Indians place Travis Hafner on 15-day DL; recall Jason Donald

Hafner's back problems means he hits the DL once again.

By Navin Vaswani

Aug 9, 2012 at 3:24 pm ET • 1 min read

The Indians have placed DH Travis Hafner on the 15-day DL with lower back inflammation and called up infielder Jason Donald from Triple-A Columbus, the club announced on Twitter.

Hafner last played on August 5, against Detroit, and is hitting .239/.355/.453 on the season, with 11 home runs and 32 RBI.

Hafner's playing out the final year of a four-year, $57 million contract. A club option worth $13 million exists on the deal for the 2013 season, and comes with a $2.75 million buyout. Injuries have derailed what was once a very promising career: Hafner's played fewer than 100 games in four of the last five seasons, including this one.

Donald has played 18 games with the Indians this season, batting .188/.226/.208, with no home runs and four RBI. He's a bench bat, and a disappointing one at that.

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