Showalter and Schoop discuss knee injury

BOSTON - The Orioles made the roster move official this afternoon, placing second baseman Jonathan Schoop on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained right knee and activating infielder Jimmy Paredes.

Paredes' flight landed in Boston at 1 p.m., and he's serving as the designated hitter today.

Schoop will head to Sarasota within the next few days and have his rehab supervised by minor league medical coordinator Dave Walker.

The slight tear of the PCL and the sprained MCL happened when Schoop tripped while crossing first base last night in the fifth inning.

"Jon had some real discomfort after the game last night and it locked up on him a little bit the last play, so we had an MRI this morning and he's got a partial PCL tear," manager Buck Showalter said. "The ACL is clean. That was good to hear. And an MCL sprain. He'll be on the DL today, and we'll go from there.

"We're not going to get into timelines right now. We know it's a minimum of the DL period. I know more than I'm going to talk about here as far as the worst-case scneario, but we feel confident that he'll be back this season.

"There's three grades. This is Grade 1, which is good news. From the symptoms he had last night and where we are now, I feel not relieved, but I feel better than I thought we had the potential to have. Just really glad that his ACL is in good shape because that's the one you have to do surgery and it's an extended period of time. This is just a rehab.

"He'll be going to Sarasota very soon. Don't want him going up and down planes, stairs and whatever because it's got to quiet down. That Grade 1 could turn into something else if he takes a misstep or something. That's what Sarasota's set up for. So he'll go down there and join Dave Walker and probably get him out of here in the next day or so."

Showalter said Pablo Sandoval's hard slide into second base in the second inning didn't cause the injury. Schoop agreed later while talking to reporters.

"First base," Showalter said. "It didn't have to do with the slide. We didn't think twice about the slide last night and don't tonight. It's some figment of somebody's imagination."

Paging umpire Jordan Baker...

Schoop was batting .259/.310/.630 with three home runs and seven RBIs in nine games.

"I feel bad for him because I think it's pretty obvious he and Scott (Coolbaugh) had something really going on," Showalter said, referencing the Orioles' new hitting coach. "He was doing some things we hoped he would start doing this year and that's the last thing I told him. Have that mental picture and watch those at-bats, because the things he was doing the last four, five or six games, if Jon stays with that approach, he's going to be a force."

Showalter stressed that no surgery is needed at this point.

"No, it's a rehab," he said. "You want that area to start over. It's unfortunate. I feel bad for Jon, but we got as good of news compared to what we felt last night. Had some laxity in the joint. He had a locking, usually symptoms that there's an issue there. We were just hoping it wasn't the ACL."

Schoop was limping through the clubhouse this morning.

"I was tripping over first base. And then on the last play, I felt like my leg was burning. And then walking, I felt like I couldn't move my leg. I woke up stiff this morning," he said.

Schoop thought the injury was more serious.

"Yeah, because I finished the game," he said. "It was swollen a little bit, but I thought ice and treatment would make it better. And try to play. That wasn't it.

"It was on first base. When I stood up, I felt it a little bit. But I was able to finish the game. On the last play, I was running a little bit and I felt my legs burning. When I came in, it was swollen.

"It's really disappointing. You want to be there for the team, for myself. So far, I was having really good at-bats. It's really disappointing, but there's nothing I can do."

Schoop doesn't have a timeframe for his return.

"They told me just rehab," he said. "I will do my best to come back as soon as I possibly can and make sure everything is good, too."

The rehab in Sarasota takes him away from teammates, almost as painful as the injury.

"That's the thing. It's going to be difficult," he said. "I'll be away from teammates. Jonesy (Adam Jones), Manny (Machado), (Wayne) Kirby, we all have fun together. It's going to be tough, but I'm going to find a way to do it.

"Last year, I played healthy. This year, I was healthy, too, but yesterday I tripped. Things happen. I've just got to forget about it and try to get better. I'll try to go out there and rehab, go hard after it and get better.

"Right now it feels stiff, like I can't bend it. It doesn't feel like it hurts, like anything pinching it. But it's stiff. It's worse than I thought it was going to be."