Neil Walker “Optimistic” of Quick Return, Bucs Make Roster Moves
By Matt Shetler
It’s still laughable to me the way some Pittsburgh Pirates fans have panicked after two bad weeks of baseball. While the team has struggled as of late, they are still tied for the last wild card spot, which means that they are in a playoff race deep into August.
There’s nothing negative about that and I’m sure had you had that option presented to you before the season you would have taken it.
While there’s no need to panic over a couple of wins or losses, watching second baseman Neil Walker leave the game Wednesday night is something worth possibly showing some panic over.
If the Bucs lose a quality player such as Walker – who’s hitting .290 with 14 homers and 67 RBI – for any extended period of time, that’s a different story altogether and something the Bucs likely won’t be able to recover from.
I know he has his own commercial, but I shudder at the thought of having to watch Josh Harrison having to play second base for a lengthy period of time.
The good news is that Walker is “optimistic,” of a quick return to the lineup, as he told Karen Price of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review after Wednesday’s loss.
"“I’m going to see a hand specialist (Thursday),” Walker said. “Fortunately there’s no break. … I couldn’t put a number on it, but I’m very optimistic about a quick return.”"
That’s as good as the news can get for a Pirates team that is in the middle of its worst stretch of baseball of the season, going 6-11 in their past 17 games. If the feeling is that Walker won’t make a quick return, they have almost no choice but to put him on the disabled list immediately, as they are already one man short on the bench by going with a six-man rotation.
They did make some roster moves today, but none of which are tied to Walker’s injury.
Called up are Yamaico Navarro and Jared Hughes, while Jeff Locke, who was pitching great, was optioned back to Triple-A. In addition, Chad Qualls was placed on the bereavement list.
Making the playoffs is going to be a tall order for this team to begin with, but one thing they can’t afford is to have to go to battle without one of their leaders.
If that’s the case, then it may be time to panic.