Manzella to DL; Astros In Need Of A New Shortstop

Alyson Footer tweeted just a bit ago that Tommy Manzella will spend the next six weeks on the disabled list with a broken left index finger. It's not a good situation.

Consider this: with the way Manzella's defense has been shaky and his bat unreliable, the Astros would have called up someone to replace him before now. That is, if they had any better options at Round Rock, which doesn't appear to be the case.

UPDATE: I didn't see Footer, Fallas and McTaggart all tweet that Navarro was the callup. Didn't want to erase anything from the story, but we do know who's splitting time with Blum, now.

Expect either Oswaldo Navarro or Edwin Maysonet to replace Manzella on the roster. Both could play short in a pinch and would probably form a rotation of sorts with Geoff Blum at the position. There is a slight possibility that Wladimir Sutil gets called up instead and is installed as the starter, but I doubt that.

Navarro is 10 for his last 37, with three doubles, 12 strikeouts, four walks and five RBIs. The Astros like him him enough to have already given him a chance in the majors, when he went 0 for 3 in three games earlier this season. He also has been playing a ton of second base, which may mean Keppinger slides over to short and splits time with Blum.

Maysonet is 9 for 27 in his last 10 games, but he hasn't played since June 13. He only had one at-bat in each of his last two games, which suggests he's injured. He's still on the active roster, but the Express have been stockpiling infielders lately (see: Wikoff, Brandon), so the injury may not be getting better.

It's a disappointing development for Manzella in a somewhat disappointing season for the Astros rookies who broke camp with the team. Both he and Norris have now spent time on the disabled list and Chris Johnson spent most of the season at Round Rock.

Mostly, I'm worried about Blum becoming the full-time starter at short. He hasn't played shortstop extensively since 2006 with the Padres. His Defensive Runs Scored is at minus-1, but there are a ton of sample size concerns with any defensive metric with him. The best point to make is that he hasn't made any Out of Zone plays yet as a shortstop. Blum can be a good defender, but his skill relies on effective positioning, not range. Let's just hope Manzella gets healthy in a timely manner.

What do you think? How does this injury affect the Astros? Who should they call up?