Leury Garcia of the White Sox is headed for surgery after severing his thumb ligament during Monday’s game against the Tigers, per MLB.com’s Scott Merkin. He will be out until October at the earliest.
Danny Mendick will see a majority of time at second in the near-term while Nick Madrigal remains on the injured list. Ryan Goins can also fill in at second. Mendick, 26, has appeared in 13 games this season, slashing .250/.318/.325 across 44 plate appearances. The former 22nd-round draft selection put together a strong audition reel last season in Triple-A with a triple slash of .279/.368/.444.
Garcia, 29, held a significant role in the early going for the Southsiders. He started the year at second before sliding to short to cover for Tim Anderson’s IL stint. Across 16 games, the veteran Garcia answered the call with a triple slash of .271/.317/.441. The injury is unfortunate for Garcia, who held the line for the White Sox during their extensive rebuild, only to miss the rest of this season as they finally attempt to enter the (expansive) playoff picture.
The White Sox acquired Garcia from the Rangers way back in 2013 after just a sampling of playing time in the bigs back. Garcia was the player to be named later in a mid-season trade for Alex Rios. Rios finished 2013 strong with the Rangers, hitting .280/.315/.457 the rest of the way. The Dominican-born Garcia, meanwhile, has appeared in every season since the deal, earning a semi-regular role for the Pale Hose as a utility player over the last three seasons.
A big blow for the Chi-Sox, this kid could play. But I definitely see 3 teams making the playoffs in the AL Central this season. The Twinkies winning the division, & Cleveland & Chicago being wild card winners.
Severing a thumb ligament sounds pretty major… I’m guessing rehab from that will be crucial (not to mention the surgery). How does an injury like that occur during a baseball game?
Sure hope this isn’t a career ender for the guy…
He dove headfirst into 1B and appeared to either get stepped on or jam his hand into the base. Trainer came out to look at him. Stayed in the game. Then proceeded to dive headfirst into 2B on a routine forceout to end the inning. It was comical if it wasn’t infuriating to watch.
Sliding instead of diving solves it. As does not leaving your feet altogether into 1B. As does finding a new material for a base because this happens entirely way too much.
Madrigal messed up his shoulder sliding, not diving. I guess that doesn’t actually solve it.
The last 2 sentences are fair though.
Yeah, I’m not exactly sure how he did that. Either way, it’d be nice to see somebody show these guys how to slide without causing significant injury.
Good ole Mendick
Big loss. He is their super sub and was hitting a ton. The actual play didn’t seem that bad, like a jammed thumb. Ouch!
It looks like we’re going to get a heavy dose of Danny Mendick over the next few weeks. We’ll find out whether or not he’s worth keeping for the next few years.
Small sample size, but I like him so far, at least for a super utility sub. Not sure whether or not I like him to start 2 or 3 weeks in a row. I guess I’ll find out in 2 or 3 weeks.
So much for catching the Cards being rusty. It looks like the Sox were the ones who were off the last 2 weeks battling COVID-19. I suppose you take the bad with the good when you’re in your transition year.
And thankfully 2020 happened to be their transition year. And as bad as the Sox have looked at times this year, it’s far better than what we saw in the rebuild years (and the years before the rebuild took place in Nov ’16).
It’s still a let down. This team is poorly managed. And still needs starting pitching. Plus Encarnacion has been a bust.