Justin Morneau was replaced in the top of the 7th inning of the Minnesota Twins’ 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night with what the team deemed to be a sore left wrist. If it weren’t for the fact that Morneau has a lengthy history of dealing with injuries and he had surgery on this very wrist during the offseason to stabilize a tendon in it, one might not be too concerned with his early exit from the game.
However, the Twins (5-17) have every right to be very worried because Morneau flew back to Minnesota after the game and will be seeing a specialist to have the wrist checked out. While Morneau is hopeful that it’s just scar tissue breaking apart, it’s disconcerting that he started to feel discomfort in the wrist during the Tampa Bay series and let it get worse over the weekend before he couldn’t take it anymore on Monday night (especially since he was also hurting the team more than helping it).
The Twins have five games remaining on their six-game swing out west, so, unless Morneau makes a miraculous recovery and plans on making a return trip, it’s likely he’ll be out for at least the next week.
Morneau was hitting .236/.321/.793 with four home runs and nine RBI in 81 plate appearances entering Monday night’s game before going 0-2 and being replaced by Sean Burroughs.
