Adrian Beltre out at least two weeks with sprained thumb

Adrian Beltre will miss at least the next two weeks after spraining his left thumb sliding into second base today, per the Rangers.

Beltre had led off the fifth inning with a single, and injured his thumb while second into second in an attempt to break up a potential double play off the bat of Mitch Moreland.  He was removed for Adam Rosales in the top of the sixth, and needed four stitches in his thumb, although the X-rays were negative.

This is, obviously, a significant blow for the Rangers, who have been playing great ball this month with Adrian Beltre hitting cleanup for them.  Beltre is also the only middle-of-the-order righthanded bat right now, which means that the Rangers are going to skew even more lefty-heavy than usual for a while.

My guess is that Rougned Odor will end up getting called up on Tuesday, and will take over the starting second base role, with Rosales and Hanser Alberto splitting time at third base while Beltre is on the shelf.  There will be questions, of course, about Joey Gallo, but he's not on the 40 man roster and still has less than a full season at AA.  I don't think the Rangers are going to want to bring him up just to fill in for a couple of weeks.

Coming into today, Odor was hitting .283/.368/.633 in 17 games for Round Rock since being sent down earlier this month, with 7 walks, 7 strikeouts and 5 home runs.

If Beltre is going to miss more than just two weeks, Ryan Rua could end up being an option.  Rua started the season as the Rangers' starting left fielder, but most of his time in the minors was spent at second base and third base.  Rua can't be activated from the 60 day d.l. until June 10, but he's expected to go on a rehab assignment late next week.

UPDATE -- Per Jeff Wilson on Twitter, Beltre won't swing a bat for 12 days, so it will probably be more like three weeks he's out than two weeks.