Subscribe
Follow Us
A two-seamer from St. Louis Cardinals' Jack Flaherty drilled San Francisco Giants outfielder Mitch Haniger in the forearm in the third inning of Tuesday night's game. X-rays confirmed the worst: Haniger fractured his right arm on the attempted check swing, per NBC Sports Bay Area.
Mitch Haniger has left the game after being hit on the arm by a pitch pic.twitter.com/gaWsuns2Ze
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 14, 2023
This is yet another really bad stroke of misfortune for Haniger, whose injury history is as unlucky as it gets. In 2017, his first full Major League season with the Seattle Mariners, Haniger took a 95-mph heater to the face from – of all people – Jacob deGrom.
In June 2019, he fouled a pitch directly into his groin. He suffered a ruptured testicle and missed the rest of that year and all of the next. Amid many other other injuries, Haniger has played only 530 regular season games at the pro level since being drafted in 2012.
In any case, the Giants gambled on Haniger, signing him to a 3-year, $45.5 million deal this past offseason. The outfielder's stretches of quality play while he's stayed healthy have been quite strong. In the games he did play between 2018-2022, Haniger slashed .259/.334/.478 with a 125 OPS+, averaging 34 homers per 162.
The worst part these are such random injuries; it's not like Haniger is fragile. Now, a broken arm from an inside fastball? More terrible luck. The 32-year-old has had a rough year at the plate, but the Giants still hoped he could turn things around.
San Francisco sits at 35-32, third in the NL West and around the middle of the pack in MLB. However, the Giants are going to have to fight through some adversity, as they lost another starter Tuesday night.
The pitch before Haniger's injury, third baseman J.D. Davis sprained his ankle sliding into third base on a Michael Conforto single. San Francisco now has two positions to fill.
