Wil Myers, playing through a back injury since the season’s second game and having moved past an arm injury that shelved him earlier this month, was felled this time by a strained oblique.

What appeared inevitable when the Padres right fielder left Saturday’s game in the middle of an at-bat became official Sunday morning, as Myers was placed on the 10-day disabled list with what he said has been described to him as a “low-grade” strain on his left side.

His stint on the DL will be longer than 10 days. Myers said two weeks. Manager Andy Green knows better and indicated a stretch twice that long could be in order.

“I just know these things don’t progress just because you want them to,” Green said.


Yangervis Solarte missed 40 days with an oblique strain while with the Padres last season. Green said Myers’ injury is “more mild” than Solarte’s was.

Outfielder Travis Jankowski was recalled from Triple-A El Paso on Sunday morning to take Myers’ place on the roster. Jankowski had reached base in 19 of his past 24 plate appearances with the Chihuahuas.

Jankowski will at some point this week become the seventh outfielder to play for the Padres this season. Four of the five outfielders they expected at the start of the season to get the bulk of the playing time have spent time on the DL.

Franchy Cordero began the season there. Manuel Margot missed nine games with bruised ribs. Hunter Renfroe has been on the DL since April 21 with inflammation in his right arm. Only Jose Pirela has played in every game.


Myers just returned April 20 from his 18-day stay on the DL. He was 9-for-28 in his seven games between the DL stints and is batting .324/.324/.486 in 40 plate appearances this season.

“It’s tough,” Myers said. “Especially when you come back, you start to swing it well and all of a sudden something else pops up.”

Myers left the season’s second game with back tightness and has been working to keep the balky back in check ever since.

He indicated Sunday there could be some correlation between the injuries. He said he felt his back “flare up” running out a grounder in his second-inning at-bat. Myers said he didn’t feel right in the outfield after that, and his next at-bat was his last.


“The back has kind of been there,” he said. “I thought that was something I could play through. That’s the way it goes sometimes. You push through stuff and something else flares up.”

Green said this DL stint “will probably give (Myers’ back issue) time to resolve.”

Myers, who moved from first base to the outfield this season to make room for Eric Hosmer at first base, has played with Hosmer in just eight games.

The Padres and Myers, who played in the outfield from 2013-15, have consistently denied the position change has affected Myers’ health. Sunday, Myers did lend credence to another possible contributing factor his back injury – the 20 pounds of muscle he gained this offseason.


“You never want to say it’s one thing, and you never want to make an excuse,” Myers said. “There is something to that. But I don’t think that’s the absolute reason why this happened.


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kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com

UPDATES:

11:00 a.m.: This story was updated with quotes and further reporting.