Trea Turner Is Going To Be Out A While

Nationals shortstop Trea Turner took a pitch on his right wrist during last night’s game against the Cubs, and eventually had to come out of the game. Once the game was over, everyone’s worst fears were confirmed:

No one knows yet how long Turner will be out, but everyone is pointing to Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, who suffered a similar break in May, as a guidepost. Freeman is expected to have been out around two months by the time he gets back into the lineup.

This obviously sucks for the Nationals, who have already lost Adam Eaton for the year and will now have to get creative with the leadoff spot. They hold a 9.5 game lead in the NL East, though, and shouldn’t have too much trouble holding onto it while Turner is out. So long as Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman keep mashing and the Mets continue to be the Mets, the Nats should be just fine.

Mostly, this sucks for baseball at large. This is Turner’s first full season in the big leagues, and he’s proving himself to be a star in the making. Turner is hitting a solid .279/.324/.422, but it’s his work on the base paths that has been most captivating. He leads the league with 35 steals, and it looked like he was just starting to hit his stride. Twenty of those steals came in June, and he is hitting .346/.424/.442 over his last 12 games. On Tuesday, he stole four damn bases in just three innings, showing exactly how a speedy runner can dominate a game when unleashed.

This isn’t a season-ending injury or anything, but with baseball still struggling to unearth magnetic stars, every injury to a good young player stings. We’ve already been without Mike Trout for most of the first half, Julio Urias and 17 different flamethrowing Mets starters are hurt, and now Turner might be gone until September. Pray that Kris Bryant’s ankle injury isn’t worse than it appears to be.