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NL home run leader Mark Trumbo diagnosed with stress fracture in left foot

NL home run leader Mark Trumbo diagnosed with stress fracture in left foot

Even as the Arizona Diamondbacks pulled out a much needed 7-5 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday afternoon — ruining the 100th birthday celebration at Wrigley Field and improving to 6-18 this season —  the negatives outweighed the positives. That's because the team learned immediately afterwards that slugger Mark Trumbo, who's tied with San Francisco's Brandon Belt for the NL lead in home runs with seven, has been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his left foot.

Trumbo had been out of Arizona's lineup on Tuesday and Wednesday with "foot soreness" as the team described it, but obviously the underlying problem is a potentially huge setback. The D-Backs will cross their fingers that a second opinion nets a more positive outlook, but assuming the initial diagnosis is confirmed an already downtrodden franchise searching for answers will only be faced with more questions, including how long Trumbo might be out.

From the Arizona Republic:

Just how long, neither the Diamondbacks nor Trumbo would say. But Trumbo said he had a stress fracture in his right foot at the end of the 2011 season. That injury took 5 ½ months to heal. This one, he said, isn't as bad.

"That was a pain," Trumbo said. "That one took a long time. But this one probably should be significantly less."

Trumbo, who was acquired from the Los Angeles Angels over the winter in a three-team trade also involving the Chicago White Sox, was brought over to replace some of the thump they lost after trading Justin Upton the previous winter. At that point, Arizona was looking to shift to more of a grind it out team, but the obvious lack of an impact bat besides MVP contender Paul Goldschmidt was a detriment to their offense in 2013.

Trumbo was definitely giving them the production they hoped for early. Despite a .210 average, he connected for the seven home runs and also drove in 19 runs in 21 games, which is second to Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins. Now they'll have to replace that production, which won't be easy, in addition to sorting out a starting rotation that lost scheduled opening day starter Patrick Corbin one week before the season and has produced an MLB worst three quality starts.

It's an unenviable situation for general manager Kevin Towers and manager Kirk Gibson, not only to find pieces to plug in, but to keep the team's mindset on point in what is already looking like a lost season.

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Mark Townsend

is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!