San Diego Padres fans get injury news they certainly didn't want

Catcher has been a sore spot for the San Diego Padres early in the season. Now it appears a thumb injury suffered by Luis Campusano will force one of the brighter spots at the position to the bench.

After Campusano reportedly jammed his left thumb on Thursday while catching Nick Martinez between innings, the Padres have called up Brett Sullivan from Triple-A El Paso. In Campusano's absence, Sulivan will serve as the second part of the catching tandem for San Diego along with Austin Nola. However, it appears that Campusano may avoid time on the injured list, meaning this could be a short stint on the bench.

Update: Campusano was placed on the 10-day IL on Monday with a left thumb sprain.

In 37 at-bats over nine games this season for El Paso, the 29-year-old Sullivan was slashing .270/.341/.459 with a home run and six RBI. Part of the trade with the Milwaukee Brewers that sent catcher Victor Caratini to the NL Central, Sullivan has yet to appear in an MLB game.

While his MLB debut will be something Padres fans can celebrate, losing Campusano, who had sarted the season with a .238/.227/.429 slash line and had earned more playing time with Nola's early-season struggles, will certainly frustrate those who have been cheering on his success on social media and at Petco Park.

Listen to Padres manager Bob Melvin talk about Campusano's recent play

Padres manager Bob Melvin talks about Luis Campusano and says he will split this 4-game series against the Brewers with Austin Nola: pic.twitter.com/qBHfaKSP6V
— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) April 13, 2023

Entering Sunday's play, Campusano was at 0.0 bWAR while Nola was at minus-0.1 bWAR. The catching position as a whole has registered minus-0.3 bWAR so far in 2023, putting the Padres 23rd out of MLB's 30 teams when it came to catching bWAR.

Nola drew the start behind the plate on Sunday in the series finale against Milwaukee.

Of course, this isn't the injury news that Padres wanted to hear on a Sunday morning. However, it's also not the only reinforcement coming up from Triple-A this week as Fernando Tatis Jr. (who has been absolutely tearing up Triple-A pitching) is expected to rejoin the team on April 20 once his PED suspension ends.

Schedule