Jose Abreu’s battle with an ankle injury continues as the Chicago White Sox‘s star rookie hits at an amazing pace to start the 2014 season.
Unfortunately, it sounds like the White Sox will have to make do without their vaunted slugger for the time being. The ankle injury has become such an impediment that Abreu sounds likely to miss Sunday’s action against the Houston Astros, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com:
Abreu spoke to Merkin about the issue on Saturday:
That’s a major blow for the White Sox as they enter the rubber-band game in Houston before heading to Kansas City for three contests. The team will not return home until later in the week as they look to get out of fourth place in the AL Central.
Abreu has been on a historic clip to start the season (15 home runs and 42 RBI in 44 games), as ESPN Stats and Info illustrates:
Remember, this is the same ailment that hobbled Abreu early in the month and forced his transition to designated hitter. Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko certainly have the power to be firm stopgap solutions, but even they cannot be expected to replicate the wow-worthy numbers posted by the Cuban slugger.
For now it appears management is content to let Abreu rest rather than shelve him on the disabled list. That’s a worst-case scenario option, but this issue did start out as something that everyone involved thought would not last very long.
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