Carlos Santana missed Monday afternoon's game in Chicago with what was described at the time as an "illness," but he may actually have suffered a concussion Sunday afternoon, when he took a foul tip of his catcher's mask.
Santana was sent back to the team hotel and will be evaluated further on Tuesday. Concussions are no joke, and MLB rightfully takes them seriously. There is a special 7-day DL for concussions, and so Santana could end up placed on that for the rest of the week, depending on the results of whatever exams are run tomorrow. Santana previously missed time with a concussion in 2012.
If Santana is placed on the DL, George Kottaras is the most likely candidate to come up to fill in as backup catcher. That would be sort of a shame, because Kottaras hit two home runs in his only previous game with the team, so being brought back up would put his standing as one of the team's greatest one-game wonders in serious jeopardy.
If Santana is out, there will be a moronic portion of the fan base that is happy about it. In addition to it just being generally poor form to be happy about someone suffering a brain injury, Santana was the team's best hitter in 2013, and while his batting average is way down right now, his walk rate remains elite, giving him an above-average OBP, despite everything else.
He was also the team's top performer in the 4-game weekend series against Baltimore, going 4 for 12 with two doubles and a home run, and also drawing six walks and being hit by a pitch, giving him a line of .333/.579/.750, making this feel like especially bad timing. It would be a shame to lose him for a week, and to have to worry about linger effects, Hopefully it turns out he's okay, and he doesn't miss more than another game.