The latest arrival in the New York Yankees’ youth movement came Thursday with outfielder Dustin Fowler earning a spot in the starting lineup for his MLB debut. Fowler had to wait an extra three hours to get on the field thanks to a rain delay, but things only got worse once the game finally got underway in Chicago at 10 p.m. CT.

While trying to chase down a foul ball at full speed in the bottom of the first inning, Fowler slammed into the wall at Guaranteed Rate Field. He tried to walk it off at first, but then collapsed, and was eventually carted off after being down on the field for a while.

Here’s the play in real time, where you can really feel how hard Fowler was running when he made contact with the wall:

Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay just now announced on the broadcast that Fowler has been diagnosed with a ruptured right patella tendon in his right knee, and will have surgery tonight in Chicago.

This is such a heartbreaking moment. Fowler is a 22-year-old and one of the top-10 prospects in the Yankees organizations who raked in the minors the last two seasons. In 70 games in AAA prior to being called up for Thursday’s game, he was batting .293/.329/.871 with 13 homers, 43 RBI and 13 stolen bases.

So it’s no surprise analysts regard him very highly.

And with this injury occurring in the first inning and Fowler batting sixth in the order, he didn’t even get a chance for the first plate appearance of his career. He was due to lead off the second inning.

You can see how devastated manager Joe Girardi, as well as many other people around baseball, were after witnessing the play.

Here’s to hoping Fowler can make a good recovery from the injury.

[Pix 11]

About Jesse Kramer

Jesse is a writer and editor for The Comeback. He has also worked for SI.com and runs The Catch and Shoot, a college basketball website based in Chicago. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow Jesse on Twitter @Jesse_Kramer.