Injury issues have begun to build up for the Los Angeles Dodgers through their first week of Spring Training games, but so far most of them seem to be minor.
Gavin Lux has been the only player to suffer a major injury thus far when he tore the ACL and suffered a sprained LCL in his right knee.
Other minor injuries happened when Miguel Vargas sustained a hairline fracture in his right pinky earlier in camp, but he has continued playing and should soon begin swinging a bat in games. Daniel Hudson has also been dealing with ankle tendinitis that put the start of his season in jeopardy.
Tony Gonsolin became the latest Dodgers pitcher to suffer an ankle injury when he suffered a sprain while walking off the field during a workout at Camelback Ranch, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is not concerned, via via Doug Padilla of the Southern California News Group:
“It was just some random freak thing walking off the field during (pitchers’ fielding practice) so it wasn’t fielding a ground ball,” Roberts said. “Day to day, mild left-ankle sprain so we’ll see what happens.”
Gonsolin is going to miss his next start due to the injury, which was scheduled for Wednesday against the Seattle Mariners. However, the injury is unlikely to keep him out long term with a day to day timeline.
Justin Bruihl had to be removed from the game on Monday against the San Diego Padres. Bruihl left with Roberts and a trainer, but his back spasms also are not of much concern:
“Just a bad walk (and) a hit by pitch,” Roberts said of Bruihl’s time on the mound. “He just said his back went through a spasm or something but it was just back tightness.”
Bruihl was charged with two earned runs in the outing while recording no outs before Jake Reed was called on to finish off the game.
Dodgers roster depth an area of concern
Following the injury to Lux, the Dodgers were forced to shift their plans around. The primary change is Miguel Rojas is moving from a utility role to the starting shortstop, while Chris Taylor will see much more time in the infield, rather than primarily in the outfield.
“I think coming into camp, we felt really good about our position player group,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at Camelback Ranch.
“Felt like for the most part it was fairly well locked down with good depth behind it. And now we feel less good about it.”
Friedman added the Dodgers will look into acquisitions they could make and believes any of those would come from the trade route rather than the free agency, but he doesn’t necessarily expect anything to take place during Spring Training.
“We’ll definitely spend a lot more time talking about the various profiles that could fit,” Friedman said. “Because the more that fit, increase the chances of being able to figure something out. Spring Training typically isn’t the best time for those types of moves, but we’ll have conversations and see what is possible and what’s not.”
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