{"id":115389,"date":"2025-09-02T23:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T23:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/115389\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T23:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T23:48:11","slug":"lourdes-gurriel-jr-diagnosed-with-torn-acl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/115389\/","title":{"rendered":"Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Diagnosed With Torn ACL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Diamondbacks announced today that right-hander Taylor Rashi<\/a> and infielder Connor Kaiser<\/a> have been recalled from Triple-A Reno. In corresponding moves, they have optioned Juan Burgos<\/a> to Reno and placed outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr.<\/a> on the 10-day injured list with a torn right ACL.<\/p>\n

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It was apparent that Gurriel was injured last night. He and center fielder Blaze Alexander<\/a> were both chasing a ball in the gap. Gurriel hopped to avoid his teammate but then collapsed on the ground in obvious pain. He eventually had to be carted off, unable to properly put weight on his leg.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s diagnosis is obviously awful for both Gurriel and the Snakes. They haven\u2019t announced an expected timeline but a torn ACL can often require something close to a year of recovery before the player is back to full strength. Gurriel will certainly miss the remainder of this season and a notable chunk of 2026 as well.<\/p>\n

Gurriel was initially acquired ahead of the 2023 season alongside Gabriel Moreno<\/a>, as part of the trade<\/a> which sent Daulton Varsho<\/a> to the Blue Jays. Gurriel was an impending free agent at the time but re-signed after one good season in Arizona. He returned via a three-year, $42MM pact with a club option for 2027 and an opt-out chance for him after 2025.<\/p>\n

Triggering the opt-out wasn\u2019t especially likely. He is only hitting .248\/.295\/.418 this year, with that line translating to a 94 wRC+. However, he does have 19 home runs and it\u2019s possible the overall lack of production is due to a .254 batting average on balls in play. That\u2019s well below this year\u2019s .291 league average and Gurriel\u2019s personal career rate of .305.<\/p>\n

His decision would have effectively come down to whether he felt he could beat one year and $18MM. His current contract pays him $13MM next year, with a $5MM buyout on the $14MM club option for 2027. Perhaps a hot finish could have made him think about walking away from that money but it\u2019s a moot point now. Since he\u2019s going to miss some amount of next year, he\u2019ll surely forgo his opt-out chance.<\/p>\n

For the Diamondbacks, this adds to their 2026 body count well before the season has even begun. Corbin Burnes<\/a> required Tommy John surgery in June and will therefore miss most or perhaps all of the upcoming campaign. Tommy Henry<\/a>, Blake Walston<\/a>, A.J. Puk<\/a> and Justin Mart\u00ednez<\/a> also underwent UCL surgeries this year and are facing lengthy absences. Now Gurriel adds another name to the list.<\/p>\n

Those other names are all pitchers while Gurriel subtracts a key part of the club\u2019s outfield mix. Without him, the 2026 outfield consists of guys Corbin Carroll<\/a>, Alek Thomas<\/a>, Jake McCarthy<\/a>, Jorge Barrosa<\/a> and Alexander. Carroll is a star but it\u2019s a questionable group after that. Thomas is in his fourth season and has good defensive grades but he hasn\u2019t hit. McCarthy has shown occasional flashes of competency at the plate but his good seasons may have been fuelled by BABIP luck and he\u2019s been awful this year. Alexander is having a nice run right now but he strikes out a lot and has only recently moved from the infield to the outfield. Barrosa has just 58 big league plate appearances and hasn\u2019t impressed yet.<\/p>\n

Going into the winter, the Diamondbacks have a lot to do. Given their injuries, deadline trades and impending free agents, they need to remake almost their entire pitching staff. They have question marks at the infield corners after trading Josh Naylor<\/a> and Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/a> at the deadline. Those spots could be filled by guys like Jordan Lawlar<\/a> and Tyler Locklear<\/a> but neither is a lock yet. Gurriel could have been a solid regular on next year\u2019s team but now there\u2019s one more thing on the to-do list.<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Arianna Grainey, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Diamondbacks announced today that right-hander Taylor Rashi and infielder Connor Kaiser have been recalled from Triple-A Reno.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,64763,64764,17785,462,82,64765],"class_list":{"0":"post-115389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-connor-kaiser","11":"tag-juan-burgos","12":"tag-lourdes-gurriel-jr","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-taylor-rashi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}