Estrada to IL with wrist sprain; Villar recalled

MILWAUKEE -- The Giants placed second baseman Thairo Estrada on the 10-day injured list with a left wrist sprain and recalled infielder David Villar from Triple-A Sacramento prior to Saturday afternoon’s game against the Brewers at American Family Field.

Estrada, 27, hurt his wrist in his final at-bat of the Giants’ series finale at Minnesota on Wednesday and continued to feel discomfort while facing the Brewers on Thursday, prompting the club to hold him out of the lineup on Friday night.

Manager Gabe Kapler initially described Estrada as “day to day,” but the Giants decided to place him on the IL on Saturday to give the inflammation in his wrist time to subside. The move is retroactive to Friday, meaning Estrada will be eligible to return as soon as June 6.

“Thairo came to the ballpark today, we put him through some tests,” Kapler said. “At the extension with his wrist, when he tries to turn it over, he’s still feeling a little bit of discomfort and some weakness. With that, we tried to develop a timeline for when he might be ready to play. It seemed like maybe in the [June 2-4] Baltimore series would be the right time. Under the circumstances, you give him those several games and he’ll be ready to come off an IL stint right after that.

“For me, the deciding factor, the thing that we need to be most cognizant of is we’re not looking for players who are banged up or hurt to come back and play at less than near full capacity. We’re learning more and more that when players come back, we want them to feel good and not just like they can get through the game.”

Estrada has been arguably the Giants’ most valuable player this season, batting a team-high .301 with an .811 OPS, six home runs and 13 stolen bases over 47 games.

With Estrada sidelined, the Giants gave rookie Brett Wisely his second consecutive start at second. Wisely entered Saturday batting .194 with a .546 OPS over 26 games, but he’s shown impressive range on the infield and flashed some serious pop by blasting a 408-foot home run in the third inning of the Giants’ 15-1 rout of the Brewers on Friday night.

To replace Estrada on the 26-man roster, the Giants welcomed back Villar, who opened the season as the club’s starting third baseman but was demoted to Triple-A Sacramento earlier this month after hitting only .148 with a .558 OPS over 30 games.

Villar, 26, arrived at the Giants’ clubhouse with only the clothes on his back and his glove, as he had to scramble to catch a red-eye flight from Sacramento to Chicago on Friday night and missed the cutoff time to check his equipment bags at the airport. Villar said he planned to try to borrow some bats from his teammates and hopefully buy some new clothes to get him through the rest of the road trip.

“This is a full reset because I don’t have any of my stuff here,” Villar said. “They didn’t let me take anything on. They closed the baggage before my red-eye flight. I was trying to tell the lady at the desk, ‘I have to play in an MLB game tomorrow.’ But she was like, ‘We closed.’”

Villar acknowledged that he might have put some pressure on himself at the beginning of the season in an effort to lock down the third base job, but he’s hoping to turn the page now that he’s had some time to work on some adjustments at Triple-A Sacramento.

“Maybe subconsciously,” Villar said. “I think I really just wanted to stick and perform and help the team win. It just kind of snowballed, and I struggled. I dealt with it at the Major League level last year, but it just kind of fumbled away from me. It’s part of the game. You learn from it. I was obviously not happy to go back to Triple-A, but I knew it was what was best for me. It was what was best for the team. I needed to work on some things. I’m happy to be here. Different circumstances, but it’s another opportunity to take advantage of the moment. I’ll be ready for it, regardless of whether I have my stuff or not.”