The Texas Rangers are placing Adolis Garcia on the 10-day IL with what the team is labelling a right patellar tendon strain the club announced.
Garcia is believed to have suffered the injury on Wednesday vs. the Houston Astros as he attempted to bring back a Michael Brantley home run which barely cleared the fence. The American League RBI leader was visibly frustrated after attempting to walk off the injury, before ultimately being lifted from the game.
The 30 year old outfielder appears to have avoided major injury as an MRI revealed a strain, not a complete tear as was initially feared.
The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Rangers. Losers of 3 straight, and 7 of their last 10 games, the Rangers have fallen not just out of 1st place in the AL West, but out of the playoff picture altogether.
Once viewed as a lock to make the postseason, Texas suddenly finds themselves on the outside looking in, as they sit a half game back of the Toronto Blue Jays for the final Wild Card spot.
A 2x All-Star, Garcia was enjoying the most productive offensive season of his career hitting .244 with 34 HRs, 100 RBIs, 97 runs scored and 8 stolen bases through 135 games.
General Manager Chris Young stopped short of providing any kind of timelines for Garcia’s return, but preached optimism that he could return before the end of the regular season.
“We won’t know that for certain until the next week to 10 days as we kind of see how the healing and inflammation respond, but nonetheless, it was not a rupture — which we were fearful of,” Young said to members of the press Thursday. “I think that was good news, all things considered. We will remain hopeful that we can return. We just don’t know what the timeline will be.”
With Garcia sidelined the Rangers announced they would be promoting no. 1 prospect Evan Carter to their Major League roster ahead of Friday’s game vs. Oakland. The 6’2” outfielder is currently the 8th ranked prospect in all of baseball and has had a strong showing in both AA and AAA ball this year.
In 8 games with AAA Round Rock, the 21 year old has hit .353 with 3 RBIs, 8 runs, and 3 stolen bases.
Texas is set to open a three game series at home vs. Oakland on Friday, with first pitch scheduled for 8:05pm ET.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Drone to Fly. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.