Evan Longoria Injury: Tampa Bay Ray Out 6-8 Weeks Following Awkward Slide

After an awkward slide last night when he was caught stealing second base, Evan Longoria left the game with an apparent knee injury, according to Matthew Pouliot of NBC Sports.

This morning, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweeted that Longoria's injury is actually related to his hamstring and could be out six to eight weeks.

Before the injury, Longoria was hitting .329/.433/.561 with four home runs, 19 RBI and 15 runs. He currently leads the Rays in hits, doubles, RBI, on-base percentage and OPS.

With an enormous gap left by Longoria at third base, the Rays will struggle to replace him. Possible replacements currently on the roster include Sean Rodriguez or Elliot Johnson.

Both Rodriguez and Johnson are hitting sub-.200 and neither has had a lot of recent experience at third base.

Topkin also tweeted that other internal options include Will Rhymes or Reid Brignac. If the Rays were to call up Brignac from Triple-A, he would start at shortstop and Rodriguez would shift to third base, according to Topkin. 

If Longoria is really going to be out for that amount of time, it will extremely detrimental to the Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa Bay currently sits atop the competitive AL East by a game over the New York Yankees.

It will face a tough stretch of series after playing against the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics this week. Of their 28 games in May, 13 will come against either the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Without Longoria in the No. 3 spot in the lineup or at the hot corner in the field, the Rays are in a lot of trouble, needless to say.