CLEVELAND -- On Sunday, Brandon Nimmo sealed the Rangers’ win over the Blue Jays with a fantastic catch, during which he crashed into the right-field wall at Rogers Centre. While it may have secured one of the Rangers’ biggest wins of the season, it has limited them in the short-term since it caused Nimmo to suffer a sprain of his left AC joint (which is located in the top of the shoulder).
Luckily for the Rangers, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to keep him out long.
While Texas manager Skip Schumaker said Monday after the Rangers’ 6-3 win over the Guardians that the injury could “potentially” lead to Nimmo going on the injured list, Schumaker said on Tuesday that Nimmo is day to day and could avoid the IL.
“It was a much better day today, which was good,” Schumaker said. “From yesterday to today, it was much better.”
The loss of Nimmo would have been a huge blow to a Rangers team that’s navigating a plethora of injuries on the fly while in the midst of playing 15 games in 15 days.
On Monday alone, they welcomed two new faces to the roster in the team’s No. 13 prospect Cam Cauley and veteran pitcher Chris Paddack, and those additions came before Nimmo’s injury looked like anything more than a day-to-day thing.
The sprain also came a day after the Rangers placed Wyatt Langford on the injured list with a left hamstring strain that’s expected to keep him out for most of July.
Texas still made a roster move on Tuesday by designating Paddack for assignment in order to recall hard-throwing reliever Gavin Collyer from Triple-A Round Rock, but Nimmo staying off the injured list was a huge win.
“I’ve had multiple [AC joint sprains] unfortunately, so I know a lot about them,” Schumaker said. “There are a lot of different ways to attack it. I’ll let the medical staff deal with it, but hopefully it’s a couple days of treatment.”
Nimmo was out of the Rangers’ lineup on Tuesday and likely won’t be available off the bench.
Nimmo is slashing .262/.333/.420 with eight home runs and 29 RBIs in 82 games for Texas this season. It also looked like he was finally starting to turn things around, as he had a .759 OPS in 25 June games, which was over 100 points higher than what he posted in May (.657).
While he dealt with a right hamstring injury early in the season, this is the first time he’s had an upper-body ailment.
Nimmo’s injury could end up making Cauley even more important for the next couple days given his ability to bounce around the diamond. Although he made his big league debut at second base on Monday, he’s played an extensive amount of center field in the Minors.
Josh Smith is the only player in Triple-A who is on the 40-man roster and has outfield experience, though he has never been worth more than 0 outs above average at any outfield position in his career. He was added to the team’s taxi squad Tuesday and had a locker in the Rangers’ clubhouse.
On Monday, Texas showed just how much grit it has by picking up a win that was led by a rookie (Cauley), a player who started the season with the Cubs (Nicky Lopez) and a pitcher who was officially signed earlier that day (Paddack).
A pessimist may say that’s an unsustainable method of winning. But Schumaker sounded like the furthest thing from a pessimist after Texas’ win.
“We had Joc [Pederson], Nimmo and [Corey] Seager sitting on the bench with Langford next to them today, and you would never know it,” Schumaker said. “There’s a ton of fight on this team and in this clubhouse.”