Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
Buster Posey’s thumb will cost him several more Giants games and one pretty significant exhibition.
The catcher will be All-Star in name only, missing the game itself Tuesday after he was placed on the 10-day injured list Friday with a bone bruise that has kept him from playing since Sunday.
Gabe Kapler suggested that the time off could allow Posey to return by next Friday or Saturday, the first two games after the break. For Posey, though, who had his thumb wrapped and threw but did not catch before the game against the Nationals, playing right now would be impossible.
“Obviously disappointed,” said Posey, who was name to the Midsummer Classic for the first time since 2018. “…I know my oldest two [twins Lee and Addie] were pretty excited about being there. But these things happen.”
What did not happen was a fracture. Posey feared, when Arizona’s Daulton Varsho hit a foul ball off his mitt, that his thumb was broken, and it is rare that he signals that he needs to leave a game like he did.
The Giants got another MRI on his thumb that showed the bone bruise, and Posey said that while the swelling has gone down, the thumb has been in the “same place for a few days now.”
“All in all, pretty lucky that it doesn’t seem like I’ll miss too much time,” Posey, who will spend time with his family over the break, said on the Oracle Park field.
Also on the field was Joey Bart, though the top prospect has not been called up. Kapler said he would be on the taxi squad — or at least what constitutes a taxi squad right now, with players essentially in the wings — and might be added to the roster in the coming days.
Logan Webb, Friday’s starter, officially was added to the roster to replace Posey. Curt Casali was catching Webb, and Chadwick Tromp was behind him.
