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

Bogaerts was hurt fielding a grounder during the third inning against the Braves on Monday.
Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Friars On Base

San Diego Padres v Colorado Rockies / Matthew Stockman/GettyImages

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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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.