Arizona's Young goes on DL; Upton might join him
As expected, Arizona Diamondbacks center fielder Chris Young was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a small tear in a right shoulder ligament Wednesday morning.
The move came 15 hours after he ran into the left-center-field fence at Chase Field while catching Pedro Alvarez's fly to the wall. Young also has a severe shoulder contusion.
"Certainly disappointing," D-backs general manager Kevin Towers said. "It was one of the hottest bats in the National League. To lose him for the next couple of weeks will be difficult, but we have to deal with it. There is a small, small little tear of a little ligament. The doctors told us a couple of weeks off, that way he doesn't do any more damage to it. Hopefully we'll get him back in the next two or three weeks."
At the same, Towers wasn't certain about the length of Young's absence.
"I don't think you ever know. I don't want to put timelines," he said.
That left the D-backs without two-thirds of their starting outfield during a 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday. Right fielder Justin Upton sat out his second consecutive game after having fluid drained from his left thumb Tuesday afternoon.
Young was the D-backs' most productive hitter while helping the team win seven of its first 10 games. He was second in the NL in home runs (5) and on-base-plus-slugging percentage (1.397), third in batting average (.410) and tied for third in RBI (13) entering Wednesday's games.
"You have to move on," manager Kirk Gibson said. "You have to find a way. You can't be discouraged by it. This is what we signed up for. Things happen along the way, and you stand up to that challenge. It's not how we planned it out, but you sign in. You're either in or you're out."
Gibson did not rule out the possibility of placing Upton on the disabled list, either, which would leave the D-backs without two of their top three run producers. Upton did appear Wednesday as a pinch runner.
"He's not going to go on the DL today. We'll give him a day or so and see if we see any improvement," Gibson said.
