Shortstop Cole Tucker has been placed on the 7-day disabled list with a fractured right thumb. As mentioned in our Prospect Watch from last night, Tucker jammed his thumb during Friday night’s game and then was a late scratch from last night’s game.
Back in his rookie season, Tucker had surgery on his left thumb due to a torn ulnar collateral ligament, which caused him to miss the Fall Instructional League that year. This current injury was on his right thumb.
Tucker is hitting .271/.359/.420 in 51 games this year. He leads the league with 27 stolen bases.
While the Pirates have not given any possible return date, a quick check on the internet says that a simple fracture of the thumb requires a cast to be worn for 3-6 weeks before returning to normal activities. Since baseball isn’t a normal activity, that means Tucker could be out for a significant portion of the remaining schedule. The Bradenton regular season wraps up on September 3rd. We will post an update once we have a better estimate of the time he will miss.
Expect Alfredo Reyes to receive the majority of the playing time at shortstop for the Marauders. Both Stephen Alemais and Adrian Valerio are on the DL for West Virginia, so I wouldn’t expect either of them to be an option any time soon, and no other player with the Power would be a good fit at shortstop in High-A.
