Carlos Correa’s Ankle Injury Should Not be A Big Deal

Carlos Correa is Day-to-Day With Ankle Injury

All of Astros Twitter held their breath at the same time in yesterday’s 5-3 loss to the Texas Rangers. It was deflating that they lost again to the Rangers, but also because their star shortstop and third hitter in the lineup was down on the ground holding his ankle. Most players would have just hobbled back to the dugout, but Carlos Correa knew what to do because of a previous injury he had in the minors.

Correa plopped down and didn’t put any more pressure on it until the trainer told him it should be okay. Remember that time that George Springer got hit versus the Royals, he stayed in and could have worsened the injury by sliding in awkwardly into third base. Correa twisted his ankle because Mitch Moreland‘s position on the bag caused him to touch the back of the bag instead of the front.

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According to Mark Berman, Correa has a “Left ankle sprain, day-to-day. X-rays negative.” This is good news for the Astros, just not on the short-term basis. The Astros will play tomorrow’s road opener versus the Rays with only 24 players, with Correa likely getting the day off unless an emergency is needed. They will be careful not to rush him back because he is the future of the Astros.

Until Correa returns to the lineup, look for Marwin Gonzalez to play shortstop with Luis Valbuena or Jose Altuve being emergency backups there. Altuve got his first career appearance as a shortstop, leading to many short jokes from Astros fans and Geoff Blum. However, don’t expect to see Altuve out there much, he missed covering second base on a stolen base attempt.

While Astros fans might be clamoring for Alex Bregman to come up, it won’t happen with Correa getting a mild sprained ankle. I read earlier that Jeff Luhnow expects Bregman to get many accolades for his performance in Double-A soon, then they would promote him at some point this year. I still think he will stay in AA through the All-Star game, then pack up for Triple-A and be ready when needed.

For those of you clamoring for Danny Worth, he is not on the Astros 40-man roster, and many people believe that he’s more of an AAAA player. I don’t think that they would add him to the 40-man roster for a temporary move with the A.J. Reed move waiting to happen. Nolan Fontana is on the 40-man roster, but he is not having a great season in Fresno in 2016.

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The Astros can get by with only one player who can play shortstop, just hope for a very fast recovery. The Astros could always send Tyler White down for a few days of Fontana, then promote Reed when the Astros feel he is ready.