J.J. Hardy Out Up To 8 Weeks With Broken Foot

After fouling a ball off his left foot in his second at bat on Sunday afternoon, Baltimore Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy has been told he has a fracture and will miss somewhere between four and eight weeks, according to CSN Mid-Atlantic’s Rich Dubroff and Baltimore Baseball’s Dan Connolly.

Hardy actually stayed in the game and drew a walk, but didn’t come back out to start the top of the fifth inning. Originally thought to be  just a contusion, it was later revealed to in fact be a fracture.  With Hardy out, Manny Machado shifted over to shortstop, where he is expected to play regularly until Hardy’s return. Pedro Alvarez filled in at third base, and the Orioles may use a combination of him and Ryan Flaherty there.

An interesting option would be moving Chris Davis back to the hot corner. Davis originally came up as a third baseman, and has played there as recently as 2014. He couldn’t grade out at the position much worse than Alvarez has over his career, who also hasn’t played the position since 2014.

While losing Hardy is a certainly a blow to the defensive side of the ball for the Orioles, the 33-year old hasn’t been a force at the plate in years, grading out below league average in ever season since 2011.  While usually this still makes a very valuable player when paired with his excellent defense, last year was a career-low for Hardy, amassing exactly 0.0 fWAR in over 100 games.

Next: Josh Hamilton suffers setback during rehab

Without Hardy, the Orioles lost 7-1 and fell a half game behind the Boston Red Sox in the AL East on Sunday, and will look to regain the lead when the take on the last place New York Yankees in a three game set starting Tuesday at 7:05 pm EST.