DENVER – The Colorado Rockies placed two-time All-Star Ian Desmond on the 10-day disabled list on Monday with a mild strain in his right calf.
Desmond, the offseason acquisition who signed for five years and $70 million, was not happy about a DL stint both because of the injury and the Rockies decision to subsequently place him on the shelf.
He told BSN Denver that he felt as though he could have played through the injury.
“I’d like to think that (I could play through it), but unfortunately I don’t have that opportunity,” Desmond said after Monday’s game.
“It’s really unfortunate. Throughout my career, I’ve been able to avoid things like that and that’s something that takes a lot of hard work. I haven’t just been blessed by good health,” the Rockies left fielder said. “I didn’t have a say in this DL stint, this was above me, they made this decision without me and that was their decision. I’m not happy with it but I appreciate them being cautious. But I look forward to watching (Raimel) Tapia keep doing his thing and I’m glad CarGo (Carlos Gonzalez) was able to come back.”
Tapia was a single shy of the cycle in the series opener against the Reds while Gonzalez started in his first game off the DL.
“He’s got a calf strain. Those are dicey, you know?” Bud Black said. “You look at the track record of guys who have calf strains, they’re tough, they’re really tricky. We felt overall it was probably the prudent thing to do was to put him on the DL even though there might have been a very slight chance that he would bounce back in three or four days but with the All-Star break coming up it just made the most sense, the practical thing to do was to let this heal over this time period. The worst thing would be to push this and have him be out for an extended period of time.”
Desmond is slashing .283/.315/.388 this season after 57 games of play. He has played 46 games in left and 13 at first base, the position he was signed to play.
“I didn’t think I needed (a break). I have 200 at-bats. I didn’t have a spring training. I felt like I was just starting to hit my stride,” the 31-year-old said. “I felt like I was improving at the plate, walking more and laying off of tough pitches. I felt like I was moving in the right direction so to have another setback sucks.”
Desmond missed the first month of the season with a broken hand and has just started to pick up his play.
He was injured Sunday in Arizona while making a catch in the outfield on a field that looked to be in rather poor shape.
“I feel a lot better today than I did yesterday,” he said. “But I didn’t try it, I had an MRI later in the afternoon I assumed I wasn’t going to play today. I didn’t really try to push it.”
“I’m not going to comment on the field, I’m not a grass expert,” he added.
The decision will end Desmond’s first half as the Rockies only have six games to play before the break after Monday night’s win.
“It’s unfortunate that they decided to make the decision without asking me how I felt,” he said.
Black hopes to see Desmond return to the lineup when the Rockies head to New York after the All-Star break.
