San Francisco Giants Infielder Shares Frustrations With Latest Injury Obstacle

The San Francisco Giants have had a few players stand out in their lineup for excellent performances over the first month of the season.

One of those players was starting second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald, who was adjusting well to his new spot in the defensive alignment with the addition of Willy Adames in free agency to take over at shortstop.

Unfortunately, the Giants are going to be without his services for the foreseeable future.

Last week against the Texas Rangers, Fitzgerald dove and landed hard on the ground. He knew that something had happened, but originally, he was diagnosed with a bone bruise in his chest and sat for a few days.

Upon his return to the lineup against the San Diego Padres, things were worsening, and he was getting more and more uncomfortable.

“I was trying to be out there and play through it for my team and everything, but it got to a point in my last at-bat [on Wednesday], I hit the fly ball to right and I was in a lot of pain,” Fitzgerald said via Maria Guardado of MLB.com. “I knew it was probably a little bit more than what we initially thought. That’s kind of when I realized something was wrong. If I sneeze or cough or something, there’s an immense amount of pain, so I knew we should probably get it checked up on.”

The sneaking suspicion that the starting second baseman had ended up being true.

After undergoing more testing on Thursday, an MRI revealed that he had suffered a left rib fracture.

That led the Giants to place him on the 10-day injured list, with infielder Brett Wisely being recalled from Triple-A Sacramento to take his place on the active roster before being defeated 4-3 by the Colorado Rockies on Friday night.

It was evident from his performance on the field that something was wrong, as his production slipped.

Prior to the injury, Fitzgerald had a .301 batting average and a strong .820 OPS. After sitting out a few days and returning to the lineup, he went 1-for-8 in three games. As he noted above, the pain never subsided, eventually becoming too much to bear.

“Obviously, it’s super frustrating,” Fitzgerald said. “Ever since this injury happened, I haven’t really been the same up there. … I wasn’t really able to get the best swings off. A couple of those at-bats, I took some fastballs down the middle to strike out on, and I don’t do that a whole lot, and I just knew in the back of my mind, I was a little scared to swing because of the pain. We’re going to go with whoever’s up next and hopefully they’ll be able to help out the team a little bit more than what I was doing.”

Fitzgerald will be shut down from baseball activities for a few days and is aiming to return to the field in a few weeks.

His absence is a big one for the Giants, producing a .284/.341/.432 slash line with two home runs, four doubles, one triple and seven RBI with five stolen bases and a 0.9 WAR.