Chadwick Tromp placed on the Injured List

The San Francisco Giants just got dealt another injury blow, as catcher Chadwick Tromp has been placed on the Injured List.

Tromp jammed his shoulder diving into first base on a pickoff attempt during Sunday’s victory over the Oakland Athletics. It initially seemed like he was all right, as he stayed in the game. He was even placed in the lineup for Monday’s game against the Colorado Rockies, but replaced by Joey Bart about two hours before the game started.

He did enter the game in the final innings, but it would seem he still wasn’t feeling right, as the Giants placed him on the IL Tuesday afternoon with a muscle strain.

That leaves Bart as the only catcher on the Giants roster, which means they’ll obviously replace Tromp with a backstop.

At the time of this article’s writing, the Giants had not yet announced who would replace Tromp, but there are two candidates: Tyler Heineman, and Chris Herrmann.

Heineman would seem to be the likeliest candidate, since he’s a switch-hitter who’s already spent a significant amount of time on the active roster, and is therefore comfortable with most of the pitchers. He’s also already on the 40-man roster. However, the Giants may be intrigued by what they have in Herrmann, and they have an open spot on the 40-man roster after designating Justin Smoak for assignment.

Tromp’s departure means he’ll miss the rest of the regular season, and it’s a hit to the Giants depth at the position. He wasn’t having an eye-opening season — he was hitting just .213/.219/.426 — but he provided some power, and was very comfortable working with Johnny Cueto.

As a team, Giants catchers rank 23rd in WAR, and 24th in wRC+, per Fangraphs.