The already-stumbling Rays received bad news on the injury front today, as young outfielder Wil Myers will not even begin rehabbing a stress fracture in his right wrist for five or six weeks, Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune reports (via Twitter). That sets Myers up to miss at least two months of action, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, which means he would likely not return until after the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.
Tampa opened the day today carrying its highest-ever payroll and an American League-worst 23-35 record. Needless to say, the loss of Myers — in spite of his struggles to date in 2014 — will not help the team’s efforts to spark a turnaround. Myers, 23, took home A.L. Rookie of the Year honors last year after posting an outstanding .293/.354/.478 line with 13 home runs in just 373 plate appearances. But through 224 trips to the dish this time around, his triple-slash stood at just .227/.313/.354 and he had hit only five long balls.
A recent report indicated that, if the Rays decide to sell, they could move multiple veterans, possibly including ace David Price, star utilityman Ben Zobrist, and Matt Joyce.
