Red Sox corner infield prospect Blaze Jordan is “expected to miss multiple weeks” after fracturing his left ring finger over the weekend, the club’s director of player development Brian Abraham told The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier.
Jordan suffered the injury in the first inning of Double-A Portland’s 10-7 loss to the Binghamton Rumble Ponies at Hadlock Field on Saturday afternoon. After drawing a two-out walk, the 21-year-old attempted to score from first on a Nick Yorke double. He was instead thrown out at home and fractured his finger while extending his left hand towards the plate.
Though he was taken out of the game and carted off the field, Jordan offered an optimistic take on the injury after the fact by tweeting “We’ll be back” with a heart emoji. He was placed on Portland’s 7-day injured list on Sunday but a more precise timetable for his return has not yet been revealed.
Jordan had been riding a 17-game hitting streak coming into play on Saturday, so this development certainly comes at an inopportune time. On the 2024 season as a whole, the right-handed hitter has batted .283/.342/.414 with seven doubles, two home runs, 16 RBIs, 12 runs scored, six walks, and 11 strikeouts in 26 games (111 plate appearances) for the Sea Dogs.
Among qualified hitters in the Eastern League to this point in the year, Jordan boasts the lowest strikeout rate at 9.9 percent. He also ranks 17th in batting average, 37th in on-base percentage, 28th in slugging percentage, 33rd in OPS (.756), 21st in swinging-strike rate (9.9 percent), and 34th in wRC+ (116), per FanGraphs.
On the other side of the ball, Jordan has unsurprisingly split time between first and third base with Portland this season. The 6-foot-1, 220-pounder has made nine starts at the former and 14 starts at the latter, committing a total of three errors in 97 defensive chances. He has also started three games at designated hitter.
A former third-round draft selection coming out of DeSoto Central High School in 2020, Jordan is currently ranked by Baseball America as the No. 17 prospect in Boston’s farm system. The Mississippi native can become eligible for the Rule 5 Draft for the first time in his career later this year if he is not added to Boston’s 40-man roster by the protection deadline in November.
