Yordan Alvarez was expected to return to the Houston Astros' lineup soon after he landed on the injured list back on May 2 with a right hand strain. However, further imaging showed that the team's designated hitter suffered a "very small" right hand fracture.
Now Alvarez will miss more time, and his return date is still unknown. In hindsight, Astros general manager Dana Brown wishes Alvarez would've rested his hand more before getting him back to hitting.
“I think the big point here is when he had the first injury, in terms of the muscle strain in the hand, maybe we shouldn’t have let him fight through that," Brown said on Sports Talk 790, per Astros beat reporter Brian McTaggart. "He said it wasn’t the normal pain that he usually gets in his hand, so he thought maybe he could grind through it and it was just soreness. Maybe at that point we probably should have shut him down, maybe for a week, giving it a chance to heal and not let him try to fight through it and potentially cause more damage.”
Alvarez shared a similar message on Saturday, stating that taking batting practice caused his hand to halt its healing. He said he needs to be resting the hand now in order to get back in the lineup.
Before landing on the IL, the three-time All-Star was averaging .210/.306/.340 with three home runs and 18 RBIs in 29 games.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Astros GM Admits Yordan Alvarez Should've Rested Hand More to Avoid Further Injury.