Travis d’Arnaud Fractures Foot

Travis d’Arnaud suffered a fracture in his left foot during a minor league game Wednesday night. Sigh.

Sandy Alderson said d’Arnaud has a non-displaced fracture in the first metatarsal, whatever that means. It happened when he was trying to catch a foul tip. Instead, the ball caught him.

Mets Blog says Travis d’Arnaud is in a walking boot and will fly to New York so Mets doctors can examine him. I’ll point out that the genius Mets doctors put Ike Davis in a walking boot when he hurt his ankle in 2011 and it actually made the injury worse, causing him to most most of the season.  Just saying.

In any case, while the severity of the injury is not yet known, the Daily News reports that such an injury usually does not require surgery. That’s good news, but d’Arnaud is still expected to miss significant time for a second season in a row. That’s bad news.

It is injuries like this, and Buster Posey’s gruesome 2011 injury, that are causing teams to move their top prospects out from behind the plate. Remember, Bryce Harper was drafted as a catcher, but he was promptly moved to the outfield to make sure his bat never goes missing from the lineup because of an injury suffered while catching.

The Mets have never openly talked about moving d’Arnaud to another position. It’s not even known if d’Arnaud can even play another position. But this shows the hazard of your top hitting prospect being a catcher.