WASHINGTON – Danny Santana has shown recently why the Braves pursued the versatile switch-hitter, and now they’ll hope he doesn’t have to miss much time for a leg infection that landed him on the 10-day disabled list.
Santana was diagnosed with a bacterial infection on his calf, placed on the DL and flown to Atlanta on Friday to be examined. There was some concern that it could be contagious, something such as a staph infection, which is why Santana was sent back to Atlanta soon after arriving at Nationals Park on Friday and having the infection examined more extensively.
Utility player Jace Peterson was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett to take Santana’s roster spot.
“It’s about it (possibly) being contagious in the clubhouse,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I don’t know that he’s in a whole lot of pain, but it’s just something that you don’t want to mess around with and take a chance of anything spreading or anything like that.
“That’s why he’s going home, to get checked out. They can test him and everything. But there’s an infection in there, so they talked to (Braves chief physician) Gary (Lourie), he wants him to get back to Atlanta to see what’s going on.”
Santana was 3-for-10 with a double, three RBIs, two walks and four stolen bases in his past five games including a three-stolen base game Saturday at Oakland and a two-RBI game Tuesday against the Astros.
“They came to me during the game (Thursday),” Snitker said Friday afternoon. “It was bothering him. They taped it up and he was available to play. But they looked at him today, and it wasn’t good again, so they called. It’s just something you don’t want to mess around with. So we sent him back and he’s going to meet the specialist at the hospital.”
Since the Braves got him from Minnesota in a May 8 trade for Triple-A reliever Kevin Chapman, Santana has hit a modest .230, but has 10 extra-base hits (two homers), 17 RBIs and a .690 OPS in 94 plate appearances. Beyond that, he’s made an impact with aggressive base running and with solid outfield defense, including a strong arm.
“Hopefully we can use the four days off (during the All-Star break starting Monday), and if they clear him he can always go out and play (minor league rehab games) during the break or right after. He can be playing. Just going to depend on what they find when they test everything out.”
Snitker was Braves third-base coach in 2011 when then-Brave Martin Prado missed more than a month for a staph infection in his calf that required surgery.
“I remember that. That was ugly,” Snitker said. “They wanted that to heal from the inside out, and it just took a long time. Hopefully this doesn’t get (bad like that), and I think that’s the big thing about getting him in there and getting him looked at, so that it doesn’t get to that kind of situation hopefully.”
