Astros rookie shortstop Tommy Manzella broke his left index finger against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night. He is expected to be out for six weeks. In order to replace his spot on the roster, the Astros have called up shortstop Osvaldo Navarro from Triple-A Round Rock.
Alyson Footer first broke the news via Twitter. The Crawfish Boxes' David Coleman weighs in on how this affects the club.
It's a disappointing development for Manzella in a somewhat disappointing season for the Astros rookies who broke camp with the team. Both he and Norris have now spent time on the disabled list and Chris Johnson spent most of the season at Round Rock.
Mostly, I'm worried about Blum becoming the full-time starter at short. He hasn't played shortstop extensively since 2006 with the Padres. His Defensive Runs Scored is at minus-1, but there are a ton of sample size concerns with any defensive metric with him. The best point to make is that he hasn't made any Out of Zone plays yet as a shortstop. Blum can be a good defender, but his skill relies on effective positioning, not range. Let's just hope Manzella gets healthy in a timely manner.