Nico Hoerner diagnosed with fracture in his hand, Cubs weighing whether to put him on IL

CINCINNATI – Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner wasn't expecting the further testing on his right hand to reveal a small fracture in one of his metacarpals. But that was the diagnosis he received.

The injury hadn’t been nearly as painful as his wrist fracture in 2019, which he also sustained when a pitch up and in hit his right hand on a check swing.

“‘19 was terrible, as far as, I couldn’t use my hand the next couple days,” Hoerner said Saturday before the Cubs' 4-3 loss to the Reds. “Completely different scenario. And from my own perspective, I guess that's why I was a little surprised because the symptoms presented so differently.”

The two doctors the Cubs consulted were comfortable with Hoerner continuing to play when the pain and swelling subsided, manager Craig Counsell said Saturday. There was little risk that doing so would displace the fracture. But that leaves the team with a decision to make on whether or not to put Hoerner on the 10-day IL in the coming days.

The Cubs’ injuries have come in bunches this year. After an onslaught in the first month and a half, it’s been three weeks since the Cubs have put a player on the IL.

Hoerner was hit in the hand on Thursday. The next day, right fielder Seiya Suzuki took a throw off his left side while stealing second base in the first inning of the Cubs’ 3-2 loss to the Reds. He said that during a plate appearance in the fifth inning, he felt his left oblique tighten a little.

“From previous injuries that I’ve overcome before, I just wanted to take the most precautionary way of preventing big injuries from happening,” Suzuki said Friday night through interpreter Toy Matsushita. “So I decided to come out of the game.”

In the last two years, Suzuki has strained both his obliques on both sides. But on Saturday, Counsell expressed confidence that Suzuki didn’t have another oblique injury.

“Essentially, just a bruise,” Counsell said. “It's just affecting the muscles that are on the swing. So it's not an oblique. It's from getting hit last night, and he got hit on that side earlier in the week.”

Suzuki, too, was out of the lineup Saturday. But Counsell was optimistic that Suzuki would return "in a day or two."

When Hoerner will be ready to return to the starting lineup, likely playing through some level of pain when he does, is harder to predict.

“Right now, we have some question whether that's in a 10-day mark, or whether we just kind of play this day by day,” Counsell said.

Hoerner is able to run the bases, as he showed Friday when he entered the game in the ninth inning as a pinch runner. And he said he was confident he could throw, but he hasn’t tested that assertion since the game Thursday. Swinging a bat has presented some challenges, but he said he was feeling better Saturday than he did the day before.

“As far as day-to-day pain, that is something that you can make worse, unfortunately,” Hoerner said. “So being aware of just managing that. … Making sure that I come back at a time that's as soon as possible but also in a place that's going to allow me to be a good version of myself and not deal with something that lasts for weeks or months on end.”

In Hoerner’s absence the last two games, David Bote has played second base. But the Cubs will have to weigh their lack of middle infield depth on the active roster as they decide whether to put Hoerner on the IL.

“People say things like, ‘If it was later in the year, maybe you push it,’” Hoerner said. “It's tough to say those things because I feel like all games are pretty much created equal. And as we saw last year, when seasons come down to one or two games, a lot of times these games are just as important. But you also have to [consider] the long term.”