Hunter Harvey suffers right fibula fracture, Orioles prospect to miss 4-6 weeks

Orioles fans who were imagining Hunter Harvey pitching in Camden Yards later on this year should probably pump the brakes. That would have been a good idea regardless, as Harvey was still in high school this time two years ago. Now it's even more of a good idea because Harvey has suffered a small fracture in his right fibula after being hit by a comebacker in a game yesterday.

There was hope that Harvey, the #20 prospect in baseball according to Baseball Prospectus, escaped injury after X-rays taken yesterday were negative. However, he had a CT scan this morning and that scan revealed the fracture.

Harvey will be on crutches for the next month and is expected to have a 4-6 week recovery time in total from the injury. He'll then have to be eased back into shape since he'll be deprived of the last couple of weeks of spring training.

Will this end up having much of an effect on Harvey's development? If he comes back from the injury smoothly and the Orioles are able to manage it well, maybe not. They were already planning to limit his innings this season. Harvey missed time at the end of last season and only threw 87.2 innings in total.

So if Harvey misses the first month of the regular season, that could end up just meaning the Orioles don't need to spread those innings over as much time. There's your possible silver lining.

Someone from MASN was taking video when Harvey was hit by the comebacker:

#Orioles top prospect Hunter Harvey was hit by a comebacker and left his minor league start today: https://t.co/rNlD4pHyIb

— Orioles on MASN (@masnOrioles) March 21, 2015

Ouch.