Nico Hoerner just went down, badly, after crossing first base while trying to beat out a bunt attempt. I’m not keen on speculating on the injury until we have the facts, but it didn’t look good, with Hoerner grabbing at the back of his left leg. Hoerner stayed down for a while, was in obvious pain, and exited the game very gingerly.
Here’s Nico Hoerner going down hard in pain (seemed to be his hamstring) on an attempted bunt. pic.twitter.com/ihl2zbrxQD
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) May 26, 2021
It’s impossible to imagine that this isn’t a situation where he’s going to have to hit the Injured List for some period of time, which is just so frustrating because he’s in the middle of establishing himself as a regular in the big leagues right now, pairing an evolving line drive bat with elite defense at second base. I am so bummed right now. More when we have more to share.
Eric Sogard took over at second, by the way, and if Matt Duffy weren’t also on the IL, you’d probably just see him at third and David Bote at second most days. Without Duffy, though, and with Jason Heyward on the IL, Bote gets most days at third, with Kris Bryant sliding into the outfield. So if Hoerner does go on the IL, it’s probably gonna be a lot more Sogard.
UPDATE: Officially, it’s a left hamstring strain for Hoerner, which we can now say, yeah, that’s exactly what it looked like. A bad one. Now the question is what the imaging will show, and how bad the injury is. We could be talking about a month or many, many months.
UPDATE 2: A possible roster consideration already percolating:
Alcantara, 24 (like Hoerner), is a guy you would want to see anyway, because the glove has long been great, and he's teasing this year that the bat might've "popped" a bit during the shut down.
… but it's gonna be one of those "not like this, not like this" situations.
— Bleacher Nation Cubs (@BleacherNation) May 26, 2021