Cleveland Indians Michael Brantley faces another setback
Michael Brantley may have rushed back too soon, as the Cleveland Indians former all-star and Silver Slugger is headed for another stint on the DL.
Cleveland Indians all-star left fielder Michael Brantley is headed back to the disabled list. The team announced the move on its Twitter account on Saturday afternoon.
Brantley, who underwent shoulder surgery for a torn labrum in November and was initially expected to recover within five to six months, is experiencing soreness and fatigue after appearing in 11 games since being activated from the disabled list on April 25th. A similar problem arose in spring training after he played in two games, which led to the initial stint on the DL.
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An MRI on Friday didn’t reveal any further injury, according to Indians beat writer Jordan Bastian, but Brantley will be meeting with his surgeon on Tuesday.
Thus far in 2016, Brantley is just 9-for-39 (.231) and has not looked entirely comfortable swinging the bat. After being held out of games against the Houston Astros on Tuesday and Wednesday and an off day on Thursday, it was expected that Brantley would return to the lineup for Friday’s series opener against the Minnesota Twins.
When the Indians’ Twitter account tweeted out the lineup, though, Jose Ramirez had LF next to his name instead of Brantley, which set off rumblings of a possible return to the disabled list.
“I’m kind of kicking myself a little bit,” manager Terry Francona told Zack Meisel of cleveland.com. “I think we might have gone a little too far, too much, too fast. I didn’t want to do that and I think we probably did.”
In 2014, Brantley placed third in American League MVP voting after a 6.1 fWAR season that included a .327/.385/.506 slash line, 45 doubles, 20 home runs, and 97 runs batted in. He followed that up with .310/.379/.480 year in 2015, with 45 doubles, 15 homers, 84 RBIs, and a 3.8 fWAR.
After the surgery took place, there were rumors, notably from Peter Gammons, that Brantley’s return may not come until August. He blew that out of the water by missing less than a month of the season, though now it is clear that the return came too soon.
“I would say it’s probably more the bouncing back,” Francona said. “Recovery is probably the biggest thing. I’m sure everybody out there that has had surgery is probably going to have some soreness. I think that happens.”
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Brantley being shut down again is something Tribe fans and the rest of the AL Central will be watching very closely.