According to the Arizona Diamondbacks’ top prospect, Jordan Lawlar, he will require surgery on his right thumb and miss at least two months of play.
Shaun Larkin, director of player development for the Arizona Diamondbacks, has announced that Jordan Lawlar, the team’s top prospect, will require surgery on his right thumb and will miss at least two months of play.
According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, Lawlar injured his right thumb while trying to pick up a ball with his throwing hand during a minor-league spring game. At that point, he was already optioned to minor-league camp. Due to the injury, Lawlar will be sidelined for eight to ten weeks, meaning the Diamondbacks won’t have him available until at least the middle of the season.Lawlar, who is ranked as the fourth best baseball prospect by Keith Law of The Athletic, debuted in the major leagues last season but had a difficult time seeing much action—just four hits in 31 at-bats. Additionally, he had trouble at the plate in spring, so Arizona decided to leave incumbent starter Gerardo Perdomo at shortstop and option him to Triple A. Perdomo likewise had a slow spring and had trouble at the plate in the latter part of the previous campaign. Lawlar was only one slow start from Perdomo and a scorching run in Triple A away from a big-league comeback prior to the injury. The time shifts from early to midseason, but the injury doesn’t significantly alter that dynamic.Since going from a Dallas-area high school to be selected sixth in the 2021 selection, Lawlar has sustained several injuries. This is the most recent one. The first occurred two games into his professional career when he ripped his left shoulder’s labrum during a swing. He missed three weeks of 2022 due to a growth on his ribs that wasn’t supposed to be there and was giving him back pain. He also broke his scapula in the Arizona Fall League. He ascended the minor league ladder swiftly in spite of those injuries, making it to the major levels before turning 22.
Lawlar has excellent reflexes on both sides of the ball and has recently made improvements to his footwork and throwing so that he could be a 55-year-old defender at short and not below average. At his best, he should reach 15–20 home runs, however his 20 home runs from the previous season were inflated by playing in two ridiculous hitters’ parks in Amarillo and Reno. On offense, he will display great bat speed.
When he hits it well, his swing path will result in more low line drives than monster flies, and he is quite short to the ball but still makes good contact due of his wrist strength and bat speed. With an 87 percent success rate, he is a genuine base-stealing threat and an easy plus runner.His tendency to come out of his swing and lunge and over-rotate in an attempt to exert force that isn’t there worries me since it can result in whiffs or plain poor contact, such as topping the ball straight into the ground. Even if he goes from short for a better defender, he should be a great somewhere on the infield as long as he stays back and does what has worked so well for him.
