SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The Indians had one guarantee about their outfield coming into Spring Training: Oscar Mercado would earn one of the three starting jobs. After a scare, that thankfully does not appear to be in question.

Mercado suffered a mild left wrist sprain while making a diving catch on a shallow fly ball in center field in the fourth inning of Thursday’s 7-1 win against the Giants. As he made contact with the ground, he got his wrist stuck underneath his body, bent backwards and he immediately grabbed it in pain. After Mercado underwent tests and imaging on Friday, the results confirmed the original diagnosis of a mild sprain. He remains day to day.

“The idea is to take maybe the first 48-72 hours to really let this thing settle down,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “He’ll go out with the team and stretch and get the blood flowing and all of that. But the first 48-72 hours, let this thing calm down. Then, I think start to gradually introduce him to things and see how he reacts to it.

“I mean the hope would be that he reacts well to the rest and stuff -- and as they introduce him to activity, he feels great. If he doesn’t, they’ll have to slow it down.”

The Indians will look to avoid a third major injury this spring after starter Mike Clevinger partially tore his meniscus in his left knee on Feb. 12 and reliever Emmanuel Clase was diagnosed with an upper back strain on Feb. 26. The Tribe has great starting pitching depth if Clevinger wouldn’t be ready by Opening Day and Clase wasn’t yet a guarantee to break camp with the club -- though he was an early favorite -- but losing Mercado may be harder to replace.

“He wasn’t in major pain,” said Sandy Alomar Jr., who managed in place of a sick Francona on Thursday. “He said he felt like it was sprained. Nothing popped. We’re just going to go day to day for right now.”

An Opening Day roster without Mercado
It’s not a matter of having enough outfield options, considering the Indians currently have 10 outfielders on their 40-man roster. It’s more a matter of replacing the offensive production the team saw it could get from Mercado in his rookie year last year. If the 25-year-old were to miss more time than the Indians are expecting, Delino DeShields would likely be the top candidate to take over the everyday center field duties.

Without Mercado, the Tribe would carry at least Franmil Reyes, Domingo Santana, DeShields, Jordan Luplow and -- most likely -- Jake Bauers. Depending how Indians manager Terry Francona decides to use the 26th roster spot, the Indians could carry another outfielder while Santana spends the majority of his time at DH.

Greg Allen and Bradley Zimmer would both be options to play center field, however, the Indians have leaned toward beginning Zimmer in Triple-A to start the year so that he can get some at-bats under his belt after missing almost all of 2019 due to shoulder and oblique injuries.

Allen can bring plenty of versatility, being able to play all three outfield spots, but he’d have to prove that his bat can be more valuable to the Indians than DeShields’ if he’d want to see more playing time. Spring stats tell us very little considering the extremely small sample, but DeShields has gone 4-for-14 (.286) with a .710 OPS for his new organization in six Cactus League games, while Allen has gone 1-for-15 (.067) with a .243 OPS in his six games.

An Opening Day roster with Mercado
In the best-case scenario, the Indians will receive no further news Friday morning after Mercado is evaluated and he’s able to get himself back in exhibition action before Opening Day. Even with Mercado on the roster, the outfield is anything but set in stone.

The early candidates, assuming Mercado is healthy enough by March 26, to break camp with the Tribe are Mercado, Reyes, Santana, Luplow and DeShields. Bauers, who revamped his swing over the offseason to hopefully see more success in 2020, will then compete for the 26th spot. The Indians, at that point, will have a few choices. One could be carrying both Christian Arroyo for his bat and Mike Freeman for his versatility (with the ability to play all four infield positions and the outfield) to fill backup/utility roles. The other could be carrying one of the two utility guys and adding Bauers.