When Trevor Story slid into second base on Saturday against the Mets, he got up and thought he merely jammed his left thumb. On Monday, Story’s optimism was thwarted when an MRI revealed that he had a torn ulnar collateral ligament.
The rookie received a standing ovation from the Coors Field crowd Tuesday when he was honored as the National League Player of the Week (July 18-24). Sporting a brace on his thumb, he managed a smile when he was on the jumbotron but the disappointment on his face during his press conference showed that the injury has left him dejected.
“Really I just feel terrible that I won’t be able to play every day,” Story said. “Just being out there, I mean a lot to the team. Just the timing of it all is the worst part about it.”
The timing eliminates Story’s historical rookie production as the Rockies are playing their most important baseball since a late playoff run in 2010. The team ended the month of July nearly at .500 and within striking distance of a Wild Card spot. They returned home for six games against the Dodgers and Marlins who currently hold both NL Wild Card positions.
Story hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a return this season, but coming back before the regular season ends is in doubt. The Rockies placed Story on the 15-day disabled list, although the surgery for this injury takes about eight weeks to recover from.
The injury came at a curious time for general manager Jeff Bridich, just days before the non-waiver trade deadline of Aug. 1. Bridich said he wasn’t sure Story’s injury affected how the team proceeded at the trade deadline but pointed out that not many shortstops were moved during the deadline. Either way, the Rockies now have to win internally.
Less than a month ago this club was considered a possible seller at the deadline. Weiss agreed that it doesn’t hurt to play with a chip on your shoulder, but that wasn’t the ultimate reason in his opinion the Rockies are playing better.
“I think it was more of a reality of where we were at the All-Star break and how guys have responded,” Weiss said pregame Tuesday. “I feel like coming out of the break we were realistic of who we were at that time.
“The best way to deal with that is win as many games as possible and then a lot of that talk goes away. Talk about selling off players. That’s pretty much what happened. Young players are contributing. We’ve pitched very well and that’s put us in position to win games on a consistent basis.”
Weiss said a combination of Daniel Descalso, Christian Adames and Rafael Ynoa, who was called up from Triple-A Albuquerque on Tuesday, will fill Story’s spot in the lineup. Winning with the players you have was the Rockies mantra this year at the deadline, as the front office didn’t make any moves at all, and will continue to be in Story’s absence.
“We made a decision pretty early that our outfielders were staying put,” Bridich said. “At some point prior to the end of the deadline we had made a decision that Boone [Logan] was also going to stay put. We were running parallel courses from the buyer-seller side of the market. When we made some of those decisions we started to go to the other side. The buyer side.”
Good baseball inspired that mentality. Bridich agreed that his trade line acquisitions came in the form of David Dahl, who was called up last week, Adam Ottavino, who returned from the disabled list on July 5, and Gerardo Parra, who is expected back from the disabled list soon.
That doesn’t mean Bridich has ruled out adding players later in the month through the waiver process. But staying off the market all together has sent the message that the front office believes they can win now with this group.
“I said prior to the break, I believed this team was better than our record at that time when I think we were 8 or 9 games under,” Bridich said. “It felt like this team hadn’t really played its best baseball together as a group. It felt like what we had on paper we should have a better record. If there was a message sent, great. I think it’s consistent in the fact that we believe in this group.”
Weiss described how another rookie, David Dahl, has stepped up in his first week and how it parallels a theme the club has preached all season.
“There are many different ways to win,” he said. “At times in may look different now. We’re not going to get the production Trevor was giving us. There’s big time impact and that’s tough to replace. I feel bad for Trevor just because of how unique and special his rookie season has been but we’ll be okay as a club. I talk to our club all the time that the fact that over the course of seven months you’re going to be challenged in a variety of ways. There are a number of ways to win games and that’s what we’re going to do.”
One of those ways won’t be coming externally. For the Rockies to boldly face the challenge of staying in contention into October without their phenom shortstop, they will have no one to rely on but themselves. August and September will tell if this team is more than just what’s on paper.
