Houston Astros: George Springer’s injuries may wreck his MVP candidacy

Houston Astros outfielder George Springer is heading to the injured list amid a hamstring injury. This could wreck his AL MVP candidacy. Why? Let’s look.

The Houston Astros will be without one of their biggest guns for likely awhile.  What’s going on?  George Springer is taking an all-expenses-paid trip to the injured list, capping off a myriad of maladies that he’s suffered over the past two weeks.

Springer sustained the injury while trying to go after a foul ball that Xander Bogaerts belted off in the eighth inning.  He weaned his way through two defenders and slid to avoid hitting a wall.  However, he emerged from the play, grimacing in pain while grabbing his left hamstring and took himself out of the game.

The Houston Astros have diagnosed his injury as a Grade 2 strain, a bit more severe than a minor flare-up.  General manager Jeff Luhnow feels that he could be out “a couple of weeks, plus” so this definitely means the team will have trudge on through most of the first half of the season without him.

The franchise already made a corresponding move by calling up outfielder Derek Fisher from

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Triple-A Round Rock.  He’ll be a decent option to hold down the fort off the bench but I fully expect the Houston Astros to stick with Michael Brantley, Jake Marisnick (who has been on a tear) and Josh Reddick as their primary outfielders.

Fisher’s slash line has been .314/.379/.555 for a .934 OPS along with eight home runs and 24 ribbies through 33 games with the Express.  We’ll just have to see if his strong performance in the minors translates to the big leagues.  We’ve obviously been here before and we all know how that ended.

But anyway, these injuries to Springer is definitely putting a dent into his candidacy for AL MVP.  With him being out so long over the next few weeks, possibly longer, he’s going to be a bit rusty coming back and will be playing catch up.  But optimistically, I’m hopeful to see him well before the All-Star Break but it all depends on how quickly the 29-year-old outfielder heals.

Going into today’s matchup, Springer still leads the AL with 17 home runs, 43 ribbies and 119 total bases.  He’s also holding at second with 27 extra-base hits and third in OPS (1.032).

Having Springer in the conversation for such a distinction has made me proud but he might have to retreat from what will now be a lofty goal this season while he heals for the much bigger prize of helping the Houston Astros taking back the World Series trophy from the Boston Red Sox.

Springer’s been hitting .308/.389/.643 through 48 games this season.