Astros SS Lowrie placed on DL for thumb surgery

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner
Eating his Christmas pie
He put in his thumb...
and went on DL.

Today, the first place Houston Astros placed their cleanup hitter on the Disabled List.  The club announced that shortstop Jed Lowrie needs surgery on his thumb to correct a ligament torn while sliding into home plate during Monday's game against the padres.  That is, Lowrie slid into home plate.  Ligaments don't slide into home plate on their own.

Lowrie was hitting .300/.432/.567 before his injury, second in wRC+ among all major league shortstops behind only the Tigers' Jose Iglesias.  His spot on the 25-man roster will be assumed by Jonathan Villar, who was recalled today from Triple-A Fresno after being demoted there only a week ago.  Villar is hitting .077/.200/.077 on the season at the major league level, and so a reasonable assumption is that semi-regular shortstop duties will be handled by utility man Marwin Gonzalez, who is hitting .286/.286/.500 on the season while playing passable defense.

As discussed by Brian earlier today, there were several options to replace Lowrie in event of a long-term injury, including a possible call-up of guaranteed superduperstar Carlos Correa, who is off to a scorching start for AA Corpus Christi.  But such a move would have required the release of a player currently on the 40-man roster, and would have created a roster problem once Lowrie returns, which is estimated to be sometime after the All-Star Break.  Such a bummer for Lowrie, who was on pace to be an Astros representative in that game before the injury.  Correa, meanwhile, will need to continue his video game level performance to force the Astros into a trade or other roster move to make room for him.

Finally, it is worth noting that Lowrie would never have gotten hurt if the American League utilized the designated hitter for the shortstop position, which is something that should be discussed in the next upcoming collective bargaining talks.