Regardless of who you root for, injuries like the one we saw sustained by Cleveland Indians outfielder Josh Naylor Sunday against the Minnesota Twins are just brutal.
In the bottom of the fourth, the right fielder and Indians second baseman Ernie Clement converged on a check swing fly ball off the bat of Twins infielder Jorge Polanco. The result was one of the ugliest scenes we’ve come across in the MLB world in some time.
Naylor and Clement collided as they attempted to field the fly ball. As you will see below, Naylor’s leg bent in the completely wrong direction. He was seen on the outfield turf at Target Field withering in pain. It’s a hard watch.
This is just absolutely brutal to watch. Trainers were then seen on the outfield grass attending to Josh Naylor for several minutes before he was carted off the field with his right leg completely immobilized in a large black contraption.
Both Indians and Twins players were immediate to react to the injury shortly after Naylor fell to the grass. Meanwhile, the Twins sent their best wishes to the outfielder via social media.
The 24-year-old Josh Naylor is in the midst of a breakout campaign that saw him enter Sunday’s game against the Twins hitting .255 with seven homers and 21 RBI in 68 games.
He was originally acquired by Cleveland in a trade with the San Diego Padres last August that included Mike Clevinger heading to Southern California as the headliner.
Our thoughts are obviously with Naylor. We’ll have further updates as they become available.