Xander Bogaerts Placed On 10-Day Disabled List With Ankle Injury
BOSTON (CBS) -- Xander Bogaerts opened the season on fire, but now he'll have to sit out for more than a week due to injury.
Bogaerts will be placed on the 10-day disabled list after suffering an injury in Sunday's game against the Rays. The team specified that Bogaerts suffered a "small crack in the talus bone in his left ankle," and that it does not require surgery.
Bogaerts is expected to miss 10-14 days, per the team. The team has recalled Tzu-Wei Lin from Triple-A to fill the roster spot.
NBC Sports Boston's Evan Drellich first reported the news, and earlier on Monday he noted that a DL stint was not a foregone conclusion, lending some optimism that the injury was not overly serious.
What I'm told re: Xander Bogaerts, plan was to undergo treatment today to determine if DL stint necessary. That a DL trip wasn't immediate choice is encouraging. Wasn't having easiest time walking around yesterday, unknown how/how much improved today. Has gone for exam(s).
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) April 9, 2018
The shortstop suffered the injury on Sunday afternoon, when he raced toward the visiting dugout to chase down a throw that slipped out of his glove in the top of the seventh inning. Bogaerts went into a slide and slid directly through the opening in the dugout fence, popping to his feet in the dugout. He initially walked up the stairs and back onto the field before realizing something had gone wrong in his left ankle.
VIDEO: Bogaerts injury in the 7th inning.#RedSox trailing 7-2 in the bottom of the 7th. pic.twitter.com/MwZ2WuuH0k
— Red Sox on CLNS (@RedSoxCLNS) April 8, 2018
Bogaerts, 25, got off to an incredibly hot start for the Red Sox this season, batting .368 with a .711 slugging percentage and 1.111 OPS through the season's first nine games. He leads the Red Sox in all three categories.
Entering Monday, Bogaerts led all of MLB with seven doubles, and his nine RBIs have him tied for seventh in MLB.
Bogaerts has also been contributing to the best defense in baseball, as he's yet to commit an error on 40 total chances. As a team, the Red Sox have committed zero errors through nine games.
Lin, 24, appeared in 25 games for the Red Sox last season, hitting .268 with a pair of triples, nine walks and two RBIs in 66 plate appearances. He's gone 3-for-6 thus far in the young season for Triple-A Pawtucket, after hitting just .227 with a .602 OPS at that level last year. Defensively, Lin has played all over the diamond, but he has the most experience at shortstop, where he has a .950 fielding percentage in his minor league career and where he was perfect last year at the MLB level in 55 innings.