Indians' Francona fears Napoli's playing career over after knee injury

Former All-Star slugger Mike Napoli, who's currently playing for the Triple-A Columbus Clippers, suffered a "significant knee injury" during Tuesday's game against Pawtucket, Cleveland Indians skipper Terry Francona told reporters Wednesday, according to Zack Meisel of The Athletic.

Napoli suffered the injury just two pitches into Columbus' game when he tripped over part of the on-field bullpen at Huntington Park while trying to catch a foul pop-up, according to Mark Znidar of the Columbus Dispatch. He had to be carted off the field.

"Right out the gate like that, it didn't look great," Clippers manager Chris Tremie told Znidar. "We'll see how it is. Hopefully it looks better than what it looked like."

Although specifics of the injury Napoli suffered have yet to be confirmed by the team, Francona did not sound optimistic when discussing what happened.

"Who knows, maybe this now starts him on a second journey in his career," Francona said, per Maisel. "I'm not speaking for him. That's not fair. But that's what I hope.

"He was an impact player. My guess is he'll impact the game doing something else now."

Napoli, a 12-year veteran of the major leagues, had rejoined the Indians organization on a minor-league contract in spring training with hopes of finding a big-league job. In eight games at Triple-A this season he's posted a .042/.258/.167 slash line with one homer and seven walks.

The 37-year-old appeared in 124 games for the Texas Rangers last year - his third stint with that team - and hit 24 home runs, but saw his slash line dip to .193/.285/.428 with only 11 doubles and a career-worst 82 OPS+. An All-Star with the Rangers in 2012, Napoli also helped the Boston Red Sox to a World Series championship in 2013 and hit 34 homers during Cleveland's pennant-winning season in 2016.