference finals matchup against the Edmonton Oilers.
Kadri was injured after being hit from behind by Oilers winger Evander Kane in Game 3 on Saturday, a 4-2 Avalanche victory. Kane received a one-game suspension for the play, and he will have to sit for Game 4 on Monday night in Edmonton as the Oilers look to avoid a sweep.
Kane initially received a five-minute major for boarding. Once the NHL’s department of player safety determined that it was a dangerous play and Kadri did not intentionally put himself in a vulnerable position, it considered Kane’s prior history (three previous suspensions and two fines) plus the impact of the injury in its ruling of a one-game ban.
Kadri, 31, had a career regular season for the Avalanche, scoring 28 goals and 87 points in 71 games. The center was continuing that production in the playoffs with six goals and 14 points through 13 games.
To begin Game 4, J.T. Compher will slide into Kadri’s spot centering the second line, though coach Jared Bednar said the team would need to fill Kadri’s absence “by committee” — indicative of Kadri’s important role on the team.
“Real Time” host Bill Maher on Friday defended maverick U.S. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., for not backing the Democrats’ multitrillion-dollar spending spree.
Maher kicked off the show’s panel discussion by tackling the in-party fighting among Democrat lawmakers over the $1.5 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the $3.5 spending bill being championed by the progressive wing, noting how the far left members of the party were “very mad” at Sinema and Manchin for not backing it.
BILL MAHER SCHOOLS WHOOPI GOLDBERG ON BLACK NATIONAL ANTHEM: ‘SEPARATE BUT EQUAL’ IS OUT OF STEP!
“They’re mad at them because they’re not progressive enough — forgetting that they only got elected because they’re not progressives! They’re moderates,” Maher said.
“They only got elected because they’re not progressives! They’re moderates!”
— Bill Maher
“Here’s my question: Does spending more money make you a better person? Or a bigger moderate?” Maher asked. “And maybe these two, Sinema and Manchin … might have their thumb more on the pulse on the average Democrat in the country.”
Bill Maher, center, defended moderate Democratic U.S. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
During his opening monologue, Maher noted Congress averted a government shutdown by passing a continuing resolution, sparking cheers from the audience.
“You’re cheering? Because we made it through ’til Dec. 3. That’s what they did!” Maher reacted. “This is the equivalent of putting duct tape on your shower nozzle until you actually call the plumber.”
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The HBO star blasted the “stupid, stupid game of chicken” between Democrats and Republicans, pointing out “at the last minute, Democrats had to back down.”
“Nancy Pelosi blinked, which is itself new,” Maher quipped.
SAN FRANCISCO — The off day before the final homestand of the season brought awful news for Brandon Belt and the first-place Giants.
An X-ray taken Monday revealed that Belt has a fracture in his left thumb. The Giants said Belt will meet with doctors over the next couple of days to develop a recovery plan and a timetable for his return, but the initial diagnosis likely rules him out for at least the rest of the regular season and the start of the playoffs. The Wild Card Game is Oct. 6 and the NLDS starts two days later.
Belt was hurt in the seventh inning on Sunday when he squared to bunt against lefty Lucas Gilbreath. He took a 93 mph pitch off the thumb and came out of the game a few minutes later. Belt expressed optimism to teammates after the game, but an initial scan taken in Denver was inconclusive. The X-ray on Monday brought the bad news.
The blow is a big one to the Giants, who have a two-game lead in the NL West with six to go. Belt has been their best player over the last two months, hitting 18 homers and posting a 1.085 OPS since returning from a knee injury on August 5. He is one of the few who is in the heart of Gabe Kapler’s lineup no matter who is on the mound for the opposing team.
While the calendar is not at all in Belt’s favor, he has come back from setbacks in the past. He suffered a bad concussion in 2014 but returned in September and hit a memorable 18th-inning homer in the NLDS to help the Giants win a title. Earlier this season, Belt suffered a knee injury that was at first thought to be season-ending, but he avoided surgery, rehabbed, and came back playing the best baseball of his career. Belt also had a fractured thumb in 2014 and missed seven weeks that time.
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The Giants survived that first absence this year by very successfully plugging LaMonte Wade Jr. and Darin Ruf in as a first base platoon. While Ruf is on the IL, Wade and Wilmer Flores can attempt to form a similar partnership.
The injury is also a blow on a personal level to Belt, a free agent at the end of the season. “The Captain” was one homer away from reaching 30 for the first time. He would have become the first Giants first baseman to reach that mark since Will Clark.
