11:37am: Topkin further elaborates that Kiermaier suffered a hairline fracture in the hip and will need to allow six to eight weeks for the injury to heal before he even begins ramping back up to playing condition. Smith is “going to get his chance” to play on a regular basis, according to manager Kevin Cash.
11:18am: Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier will miss at least the next two months due to a fracture in his right hip, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (on Twitter).
Kiermaier suffered the injury when sliding into first base to avoid a collision with Jose Abreu last night and quickly exited the game, as Topkin wrote this morning. He was seen on crutches following last night’s contest and underwent a series of tests this morning, including an MRI, CT scan and x-rays. Topkin tweets that Mallex Smith will be recalled from Triple-A in place of Kiermaier.
[Related: Updated Tampa Bay Rays depth chart]
Kiermaier, who signed a six-year, $53.5MM contract extension this offseason, will be missed both in the Rays’ lineup and in the outfield. While he’s made an uncharacteristic six errors in center field this year, he has a track record as the game’s best defensive center fielder (and, quite arguably, best overall defensive player). In spite of the errors, Defensive Runs Saved still pegs him at +9, due largely to his exceptional range and strong throwing arm. At the plate, he’s provided roughly league-average offensive production, hitting .258/.329/.408 with seven homers, 10 doubles and two triples. Kiermaier has also swiped 10 bags in 14 tries and been among the game’s best baserunners, per Fangraphs’ BsR metric.
In Smith, the Rays have a player who may not match Kiermaier’s general excellence but can still provide considerably above-average glovework. Smith possesses excellent range in center thanks to elite speed on which many scouting reports have placed an 80 grade (on the 20-80 scale). Acquired in the offseason trade that sent Drew Smyly to the Mariners, Smith hit .261/.346/.304 in a tiny sample of 26 plate appearances with Tampa Bay earlier this season. The 24-year-old has had a considerably more productive year in Triple-A Durham, slashing .311/.345/.477 with three homers, five doubles, four triples and 16 steals (in 23 attempts).
While Topkin suggests that Smith will get a chance to play on an everyday basis, the Rays are reasonably well-stocked with alternatives should he struggle at the plate or should further injuries arise. Veteran Peter Bourjos has plenty of experience in center field and could spell Smith against left-handed pitching, should the need arise. And left fielder Colby Rasmus, too, has spent several seasons of his career as a center fielder. While an alignment of Rasmus, Smith and Steven Souza seems likely on most days, the Rays can still mix in Bourjos, Corey Dickerson and bench pieces such as Michael Martinez and Rickie Weeks on an as-needed basis.
This is completely on him. With a 6-run lead you slide into first…. he even said that bad things happen when you do that but he did it anyways. He cost this team, big time. Hoping mallex comes up and plays with a purpose.
The good thing is, it’s not the entire season. Hopefully by the time Kiermaier is back, Ramos is catching 3 days a week and mashing.
I mean, I wouldn’t say it’s not the entire season. With an expected 2 month DL stint, I wouldn’t expect to see him back until at the absolute earliest late August, if at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t play again this season.
He slid because he didn’t want to get ran over by Abreu. They were both going at the base hard and unfortunately it was an awkward feet first slide.
He’s stated that he slid to avoid a head-on collision with Abreu, who was running full steam at the bag from the opposite side. Hard to say this was a better path to take given the outcome, but watching the replay, it wouldn’t have been pretty if he’d tried to just run through the bag.
Abreu is a 6″3, 250lb lump – with him running full speed towards collision, are you going to take him head on?
There was a small glimmer before, but this firmly brings the Rays 2017 postseason story to a close.
You are totally wrong. His bat has heated up the past 20 games but he really had contributed much to what this team has done. 6 errors in his last 40 games is the most in baseball and smith has same speed to put pressure on opposing teams and his bat in a much smaller sample size looked much more usefeul thank Kk. Smith isn’t Kk but he is a very safe option to replace him for the time being. And Ramos and Duffy and boxberger and cedeno will all be back sometime. I believe this teams chances are going up by hovering at .500 while missing some big big producers and bullpen help
He was still worth +9 runs saved in the field, you goober. Focusing on the errors is rather narrow-minded.
I don’t think they ever had a real shot at making it to the postseason but even if they did it took a big hit
They do and I disagree
They’re the 5th best team in the AL East.
They get into the postseason only if three of the 4 ahead of them drop dead.
Congrats for the stupidest comment in this thread.
But it’s probably true. Unless bundy and gausman are out all season
He slid feet first; I’m waiting patiently for all the scolds who criticized Mike Trout for getting injured on a head-first slide to weigh in.
But into first!
He was attempting to avoid a collision with a huge person.
Have you seen the replay? Doesn’t sound like it…
To recap, both Trout (best player in game) and Kiermaier (best defensive OF in game) are both not playing for long periods of time because they chose to slide incorrectly.
It’s time to teach players to never ever slide headfirst, and to never ever slide into first base. The game is too important and too much money is at stake for players to be working this hard to have it all taken away because of a nonsensical way to slide into a bag.
Football should be two hand touch as well.
The NFL should fold entirely due to negligence in head injuries and a guaranteed shortened life span. Time to move on and get past contact sports entirely.
Billion dollar industry and most popular sport in America? Well, dont hold your breath anytime soon.
Long live the CFL!
I miss the USFL. Bring it back!
Participation trophies for everyone. Hope to God you’re trying to be funny!
Those billions are already going away after the thousands of lawsuits from dead players families.
The NFL is a dying league, remember who told you first 😉
Rickey Henderson attempted 1700 stolen bases in his career. He slid headfirst every time. He never suffered an injury from sliding.
One. Example. Of. A. Freakish. Athlete. Who. We. Will. Never. See. The Likes. Of. Again.
Almost all players slide headfirst on stolen base attempts. Almost none of them get hurt doing it. Trout’s injury sucks, but it’s not going to change the game.
Juan Pierre, Kenny Lofton, Billy Hamilton. There’s been other speed demons on the base paths over the years aside from Ricky Henderson.
Notice how you went from sliding headfirst 100% of the time, to the more general “speed demon”?
Troll.
Tim Raines
What? I never mentioned sliding head first. I was commenting on your freakish athlete comment. You sure you know where you are?
You are very incorrect. Rickey has stated on air several times he sustained a few concussions and that his digits aren’t entirety straight.
Shhhh don’t break the “Whatever JAF says is wrong because I’m too ignorant to question why things are and I don’t like how often he is right” narrative that a couple of haters on here have taken!
Rickey had very few DL stints in his career and almost all of them were because of his hamstrings
I would love to see the evidence of this. I googled exactly what you wrote and found exactly nothing to it.
I don’t think he ever tried to steal first base though so that’s not really relevant.
The original comment remarked that nobody should ever slide head first. The best base-stealer of all time always slid head first.
So in other world most likely unsuccessfully try and blow up Abreu? Because honestly if he doesn’t slide chances are there is a huge collision at 1st. Are you telling me he wouldn’t have sustained an injury colliding with Abreu or trying to avoid him.
Yes for most part you should never try to slide into 1st but, but there are exceptions. There are actually two big exceptions to that rule. And you just saw the first exception on that play. You can’t protect players to the extent where they can’t play aggressively and react. Injuries happen and they suck yes, some are avoidable and some aren’t. Unless you’re suggesting Kiermier should have pulled up, idk that you can even call it a bad decision. Stop trying to police play in that manner. Guys are going to get hurt it’s a 162 game season in 182 days.
I am most definitely suggesting Kiermaier should have pulled up, or ran of the baseline. If he did that, he’d still be playing. Dumb mentality to have in a billion dollar industry.
If he runs the base line there’s a collision. If he pulls up then he gets drilled for not hustling. Add onto that the amount of time he would have had to decide to pull up doesn’t exclude him from blowing out a hamstring.
If you’ve played or coached at a high level you’d know the most difficult thing to do is take an “all out mentality” from a player. Even if you wanted to the game is too fast and plays are usually the result of instinct. If you preach hustle to a player, which is essentially why Kiermier gets payed the way he does, you can’t and wouldn’t expect him to pull up on a bang bang play.
What is a dumb mentality is expecting players, especially low round draft picks, who usually scratch and claw their way to the big leagues to suddenly change what got them there. I’d be more critical if he slid head first into home or attempted to lung at the bag so on so forth. The fact remains no matter how hard you try to police the games, billion dollar industry or not, injuries are going to occur of the freak nature.
For the billionth time – he slid feet 1st avoid a collusion. What are ya gonna teach? How to avoid a collision? So, in that circumstance just do a 180 and run to the dugout.
Kiermaier did not slide headfirst
I have decided that from this comment onward I will not reply to the troll.
Smith gets a chance to show what he can do.
Hi Terry, are you referring to me? Because being a forward-thinking futurist is not what a troll is. What trolling is goes something like “referring to a specific poster without touching the topic at hand” – being that all my non-response posts are not that, I will never ever be a troll no matter how badly you want to call me that.
Call me annoying, call me an out-of-the-box thinker, but no matter what, I am not a troll. I’m baseball talk first, foremost and always – unless getting called out for reasons of “Im a crybaby and this guy is saying things I dont agree with but I’m wrong and no ones ever checked me on it.” then I will address it. But I never come in a thread and call out a poster like many of you have – THATS trolling.
Prine example of how you see yourself and how others see you doesnt always line up.
Real cool – still think I called Norris guilty? Because I never did. Not once. I said “Dont victim shame” because many were. To unintelligent people, “dont victim shame” equals “shame the accuser” – which is literally stupid. Don’t shame anyone until the facts are in.
How did that mere one simple thing turn so many posters against me? Oh right, there aren’t any rocket scientists in here.
Also: doesn’t take away from my point of those who mention my name in a new post without discussing the topic. Go away.
Said he was guilty? No
Inferred and treated him like he was guilty? Yes
At least you admitted you have a problem!
There’s no way he can play the way he does and not get hurt eventually
Didn’t Pedroia get injured avoiding a collision with Abreu at first a few weeks ago?
Funny reading the comments here about WHY he got injured and how people shouldn’t slide anymore because or risk of injuries. I guess these same people forget that ACCIDENTS happen! Regardless of whether it’s sliding, diving, jumping or sneezing- injuries happen. Some people should quit trying to be experts of the game and just accept the situation for what it is. Sports is tough- get over it.
Amen!
Let’s Make Small Market Baseball Teams Great Again!!!
There are a number of people here commenting, who haven’t seen the play. Watch it – KK’s slide makes a lot of sense all of a sudden. The injury is unfortunate, but it’s sport. injuries happen.