Mike Napoli has dislocated his left ring finger sliding into second base in the ninth inning of their 2-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox tonight. A tough break for a team that is struggling to score runs in the early season.
This definitely is a huge blow to the defending World Series Champs, as they have started the season slow, with the ever popular "post-championship hangover" looming over their heads. The Red Sox have been dealing with several injuries in the early season, including, outfielder Shane Victorino (hamstring) and third-baseman Will Middlebrooks (calf). Not to mention, Dustin Pedroia missed tonight's game because of a cortisone shot in his wrist.
Napoli is easily the best right-handed bat in the lineup, and this year he has a split of .300/.386/.520, 3 HR's and 9 RBI's.
A suitable replacement for Napoli would be David Ortiz for possibly a game or two, but he does not play first base at all. Daniel Nava is listed as the backup first-baseman on the depth chart, and he has started a game there this year. He also played 19 games at first last year, starting in eight of those contests.
Nava has played much of the year in right field, but has been very unproductive at the plate. Nava is only hitting .140/.229/.233 in 43 at-bats for the Red Sox this season. He also does not provide the type of protection in the lineup for David Ortiz.
What this injury does, however, is provide extended playing time for the young Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. The Sox organization is very high on the soon to be 24-year-old outfielder, and more at-bats to help out his development will help.
The Red Sox have not released a report on Napoli, but he will definitely miss a good amount of time. The picture of the injury can be seen here and it is nasty. Picture provided on Twitter from @redsoxstats.