Indians Hopeful to Have Michael Brantley Back Soon After Shot in Shoulder

The Indians have already played most of the season without former All-Star outfielder Michael Brantley, but that doesn’t mean they want to play much more of the season without him.

The team is hoping that they can get one of their star players back, and this time for good following an anti-inflammatory shot in his ailing right shoulder on Tuesday.

Tuesday the team announced that Brantley has a ‘subacromial impingement’ and that no timetable was set for his return.

Cleveland.com Indians reporter Paul Hoynes today says that manager Terry Francona is hopeful that Brantley will be back soon and that once he’s back he’ll be back for the rest of the season without any more issues.

Francona says Brantley will be shut down from five to seven days after receiving anti-inflammatory shot in right shoulder on Tuesday. Then they’ll try to bring him back in such a manner that when he is reintroduced into the lineup, he stays there for rest of season. Two trips to DL is enough already.

Brantley was placed on the 15-day DL with right shoulder inflammation on May 14th, and the move is retro to May 10th, meaning he could be back on May 25th if things go well, but that remains to be seen.

This season he’s hitting .231 in 11 games. He’s had 39 plate appearances, with just nine hits, two doubles, no homers and 7 runs batted in.