Marwin Gonzalez tears ligament in ankle

The Astros’ dismal season took another turn for the worse with Marwin Gonzalez being put on the shelf for most, if not all, of the remainder of the season with a torn ligament in his ankle. He injured himself Thursday night, tripping over first base in one of the most mind-boggling plays of the season. The injury has already spread across the web and has become an instant much watch sports blooper. This addition to the hall of shame is just another punch to the gut of Astros’ fans this season, yet I admit to chuckling when I saw the replays.

While the action itself was amusing, the injury is not and it just adds to the Stros’ misery this season. Coming into 2012, not much was expected from Marwin but the results have been surprisingly good. His stats aren’t going to put him in the rookie of the year race but for a kid coming straight from AA, he has done well. His glove has been fantastic and should keep him around the major leagues, at the very least. Reports note that he could return by season’s end but with one month to go and Jed Lowrie looking to return by mid-September, a return seems a bit meaningless.

So where do the Stros go from here? Well, it’s not like the they lost Barry Larkin or even Jed Lowrie so they’ll survive. What this does mean is one of the newest Astros, Tyler Greene, will continue to get at-bats until Lowrie’s return. At that point, it should get interesting how much each plays. It’s pretty obvious and simply the right thing to do that the Stros’ want to see Matt Dominguez play. So while the injury was unfortunate, Marwin wasn’t going to get much playing time unless they planned a rotation at SS and 3B.

If we don’t see Marwin again this season then we can still safely say it was a pretty darn successful campaign for the rule 5 acquisition and someone to look for in the future.