Kansas City Royals 1st baseman Vinnie Pasquantino will undergo season ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, the club announced.
Pasquantino was originally placed on the injured list last weekend with what the team described as “right shoulder instability”. However additional testing revealed a more serious injury than the Royals initially thought.
The Old Dominion alum was forced out of Friday’s contest against the Baltimore Orioles after reporting discomfort in his shoulder.
The 25 year old infielder was in the midst of his sophomore campaign at the MLB level, posting a .247 average with 9HRs, 26RBIs, and 24 runs scored across 61 contests. Pasquantino’s .247/.324/.437 slashline fell well below his rookie campaign, as the 6’4” lefty struggled to find consistency in his game this season.
More importantly however, he’ll miss out on over half a season’s worth of reps at the MLB level. Something that the Royals can ill afford when it comes to developing their prospects.
By virtue of Oakland going 7-3 in their last 10 games, the Royals now sport the worst record in all of baseball at 18-50. That mark extrapolated over the course of an entire season would put them at 44-118 which would easily surpass their franchise worst record of 106 losses in 2006.
The club is now riding a 9 game losing streak. To make matters worse, All-Star catcher Salvador Perez was forced out of their recent 7-4 loss in the third inning after taking a pitch to his left hand. An injury the team can ill afford at the moment.
Thankfully x-rays came back negative, but Perez is being listed as day to day with a hand contusion. In the interim it will likely be Nick Pratto who takes over everyday duties at 1st base in Pasquantino’s absence.
Kansas City is next in action on Friday night against the Angels in an 8:10pm ET showdown.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Johnmaxmena2. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.