The Guardians introduced that they’ve chosen the contract of catcher Dom Nuñez. Fellow backstop Austin Hedges has been positioned on the seven-day concussion-related injured listing. Proper-hander Andrew Walters has been transferred to the 60-day injured listing to open a 40-man spot.
Guardians supervisor Stephen Vogt spoke on the Hedges state of affairs at this time, with video relayed by Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan. Vogt says that Hedges was hit within the head by a backswing from Jazz Chisholm Jr. on Wednesday night time (video of the incident from MLB.com). Vogt says that Hedges was experiencing some “low-level concussion signs” yesterday which haven’t gone away. Vogt provides that the membership desires to be cautious attributable to earlier concussions suffered by Hedges. In line with his MLB.com transaction tracker, Hedges has beforehand gone on the IL for a concussion in 2017, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Concussions are inclined to get extra harmful with every subsequent incident, so the warning is comprehensible.
Hedges has been backing up Bo Naylor on the catcher place this 12 months however Nuñez will now tag in and take over that job whereas Hedges recovers. Calling up Nuñez was crucial as a result of the Guards beforehand had simply Hedges and Naylor as the 2 catchers on their 40-man roster. David Fry has catching expertise however is restricted to designated hitter duties this 12 months attributable to present process elbow surgical procedure in November.
The 30-year-old Nuñez signed a minor league take care of the Guards within the offseason. He has been taking part in on the Triple-A degree since then, placing up a line of .136/.266/.369 in 32 video games. That’s not a reasonably slash but it surely’s held again by a .131 batting common on balls in play. Nuñez has six dwelling runs and has been drawing walks at a 13.6% clip, although he’s additionally been putting out 30.4% of the time.
His main league observe file consists of 111 video games with the Rockies over the 2019-22 interval. He hit simply .180/.280/.373 in that point however typically acquired strong marks for his protection. Nuñez nonetheless has one choice remaining and may very well be simply despatched again all the way down to Triple-A when Hedges will get wholesome.
As for Walters, he landed on the 15-day IL per week in the past attributable to a lat pressure. His present standing is unclear however it seems that the Guardians don’t count on him again anytime quickly. With this switch, he can’t be reinstated till 60 days from his preliminary IL placement, which suggests late July.
Photograph courtesy of Joe Camporeale, Imagn Photos
