The strong season of Orioles rightfielder Anthony Santander appears to have ended because of a strained right oblique muscle.
Santander hurt the oblique in the eighth inning of the first game of a doubleheader with the Yankees on Friday night, and the Orioles placed him on the 10-day injured list on Saturday. Santander, who started summer training late because of Covid-19, played in the club’s first 37 games.
Santander leads the team in home runs (11) and runs batted in (32). He has a .265 batting average and .890 OPS.
“He got checked out this morning,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said in his Saturday morning video conference call. “He’s going to miss a significant amount of time.”
With just 22 games left in the season, Hyde said “it’s a definite possibility” that Santander’s injury is season-ending.
“That’s why, when we lost that first game, I was disappointed in that. I had a feeling when he came out of the game, that didn’t’ look good,” Hyde said. “That one definitely hurt. Tony is a huge loss for us.”
Santander had an 18-game hitting streak last month, the club’s longest in more than six seasons. He also has played a strong right field.
“I was really happy with the year that he’s had,” Hyde said. “He’s just really come on the map for me. All the positive things I said about him toward the end of last year, he’s improved even more. A huge loss for us, and he’s really disappointed.”
Hyde said that DJ Stewart would get a long look in right field for the rest of the season. He’s hitless in 16 at-bats, but has nine walks.
The Orioles purchased the contract of outfielder Mason Williams from the Bowie alternate site. Williams hit .182 (2-for-11) in seven games before he was designated for assignment on Tuesday.
Hyde said that centerfielder Austin Hays, who has been on the injured list because of a rib fracture since August 15, could play “sometime during the next couple of weeks, hopefully.”
The Orioles also optioned right-handed pitcher Evan Phillips to their alternate site and recalled right-hander David Hess from Bowie.
Phillips is 1-1 with a 4.09 ERA in 11 games. Hess had a 6.43 ERA in three early-season appearances.
The Orioles also claimed right-handed pitcher Carson Fulmer on waivers from Pittsburgh. Fulmer was claimed by the Pirates from Detroit on August 24th but didn’t pitch for Pittsburgh. He had a 6.75 ERA in seven games for the Tigers this season.
The 26-year-old pitched for the Chicago White Sox from 2016-2019, and was 6-9 with a 6.56 ERA in 51 games, 15 of them starts.
Fulmer’s addition fills the 40-man roster.
The Orioles added infielder Rylan Bannon to the 60-man player pool. He reports to the alternate site at Bowie. His addition fills the 60-man player pool.
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Another year of mediocrity? Angelos is responsible for all this ho hum” play.
When Fuller pitches for Vandy he was pretty impressive, maybe a change of scenery will help...go O’s...
Fullmer pitched...go O’s...
Fulmer has already had a few scene changes. I wouldn't get overly optimistic.
Never pitched in his last town...go O’s...
First Dilson Herrera ...now Fuller ......Hyde's really been pulling in the gems lately. Eeeeeshh.
He can always sell brushes if the MLB thing doesn’t work out...lol...damn spellcheck...go O’s...
Santander injured, and Hess recalled. I guess the O's are most-assuredly in tank mode now. I wouldn't want Hess pitching on my team if I was a high school coach.
It’s just typical of the quality of players the Orioles hire. This new guy Elias is not gonna be the answer to building this team into our championship contender! I’m surprise he wasn’t busted for the Houston corruption, or part of the cheating teams in Houston before he left? He looks like a little weasel today?
Hope you enjoyed the weekend games. There were no tanks scene at Camden Yards.
Did you guys notice that the manager of the Orioles he’s just a yes-man and does whatever he’s told by Mr. Elias.? God I miss Billy Martin and Earl.
You’re new aren’t you, of course we have...go O’s...
Of course he's new, and of course we have noticed. But around here there' always room for one more skeptic to pile on Hyde! Hah!
But what do you mean you miss Billy Martin? Hmmmmmmmmmm......I'm not sure about this new guy....
Do you think Buck would have a yes man? H**l no!
I think the only person who had influence on Buck was his wife...lol...go O’s...
Billy Martin, New York, Onesy...hmmm...go O’s...
In the tank? Man it’s a process ! This organization was a wreck.. give this regime a chance . You can’t even count this year cause it’s F d up.
A tankers dream, Santander gone with David Hess boarding the shuttle. Elias IS a genius.
Any chance Hess could become another jake Arietta? With time ?
Zero
Billy Martin was a scary a__h__e and knew real talent! I miss managers like Billy and Earl, because they got the most out of those baseball players... win win, win !
I guess the DJ bashers have to take the night off ... Maybe Elias knows what he's doing (once again) not throwing in the towel yet on Stewart.
Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while... just saying...
DJ’s eye at the plate is fantastic. If he can start hitting the ball with any kind of consistency there might be a useful player there. We gave Dwight Smith 500 ABS before giving up on him. Should at least give DJ a chance at fairly consistent PT before throwing him away.
The D is bad and probably always will be but it doesn’t cost a whole lot to give him the rest of the year to audition.
I believe I stated not to give up on Stewart just yet in the previous article's comment section .... before his Home Runs tonight. :) Thanks DJ!!
As Ekim notes ... Even the blind squirrel....
Damn.....I missed tonight's game. Sounds like we dominated. Akins debut didn't go south ?
No earned runs, he matched Cole with 0-0’s till they took him out....go O’s...
Wow Chubby, I mean DJ Stewart , actually helped the team for a change?
I’ll be honest with you - I fell asleep from inning 51/2 thru 9 ... I missed everything after ?
Santander was my favorite, even last year when he was a rookie, in Baltimore!
I will miss his calm power at the plate, and his positive energy around his teammates! I’m sad...
Rich
Did you delete my comment ? Bummer. It was totally innocuous
No, what was your comment? I don’t remember it.
My apologies Rich. The comment fell into an electronic hole than resurfaced.
Bummer with Santander and I thought hays injury would be just a few weeks. With Santander out and Stewart in, it will likely be a long last few weeks. I thought Stewart was a bust since Aberdeen(Yes I saw the homers tonight). With that said, the birds are 3 games out with less than a month to go. Enough guys get hot and this turns into an even weirder 2020. As unlikely as it probably is, everything can and will happen this yr!
The glass is half full gentlemen!
Not sure how seriously to take you after you called us gentlemen...lol...go O’s...
At the risk of being tossed out of the Cynics and Critics Club, I was confused by the negativity of today's comments. The O's are playing far better than anyone had reason to expect. One by one, our "star" players have been injured, but the team still manages a respectable number of wins. For sure, this season is abnormal in many ways. But the surprisingly good hitting of several players and the number of wins chalked up by what on paper is an embarrassingly bad pitching staff have given new meaning to the old adage: "that's why they play the games." I have no illusions that this relative success will necessarily carry over to next year, so I am not pushing a rosy scenario--even with today's win over the "mighty" Yankees.
Finally, I am curious as to how bad are the players who have been waived by other teams and NOT grabbed by Mr. Elias. Rich, am I correct in assuming that there have been some released players not to his liking?