Minnesota Twins: Phil Hughes out 6-8 weeks with knee fracture

Phil Hughes of the Minnesota Twins will be out 6-8 weeks with a knee fracture, further marring what has already been a rough season for both the pitcher and his team.

Minnesota Twins pitcher Phil Hughes has a fracture in his knee and will miss six to eight weeks, according to Phil Miller of the Star Tribune:

Hughes was struck in the left knee by a line drive off the bat of Miami Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto during the eighth inning of Thursday night’s game. The 29-year-old right-hander immediately fell to the ground in pain and required help to get off the field.

The Twins placed Hughes on the disabled list yesterday but it wasn’t until he underwent an MRI that they learned the full extent of the injury. With the confirmation of a fracture, he will likely be on the shelf until August or perhaps even longer.

Of course, the 2016 campaign has hardly been an ideal experience for either Hughes or his team. The Twins have performed miserably pretty much from the word “go.” They currently own an 18-42 record, tied with the Atlanta Braves for the worst mark in baseball. After last year’s surprisingly competitive showing, this season’s free-fall has been nothing short of a massive disappointment in the Twin Cities.

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Hughes, who is in the third season of his initial three-year, $24 million contract with Minnesota, has also struggled individually. He’s carrying a dismal 1-7 record while sporting a 5.95 ERA and 1.51 WHIP through 59 innings. His poor form prompted the Twins to relegate him to the bullpen a bit over a week ago in an effort to work things out. It may not have been a bad idea, considering Hughes’ past success as a reliever while with the Yankees.

Thursday’s injury-abbreviated outing was his first this season out of the pen, however, so the Twins will be left wondering whether the change would have had a positive long-term effect on Hughes.

The righty seems very far removed from his strong 2013 campaign, in which he won 16 games to the tune of a 3.52 ERA while eclipsing the 200-inning threshold for the first time in his career. He also set an all-time MLB record with a 11.63 K/BB ratio, although Clayton Kershaw seems hell-bent on smashing that mark this year with an astonishing 20.33 K/BB at the moment.

Hughes’ impressive showing that season netted him a three-year, $42 million extension the following offseason. With Hughes under contract through 2019, his downturn is all the more frustrating for the Twins. And it’s not exactly a recent development either: He posted a mediocre 4.40 ERA in 2015 while serving up an AL-most 29 home runs. A tendency to give up the long ball has hurt Hughes since his Yankee days, and a move to spacious Target Field hasn’t been as beneficial as originally thought.

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Minnesota’s season has effectively been over for a while, but getting Hughes back on track would still have been an important goal over the next few months. That objective will now have to wait until Hughes can return, which given the nature of the injury involved, might be closer to the end of the season than the midpoint.