During Monday night's game against the Blue Jays, two White Sox players were forced to exit with injuries after an ugly collision. Right fielder Willy Garcia was attempting to make a sliding catch when second baseman Yoan Moncada tried to jump over him at the last minute. Instead, Moncada's right knee nailed Garcia on the head and both players were forced from the game.
Ugly collision between Willy Garcia and Yoan Moncada. Both players left the game. #WhiteSoxpic.twitter.com/S6MHYfpDYl
— CSN Chicago (@CSNChicago) August 1, 2017
So far the news sounds like it's not nearly as bad as it could have been.
The White Sox have announced that Garcia has a head contusion and will be further evaluated Tuesday morning. Given the hard shot to the head, he'll surely be in concussion protocol and we can expect a trip to the seven-day concussion disabled list.
Moncada is said to be day-to-day with a right knee contusion, as X-rays were negative. Of course, let's note that it's possible the news gets worse once the ligaments are examined. Think of the Kyle Schwarber injury early in 2016. The initial word from the team was an ankle injury and that X-rays were negative. After the morning examination, Schwarber had a torn ACL and was out for the rest of the regular season.
Hopefully Moncada avoids such a fate.
Garcia, 24, is hitting .258/.317/.441 with five doubles, three triples, two homer, 11 RBI and 13 runs in 40 games in this, his rookie season. He slashed .286/.396/.473 in his time in Triple-A.
Moncada, 22, was widely considered the top prospect in all of baseball upon his promotion to the majors this season. So far he's hitting .105/.261/.263 with a homer and six RBI in 12 games. It's a small sample and lots of players struggle in their first foray or two (Moncada had a short stint with the Red Sox last year, too) in the majors. The main key here is that Moncada isn't badly injured and can get as much big-league seasoning as possible moving into the next few years, when the White Sox look to turn things around.