To make room on the roster for Justin Steele, the Cubs placed Patrick Wisdom on the 10-day injured list with a right wrist sprain. Wisdom aggravated the ongoing issue in the sixth inning Friday when he slid for a ball in left field.
Manager David Ross said Wisdom has been dealing with the wrist problem for around two weeks. Ross doesn’t think surgery is forthcoming for Wisdom, but the ailment needs to be treated.
“Trying to work through that, giving him some rest, still trying to work, I think this makes a lot of sense,” Ross said. “He can reset some stuff that the medical team feels like they can do. We’ll give it a couple days and start to work his way back.”
Wisdom has struggled recently, hitting just .106 (5 for 47) over his last 15 games. Of those 47 at-bats, 22 have ended with strikeouts.
“He’s an important piece, especially the way he hits lefties,” Ross said. “You could tell [Friday] he just wasn’t himself still.”
Ross said that when he and Wisdom talked Friday, Ross thought back to when he was placed on the injured list in 2013 with concussion issues. At that time, Ross’ game was lagging but kept trying to play before the injury was diagnosed and put him on the shelf.
“I remember crying, thinking my teammates were going to think I was bowing out,” Ross said. “‘Like, I stink, I’m not hitting’ and the emotional toll of whether that’s the concussion or I just wasn’t hitting and you’re trying to fight through that and how we’re wired as baseball players, I really could relate to him [Friday] feeling like ‘man, I feel like I’m bowing out of the fight because of an injury that I have and trying to fight through that.’”
Ross appreciated Wisdom’s mentality of trying to tough it out and stay on the field, but acknowledged it will be better for him and the team if he gets the wrist better.
“That’s what we’re supposed to do in our jobs. Nobody does feel 100%,” Ross said. “Wiz knows that.”
Up and down
The Cubs reinstated Edwin Rios (left groin strain) from the IL and optioned him to Triple-A Iowa. Rios was already at Iowa on a rehab assignment, and is hitting .071 (2 for 28) in the majors this season.