Alonso to DL with right shoulder injury

PHOENIX -- The Padres have placed first baseman Yonder Alonso on the 15-day disabled list with a deep bone bruise in his right shoulder.

The depth of the injury was revealed in an MRI exam earlier in the day, manager Bud Black said before Friday night's game against the D-backs at Chase Field. The Padres will bring up outfielder Abraham Almonte from Triple-A El Paso to replace Alonso on the active Major League roster. The moves will be effective before the game on Saturday.

"Yonder's sore to the point where we're going to put him on the disabled list," Black said. "It's a deep, deep bruise. The doctors who evaluated him, and after looking at the MRI, they feel that this is going to be at least a two week process to literally get him back to the point where he can play."

Alonso, the team's top hitter with a .333 batting average, landed on his shoulder diving to field a grounder beyond the first-base bag slammed by fellow Cuba native Yasmany Tomas with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning of Thursday night's 11-0 loss to Arizona.

Alonso tried to shovel the ball with his glove to reliever Dale Thayer covering the base, but it hit the base of Thayer's glove and dribbled away. Alonso rolled over and screamed out in pain before walking off the field and leaving the game. He was replaced by Will Middlebrooks.

"It's sore and a little uncomfortable," Alonso said. "Once the doctors took a look at it and determined the issue we figured it was going to take a little more than two or three days. It's definitely a scary situation for myself. But it wasn't anything major. That's what I was a little more scared of. I'm thankful that it's not an injury that's going to be long term."

Wil Myers played first base on Friday, with Will Venable in center field. Black said that in bringing up Almonte, a center fielder, who was hitting .308 at El Paso with four homers and 17 RBIs in 26 games, that Myers will get a long look in the next two weeks at first base. Almonte, a switch-hitter, and Venable, a lefty swinger, will share the center-field spot Myers had played until Alonso's injury.

"You know, we're going to give it a look to see if that's something we'll feel comfortable with," Black said. "I think [Myers] can handle it. Our coaching staff thinks he can handle it. Now are there going to be some rough spots? Sure. It's a position change and you're doing it at the very highest level."

Myers' previous experience playing first base at the Major League level was two games for the Rays during the 2014 season.

Alonso previously had been scheduled to have an X-ray on the shoulder Friday. He was hit in the right shoulder with a pitch thrown by Colorado reliever Ken Roberts during Sunday's 8-6 victory over the Rockies at Petco Park. Alonso missed the first two games of the trip in San Francisco because of soreness in that area. The dive aggravated the previous injury.