It didn’t look good the moment Alexander Canario went down and now we know that the Cubs outfield prospect will miss at least six weeks with a hamstring injury.
The 24-year-old was carted off into the locker room at Triple-A last week after he suffered a leg injury running from second base to home. After a few days of silence the Cubs revealed that Canario will miss an extended period of time because of a right hamstring strain. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers says Canario will be out six weeks.
Canario had a slash line of .243/.336/.514 with a 114 wRC+ in 64 games with the Iowa Cubs this season, slugging 18 home runs in 283 plate appearances. The right-handed batter has had a few brief stints in the majors with the Cubs, first last September and then a couple call ups this year. Canario has gone 12-for-42 at the plate with a pair of home runs in 45 MLB plate appearances.
Just as the major league club has suffered through many injuries in 2024, the depth at Triple-A has been depleted equally if not even more on the position side. In addition to Canario now missing a lot of time because of injury, other prospects like Matt Mervis, Brennen Davis and Luis Vazquez have also been sidelined for big chunks of the season.
(Previous Update)
As if the major league team isn’t depressing enough to watch on a daily basis so far in 2024 the Cubs keep getting hit with injuries to their prospects in the minor leagues this season. The latest incident looked bad immediately as Alexander Canario pulled up running toward home plate and then went to the ground with his hands on his helmet during Wednesday’s Iowa Cubs game at Triple-A.
Canario, 24, has continued to show power at Triple-A, hitting 18 home runs and posting a .514 slugging % in 283 plate appearances at Iowa so far this season. The right-handed hitting outfielder is slashing .243/.336/.514 with a 114 wRC+ in 64 games, but now it looks like Canario will be out for an extended period of time after needing to be carted into the locker room after suffering a leg injury.
Canario was at second base and raced around third on a base hit from Moises Ballesteros to left field. About halfway to home Canario began to hobble and eventually went down in pain after scoring.
The outfield prospect hasn’t had much run in the majors only getting 45 plate appearances across three call ups to the Cubs dating back to last September.
Canario was brought up in mid-April earlier this year before he was optioned back to Triple-A a couple weeks later. He was briefly up with the Cubs prior to the All-Star break after Cody Bellinger suffered a broken finger, but Canario only received three at-bats off the bench in two games before he was returned to Iowa.
During his cup of coffee in the big leagues Canario has gone 12-for-42 at the plate with a pair of home runs. However, the swing and miss has certainly been a red flag as the slugger has struck out 19 times in 45 plate appearances. Still, you’d obviously love for Canario to get more playing time at Triple-A so that he could hopefully continue his development, but now that will be put on hold with a bad-looking leg injury.
However, expect Canario to come back strong from this setback because he’s proven to overcome serious injuries in the past. When he was still a prospect in the San Francisco Giants farm system Canario underwent shoulder surgery. He recovered from that and then after a great 2022 season with the Cubs down in the minors, Canario suffered a devastating injury while playing in the Dominican Winter League that led to ankle surgery and a dislocated left shoulder. Canario bounced back from that and earned his first MLB call up by the end of the 2023 season with the Cubs.
Hoping for the best here.
