Rangers’ Elvis Andrus out 6-8 weeks with broken elbow

The Rangers will be without All-Star shortstop Elvis Andrus, as he will be sidelined for 6-8 weeks with a broken right elbow, according to Jeff Wilson of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram. Wilson says that the Rangers will recall Ronald Guzman from Triple-A Round Rock to replace Andrus on the roster.

Andrus suffered the injury Wednesday night after getting hit with a 97-mph fastball from Keynan Middleton in the bottom of the ninth inning of the Rangers’ 7-2 loss to the Angels. Initially, there were concerns that Andrus would need surgery, but Wilson reports that the doctors said Andrus will not need it after additional X-rays and a CT scan confirmed his injury.

Andrus will join Delino DeShields, Rougned Odor and Doug Fister on the DL for the Rangers, who sport a 4-10 record. However, Andrus’ absence will be truly hard to overcome because of how durable and consistent he has been.

The injury will require Andrus to go on the disabled list for the first time in his 10-year career. The 29-year-old and two-time All-Star had played in 1,393 games with Texas, averaging 153 games per year in his first nine seasons. Andrus has a career .277/.336/.372 slash line with 266 stolen bases while posting 200-plus total bases in eight of his 10 seasons. Though he was an All-Star in 2010 and 2012, Andrus was coming off his best hitting season, slugging 20 home runs with 88 RBI, an .808 OPS and a 4.7 WAR. This year, he was slashing .327/.426/.500 with two homers and five RBI in 14 games.

With Andrus out, the Rangers will look to Jurickson Profar to take over short. Wilson says that the Rangers plan to have Joey Gallo play left field and Ryan Rua, Drew Robinson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa “to bounce around.” Two days ago, Profar had just started playing at second for Odor, who is out three weeks with a left hamstring strain.