The Nationals have played like one of the very best teams in baseball to start 2o17, and young shortstop Trea Turner has been a key cog.
The speedster is coming off a 3.3 WAR season, and had already racked up 1.7 WAR to start the year, combining excellent wheels with stellar defense and some competent offensive work as well. His four steals against the Cubs the other night helped set off a chain of events that resulted in the Cubs cutting ties with catcher Miguel Montero.
Turner was batting in the bottom of the seventh against Cubs reliever Pedro Strop when a fastball got away from the Cubs righty, rising up and in and catching Turner flush on the right wrist.
The initial reports aren’t good:
Trea Turner has a broken right wrist. No timetable for a return.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) June 30, 2017
Hopefully Turner recovers quickly, and fully, and doesn’t suffer any long-term offensive side effects that can come from a wrist injury. Players can sometimes lose power for a while, for example. It’s unfortunate all around, and though the Nationals will likely be okay until he returns (they’re really good and their division is really really bad), this is not the kind of thing that anyone wants to see.
Including Strop; that HBP loaded the bases, and in a one run game there’s no way he was trying to hit Turner there. That could still mean retribution, of course, because this is baseball, but hopefully cooler heads prevail.
Get well, Trea.
