Padres' star Xander Bogaerts leaves game against Braves early with apparent injury

Xander Bogaerts has not been off to the start that he or the San Diego Padres were hoping for in 2024. Despite possessing a very healthy nine figure contract, Bogaerts is slashing .220/.266/.317 this season with just four homers and little sign that he is poised to break out of his slump.

The news on Monday isn't going to help matters at all. During the third inning against the Atlanta Braves, Bogaerts made a tremendous stop on a ground ball, but was in immediate and serious pain upon landing and had to be taken out of the game with what looked like a shoulder injury.

Padres News: Bogaerts appears to hurt shoulder on play against Braves and it didn't look good

Sometimes with in-game injuries, you see a guy get up and try to shake it off and ultimately get pulled as a precaution. That isn't what happened here. Bogaerts dove, caught the ball, landed, and was immediately grabbing his shoulder/side in obvious pain. There was no doubt that at the very least his day was over. There isn't much sense in speculating how severe the injury is until an update is provided, but it definitely didn't look good.

If Bogaerts is indeed as hurt as it appeared, there are few teams more equipped to deal with his absence than the Padres as they are loaded with guys with infield experience. That said, few are going to be as talented as Bogaerts is even with him scuffling before the injury, and any absence from him is going to severely cut into San Diego's depth.

Tyler Wade took over for Bogaerts in the game, but you can expect Padres manager Mike Shildt to get creative again in order to make the infield work if Bogaerts is going to on the shelf for more than a couple games.

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