Ten days after being medically cleared to return to game action, Francisco Cervelli was placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list Friday and Jacob Stallings was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis.
Cervelli missed three games last week after being struck by a foul ball on the left side of his jaw at Wrigley Field on June 9. However, he returned to start six of the Pirates' past eight games, including Thursday night.
Hurdle did not have the Pirates' lineup posted in the clubhouse Friday afternoon, and he declined to say whether or not there was a reason for the delay. Hurdle did reveal the team was continuing to monitor Cervelli, though.
"I think he's still trying to fight through some things and play," Hurdle said. "It's a long night behind the plate as well. Every day we just continue to talk to him and check with him."
Cervelli reported symptoms to the team's medical staff following the game Thursday night and was examined by an independent neurologist who recommended Cervelli rest for at least seven days.
Stallings was recalled from Indianapolis on June 10 in the event Cervelli required a stint on the disabled list or was unavailable off the bench, but he did not appear in a game and was sent back to Triple-A on Monday. Stallings, 28, was batting .289/.335/.396 with 25 RBIs in 42 games with the Indians. He arrived at PNC Park in time for first pitch against the Diamondbacks Friday night.
Cervelli was placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list twice last season. The first stint began on June 7 after he was hit in the mask by a foul ball at Baltimore, and he was placed on the disabled list again on June 22 with concussion-like symptoms. Todd Tomczyk, the Pirates' director of sports medicine, told reporters in Phoenix last Wednesday — Cervelli's first game back in the lineup — that the 32-year-old catcher was not placed in concussion protocol, although Cervelli went through a battery of tests to determine whether or not he could return to the field.
The Pirates put Cervelli through a series of workouts at Chase Field, and he was examined for post-concussion symptoms by physicians. Once his symptoms normalized, the team reported the results to the commissioner's office and the players association had to sign off on those results for him to return to the field.
Tomczyk said the official diagnosis was a jaw contusion, and Cervelli went 0 for 2 with two walks in his first game back. He's 3 for 15 since and had an RBI single in the 9-3 loss to the Diamondbacks Thursday night.
Cervelli entered Friday ranked first among major league catchers with a .390 on-base percentage. He ranked second with an .860 OPS and has a career-high nine home runs.
