Former Padres Outfielder Suffers One of the Unluckiest Injuries You'll Ever See

Maren Angus-Coombs | Jun 12, 2024

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Former San Diego Padres outfielder Hunter Renfroe was placed on the 10-day injured list by the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday with what the team called a left big toe fracture. The injury occurred on Monday in one of the most unlucky ways possible: he fouled two balls off his left foot during a 12-pitch at-bat against Yankees starter Carlos Rodón.

Renfroe left the game two innings later.

Wednesday, the Royals revealed that the injury, while unlucky, is not as unfortunate as it could have been. According to Anne Rogers of MLB.com, an MRI on Renfroe's foot revealed no fractures:

Good news for Hunter Renfroe after getting an MRI yesterday: His toe isn’t fractured. It’s a bone bruise with a stress reaction. That significantly alters the recovery time w/ no surgery needed. Could start baseball activity relatively soon depending on when the pain subsides.

— Anne Rogers (@anne__rogers) June 12, 2024

Renfroe is in his first year with the Royals. A bumpy start saw him slash just .140/.214/.252 in his first 36 games through May 11. He entered Monday with a nine-game hitting streak that ended when he struck out in his only at-bat. Since May 12, Renfroe is slashing .302/.371/.556 with seven doubles, three homers, and 13 RBIs.

Quatraro on Hunter Renfroe hitting the IL: "It hurts. It hurts him, it hurts us, clearly. We want him in there every opportunity and he was doing what we expected (when) we signed him." #Royals

Brought to you by @Toyota. pic.twitter.com/8I9H49Gj1F

— Bally Sports Kansas City (@BallySportsKC) June 11, 2024

“It’s pretty aggravating,” Renfroe told reporters on Tuesday. “It always seems to happen, for any player really, once you start going good, you start moving around a lot, get on base a lot, all of a sudden, something happens. You pull something, you get hurt, a freak accident happens. It’s one of those things in baseball where it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it’s part of it.”

Renfroe spent parts of four season with the Padres after San Diego selected him in the first round of the 2013 MLB Draft out of Mississippi State. He made his big league debut in Sept. 2016 and was traded to Tampa Bay in Dec. 2019.