In a scary incident during yesterday’s Grapefruit League contest, Rays propect Garrett Whitley was struck in the face by a foul ball that entered the team’s dugout. He has been diagnosed with “multiple facial fractures,” according to manager Kevin Cash (via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, on Twitter).
On the positive side, Whitley was in stable enough condition to spend the night at home rather than in a hospital bed. The 22-year-old outfielder did not lose consciousness at any point. It seems there’s reason to hope that he avoided the most grievous injuries that could conceivably have occurred.
That said, the early indication is that Whitley will be sidelined for a lengthy stretch. He’s slated to visit with a specialist to chart a path back to health. It seems fair to presume that the timeline will not really be evident for some time.
It’s particularly unfortunate timing for Whitley, who originally joined the Tampa Bay organization as the 13th overall pick of the 2015 draft. He was sidelined for all of 2018 due to a shoulder injury, then returned with a solid but unexceptional showing last year at the High-A level.
No doubt Whitley had hoped to make up for lost time in 2020. He’ll first have to get back to full health before tackling the upper minors. Fortunately, he’s still quite youthful. MLBTR extends its best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
God speed recovery.
they should put a swinging fence gate in those dugout openings to the field to prevent such things from happening.
Almost happens a lot
With all attention to player health, one would have thought they would have put a net railing or barrier to prevent this. Most fields have a net up for the seats behind the dugouts.
this guy mustve crossed a few black cats while walking under latters to have the terrible injury luck he has.
I think it was formers instead of latters he walked under
gah, foiled again
Playin ball we call these the ugly finders. Keep your head on a swivel folks.
He also dealt with a major shoulder injury a lil while back. Glad hes going to be ok.
I happened to be watching the game. The weird thing was it was a right handed batter and it was almost impossible for a righty to hit the player at the angle. It wasn’t a good swing at all. Then a couple of pitches later the batter hit a HR.
Yea and it managed to find like the only opening in the whole thing… Crazy
I was watching this game yesterday. I knew it would be bad, you could see it. Hope he makes a quick recovery
youtu.be/ogOccrQbPmA
super scary and wish a speedy recovery
Thank you for the footage, it looked terrible and I hope he recovers from it.
I go to Spring Training every year and the proximity to the field is both cool and scary. Coaches at Angels game routinely sit on chairs along the backstop and the dugouts are pretty close to the field.
Well that sucks for any player. Well wishes young man!
Hope he gets well soon, but it won’t matter he is a bust and won’t ever play for the rays. He will be a rule 5 for someone else who hopes they can unlock something
You could’ve just not typed anything past “soon”, but it won’t matter because you’re THAT guy. Smh
If the kid is invited to spring training next year you know some veteran will have a catchers mask waiting for him in his locker.
Heal fast Garrett W!!! Get yourself back on the field soon young man!! Your luck shall turn. Be well.