Saturday was supposed to be a good day for the Orioles with prize free-agent acquisition Alex Cobb making his 2018 debut, but his activation came with news of Jonathan Schoop going to the disabled list.
The 2017 All-Star second baseman left Friday’s game in Boston with a right oblique strain and underwent a magnetic resonance imaging exam to determine the severity of the injury. It’s no secret oblique strains frequently take a while to heal, which is bad news for an offense entering Saturday ranking 12th in the American League in both runs scored (47 in 14 games) and batting average (.220).
Schoop was officially placed on the 10-day disabled list to make room for Cobb, who was recalled from Double-A Bowie after building up his pitch count in simulated games over the last couple weeks.
Voted the club’s most valuable player last year, Schoop was off to a rough start, but he had shown signs of breaking out of his early-season slump with four hits over his last two games. In 14 games, he was batting .230 with one home run, three doubles, and three runs batted in.
It was nearly three years ago to the day that Schoop injured his right knee at Fenway Park, an ailment that cost him almost three months of action in 2015.
With Schoop out for at least the next 10 days, manager Buck Showalter moved third baseman Tim Beckham to second base with Danny Valencia playing third in Saturday’s game against the Red Sox. It was Beckham’s first game at second with Baltimore, but he made 55 career starts there for Tampa Bay.
