Royals Place Jarrod Dyson on DL, Call Up David Lough

A week after hitting his first home run of the season against the New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals outfielder Jarrod Dyson finds himself on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained right ankle. Dyson’s DL trip is retroactive to yesterday, because he left the game against the Los Angeles Angels late on Wednesday with the sprained ankle after showing great hustle in trying to rob a home run from Angels star OF Mike Trout.

Dyson was having a good week, and the Royals received a brief period of improved production from Dyson over Jeff Francoeur. He was, of course, expected to hit the DL, and we’ll see how severe the sprain is. There is no word on the severity of the injury, and the only thing for certain is that Dyson won’t be back until June.

When he returns, hopefully the Royals can continue to get some improved performance from him. While the 28-year-old’s .286 OBP on the season is nothing to write home about, he has a .561 slugging percentage and has been better than Francoeur. Hopefully Dyson can quickly recover from the injury and continue to be at least a solid fourth outfielder for the Royals, and it was great to see him capture plenty of at-bats from Francoeur and deliver on them in spots.

David Lough was the expected replacement for Dyson on the roster, and the Royals have indeed called up the versatile fourth outfielder from Triple-A Omaha. The 27-year-old looked great in spring training and in Omaha, so it is a little surprising to see that the Royals did not call Lough up sooner. This is his first time in the MLB this season, so we’ll see if Lough can take this opportunity following Dyson’s injury and continue to hit for a high average.