With Omar Infante suffering a fractured middle finger on his right hand, the Marlins are planning on placing him on the 15-day DL. Which is quite understandable. The Marlins can't have two middle infielders who aren't available sitting on the bench. Yes, Hanley should be back soon, maybe even by Saturday, but the risk is too great considering they really don't have the replacements on the bench.
For now, the Marlins need another middle infielder because let's face it, Helms will give his all, but he isn't all that much help at second or short. Oh sure, he can catch grounders when he keeps his footing but he is not exactly well equipped to turn a double play, should that actually happen. He hasn't been training to do so.
So the Marlins need to add another player in the interim and according to Clark Spencer that person will be Joe Thurston who is playing second for the Triple-A club.
The Marlins will be calling up Joe Thurston from Triple A New Orleans.
Joe Thurston is a 31 year-old career Quad-A player. Meaning he is one of those guys who has excelled in the Minors, but that has never translated into Major League success. The last time he was in the Majors was with the Cardinals in 2009 where he played in 124 games and put up the slash stats of .225/.316/.330.
His career Minor League slash stats are .294/.358/.424. With the Zephyrs this season he is hitting .315/.401/.477 in 104 games. What I'm getting at here is to not look at his NOLA numbers and get excited, they won't directly mean a one for one transfer into the Majors. Oh sure, he could come in and be on a hot streak, he was on one in New Orleans before being maybe called up, but they may not last.
Thurston can play most any position including second, short, third and the outfield. As a fielder, he is not great at any of them, but he isn't a butcher either. He will never see the outfield while up with the Marlins, but he could be moved around the infield if Jack makes some more of his quite interesting late inning moves.
Thurston is not on the 40-man roster, so there will be a necessary change there. Clark Spencer put forth the theory that Chris Coghlan could be move to the 60-day DL to make room. And that may happen, we will know more in a little while.