Ankle sprain puts Orioles’ Santander on injured list; McKenna recalled

The Orioles placed rightfielder Anthony Santander on the 10-day injured list because of a sprained left ankle on Wednesday. Manager Brandon Hyde said Santander is expected to miss two-to-four weeks.

Santander injured the ankle in the first inning of Tuesday night’s game in Miami when he rolled the ankle trying to get back to first base on a pickoff attempt after he had singled. Hyde and athletic trainer Brian Ebel had to help Santander off the field.

“We got good news last night,” Hyde said Wednesday. “The MRI showed that it was just a sprained ankle, so no fracture. Usually, these types of sprains are two-to-four weeks, so we’ll see, but that was very positive news this morning.”

In 16 games, Santander is batting .196 with two home runs and eight RBIs.

Santander’s place on the 26-man roster will be taken by Ryan McKenna, who was optioned to the alternate training site at Bowie before Tuesday night’s game when Austin Hays was activated from the 10-day injured list. Hays replaced Santander in the first inning.

It’s the second time that McKenna, who replaced Hays on the active roster on April 5th, has moved from the taxi squad to the major league roster.

McKenna is batting .200 (2-for-10) in 11 games.

Hyde was hoping to have Hays, Santander, Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins and DJ Stewart on the active roster concurrently, but that lasted less than an inning.

“Depth is at a premium,” Hyde said. “We have more depth than we’ve had in the past couple of years, but injuries happen. Sprained ankles happen. Tony will be back. I was just really pleased with the results that we got this morning because when I went out there, I was thinking the worst.

“Seeing him this morning, him feeling good about it only being a sprained ankle feels good for everybody because he’s a huge part of our team. Now, it’s time for other guys to get opportunity, pick up the slack, be a run producer for us, but I like the guys we’ll be putting in there in his spot.”

From his dugout vantage point, Hyde said: “He just went back on the base awkwardly and rolled his ankle, lunged at the bag, and his ankle turned, like when you’re stepping on somebody’s foot in basketball or something.”