The Padres will have to get by without Miguel Andujar for a bit after the club put the infielder/designated hitter on the 10-day injured list with a right wrist fracture. Rodolfo Durán was recalled in the corresponding move, and per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com, San Diego expects Andujar back sometime in August.
The injury traces back to yesterday, when a pitch from Lucas Erceg ran inside and hit Andujar on the arm, as shown in this clip from Baseball Savant. He stayed in the game, but soreness apparently led to further testing and the fracture diagnosis.
It’s a frustrating loss for a Padres offense that has needed every competent bat it can find. Andujar has been giving them exactly league-average production this season, hitting .259/.303/.423 for a 100 wRC+. Among Padres hitters with at least 110 plate appearances, only Ty France, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Gavin Sheets have been above par offensively.
That matters because San Diego is still hanging around the race. The Padres are 49-50 and 2.5 games out of a playoff spot, and with the trade deadline two weeks away, the club is reportedly weighing whether to buy or sell. What happens over the next stretch could shape that call, and losing one of their steadier bats doesn’t help.
Andujar also fits naturally into the kind of player a selling club might move. He’s on a one-year, $4MM deal and headed for free agency, so if the Padres go that direction, he’d be a reasonable trade piece.
The return wouldn’t be massive - more the kind of lottery-ticket prospect swing teams make on a role player - but even that becomes harder if he’s dealing with a wrist fracture. He can still be traded while on the injured list, though his value would obviously take a hit while his status remains uncertain.
Most of Andujar’s work has come as the designated hitter, with some time at third base mixed in. Durán’s promotion was mainly about coverage, since he had been on the taxi squad because catcher Luis Campusano is dealing with an oblique issue, according to Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune. The Padres could shuffle things again soon, whether that means bringing up another player and sending Durán back down or placing Campusano on the injured list.
If Campusano is healthy enough to play, he could absorb some of the DH at-bats while Durán handles backup catching duties. Luis Rengifo, Sung-Mun Song and Jase Bowen are also on the bench and could see more time. Will Wagner and Mason McCoy remain on the 40-man roster and could be recalled from their optional assignments.
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