D-backs manager: Mark Trumbo ‘is going to have a good second half’
Jul 17, 2014, 10:44 PM | Updated: 11:54 pm
Little is more representative of the 2014 Arizona Diamondbacks than the fact that their premier offseason acquisition, Mark Trumbo, had to miss nearly half the season due to injury.
Trumbo’s left foot is just one of a number of injured parts that the Diamondbacks’ training staff has had to treat this season, including Patrick Corbin’s left elbow, the right elbows of Bronson Arroyo, David Hernandez, Daniel Hudson and Matt Reynolds, A.J. Pollock’s left hand, Chris Owings’ left ankle and Eric Chavez’s left knee.
Trumbo missed 72 games with a stress fracture in his left foot, which was suffered back in late April. Before being placed on the 15-day disabled list with the injury, he hit seven home runs and accrued 19 RBI in 21 games while hitting .210/ .264/ .506 with a .771 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
The 6-foot-4, 235-pound outfielder returned to the Diamondbacks for the team’s final series before the All-Star break, against the San Francisco Giants.
“He was a little rusty,” Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson explained of his leftfielder’s return to the lineup while a guest on Burns and Gambo on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
In two games and a pinch-hit at-bat in San Francisco, he didn’t fare well, going just 1-for-9 with four strikeouts.
But the series aside, Gibson believes Trumbo is more than healthy enough to regain form.
“I think he’s moving good,” he said. “His arm is good, he moved real well in the outfield.”
Once the cobwebs are shaken off, he says, he expects a strong showing.
“When you’re out for that long — 70 games or something like that — you’re out for a long time, you know, he was down there in the Arizona summer league, facing those pitchers who are very young, and you know it’s a little different talent up here,” Gibson said.
“He’s going to have a good second half.”
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