The Injury Plague is Upon The Texas Rangers

Yesterday, out of nowhere (as far as the fans were concerned), the Texas Rangers announced that Mitch Moreland would need ankle reconstruction surgery and be out for the next three months. Then, Rougned Odor, who has looked good since coming up to the major leagues, injured his shoulder simply sliding back to first or a pick off attempt.

They are now added to a list of players that include Geovany Soto, Derek Holland, Jim Adduci, Prince Fielder, Jurickson Profar, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Matt Harrison, Martin Perez, and Alexi Ogando. I asked Brett Nicholas, the Round Rock Express catcher/first baseman on The Ranger Report Podcast last night if he had ever seen a team deal with this many injuries in a season.

“You know, it’s not just little nicks and bruises either, it’s guys that are out for months at a time. It’s something I’ve never seen before obviously, and I think everybody, I think I heard it described as like a plague today…”

Amazingly, with this “plague” happening to the Texas Rangers, they are still not out of the hunt. They continue to hover right around the .500 mark, which seems to be where most of their competition is also sitting. When this season started, I don’t think it was in the plan to have Nick Tepesch, Nick Martinez, Luis Sardinas, Michael Choice and Robinson Chirinos to be key players on this team.

For right now, Donnie Murphy will take over the first base duties, but Brett Nicholas could get the call soon if Donnie can’t handle everyday first base. Of course, I would be afraid to be called up right now, I wouldn’t want to join the injury plagued Texas Rangers.