Oakland A’s prospect Addison Russell out with torn hamstring
By Brad Rowland
One of the top prospects in all of Major League Baseball will be missing in action for at least a month, as Oakland Athletics shortstop Addison Russell has been diagnosed with a torn right hamstring.
Rough news for Oakland: A's source says top prospect Addison Russell has a torn R hamstring (grade 3 strain). Will miss at least a month.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 9, 2014
The 20-year-old Russell is beginning the 2014 season with AA Midland, but with the type of skill set and pedigree he possesses, the A’s are likely to keep him on the fast track to the Major Leagues, even with this injury. Prior to the season, Russell was ranked as the #7 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball Prospectus, and even more impressively, he landed at #3 in the top-100 prospect rankings put forth by ESPN’s Keith Law.
If anything, this injury should slow down Russell’s onslaught toward the majors for this season. Prior to going down, the shortstop was already 5-for-7 on the season at the plate (!) and he is considered to be one of the hitters in all of minor league baseball despite his young age. Fortunately for Oakland, they have a quality Major League option at shortstop in Jed Lowrie, but if it wasn’t for him, Russell likely could have started the year in the big leagues.
Stay tuned as he progresses in his recovery, but even with the setback, Russell could be a Major Leaguer by September.