Quebec’s Charles Leblanc could hardly have hoped for better for his major league debut, but the infielder is going through his toughest first spell after failing to secure a spot in his last three games.
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The 26-year-old’s weak spell began in the second game of a double-header against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday when he bit the dust in three batting efforts. The Belle Province representative sat on the bench for the next two games before being shut out at the plate six times in the two subsequent games against the San Diego Padres.
These latest outages also come at a very bad time for Leblanc, while the Marlins are finding some of their infielders injured who have been absent for the past few weeks. This is the case, among others, of Jon Berti and Brian Anderson, who returned on August 12 to form the Florida club. Since then, the Quebecer has also been twice removed from his team’s practice and demoted while in uniform within the batsmen’s rotation.
Leblanc will need to find his feet quickly as the Marlins could find more regulars by late August or September, including outfielders Avisail Garcia and Jorge Soler, and second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Nonetheless, as a rookie, Leblanc shows more than adequate stats. In 15 games, he batted 51 times and hit the ball 17 times off the field, including a home run, for a .333 batting average. He also had a seven-game hit streak.