FRIDAY: Thames underwent surgery and is expected to be sidelined for six to eight weeks, the club announced.
WEDNESDAY, 2:51pm: Milwaukee GM David Stearns tells reporters that Thames will likely require surgery, though that determination is not yet finalized (Twitter link via Adam McCalvy of MLB.com). The team still expects to have Thames back in the fold for a “significant” portion of the 2018 campaign, Stearns further adds.
2:39pm: The Brewers announced Wednesday that first baseman/outfielder Eric Thames has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb. Right-hander Brandon Woodruff has been recalled from Triple-A to fill Thames’ spot on the roster.
Milwaukee didn’t provide a timeline for Thames’ absence, though this type of injury has cost players anywhere from six to eight weeks in the past and typically requires surgical repair. Yadier Molina (twice), Mike Trout, Bryce Harper and Dustin Pedroia are among the notable names to have experienced a UCL tear in the thumb over the past few seasons.
Thames, 31, was off to a terrific start in Milwaukee, hitting a robust .250/.351/.625 with seven homers and three doubles through his first 74 plate appearances of the season. He sustained the injury when making a diving stab at first base in the eighth inning of last night’s game, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
The loss of a slugger hitting as well as Thames has been to open the season stings for the Brewers, of course, though Milwaukee has a considerable amount of corner depth to help soften the blow. Many fans and pundits, myself included, were surprised to see the Brewers hang onto all of their outfielders and first baseman Jesus Aguilar after adding both Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich this offseason. But, their decision to do so could now allow the Brewers to shift Ryan Braun to first base more often while deploying a strong outfield mix of Yelich, Cain and Domingo Santana. Aguilar, too, seems likely to see some increased reps at first base with Thames out for what could be an absence of two months.
That sucks at least the Brewers have a ton of 1st base depth
Honest question. theoretically, if Tames provided enough value, that paid off his contract by now, would this sting less. Be it 6-8 weeks, or God-forbid, year-ending injury?
Tames’ contract, what a steal:
2018: $5M
2019: $6M
2020: $7.5M club option ($1M buyout)
No. The only thing that matters is how valuable the player is, unless there are trade considerations. Losing Mike Trout doesn’t hurt your team any more or less if he makes $1,000,000 or $30,000,000
Hahaha-Mike Trout and Eric Thames in the same sentence. Outside of quick start last year-Would anyone even pay attention to Thames?
Every other player in the league pales in comparison to Trout. Thames had an .877 ops last season, would you not want that on your team?
Nope. He got exposed and after April he was pretty much done. Atrocious from May through August. This first two months skewed his OPS.
Thames had an .861 OPS in July and 1.004 in September and is off to a .976 start this year. Anyone who thinks he’s a one month phenom who has been “exposed” doesn’t bother to look at the numbers.
Hahahahahahaha. I’m always happy when he’s at the plate.
I don’t see how it could. I mean the angels had this with trout who had paid off his deal a time or two over.
Players aren’t assets like that. Once paid teams want all the production they can get and again trout got hurt severely the angels wouldn’t be thinking geez at least we got our money’s worth out of him already.
Tames?
Thames*
Hope he doesn’t need thumb Tommy John.
That’s Tommy Thumb
Thumby John
They have Braun, Aguilar and Ji-Man Choi that can all play first base
All part time players for a reason.
The Brewers knew there would be injuries. There are always injuries…..
Wow
Hey Steve how come we haven’t seen anything for the passing of Dave Nelson on the site yet? He was a quality major league ball player in his day and spent a long time coaching and in the front office for a few different organizations, coached for Cleveland and Milwaukee just off the top of my head. He was a class act, very involved with a charity for AIDS orphans in South Africa and was a great community ambassador. Certainly worthy of a small remembrance here and a link to one of the many stories by Brewer reporters. We will certainly miss him here in Milwaukee.
Agreed!
I almost picked up Thames on my fantasy team this weekend, and even though he’ll be out a couple months on the DL he’ll still be about as productive as Edwin Encarnacion has been so far. Speedy recovery, ET.
Now’s a great time to pick him up if you’re in a league with DL slots. There’ll still be a lot of baseball to play when he gets back.
I’m surprised that no one talked about moving Shaw to first base and letting Erceg get his feet wet.. I got believe they think very highly of him since he is the first person to wear 17 since Jimmy Gantner. Don’t say that it doesn’t mean anything cause in Milwaukee it does
Erceg is down in Double-A. He’s not ready yet.
Well everybody has there opinion but I say see what happens. I’m also starting to wonder if it’s time to consider going with Dubon over Sogard and no it’s not just cause of today’s error. I feel he has more speed offense and defense atleast let him go down and get some regular at bats because yes I know if you designate Sogard there is a chance of losing him but last year we let the young guys play and look what happened I think we should keep with that trend. Also Orf has done pretty good at AAA and if Perez keeps struggling it might be time to move on
Can we just move Hader to the rotation already that should be the real story here
Why would you move the best, most versatile reliever in baseball to the rotation? He can impact several games a week as opposed to one start.
I agree davbee just leave Hader where he is. I like that he can come into 3 games or more every week and completely shut down the opponent. If he is put in a starting role, I think he could be exposed the 3rd time through the batting order and until he can perfect a 3rd pitch, he’s perfect where he’s at