Every Spring Training has different storylines for fans to keep an eye on, and one big one for the Los Angeles Dodgers this year will be the health of Corey Seager. He was limited to 26 games during the 2018 season after being forced to undergo Tommy John and subsequent hip surgery.
Seager has progressed well in his rehab and the stance he and the team have taken since the beginning of the offseason is that he is on track to be ready for Opening Day. While that may be true, Seager may not necessarily play in many Cactus League games this spring.
Particularly early on, as he’s expected to receive plenty of time playing in ‘B’ games on the backfields at Camelback Ranch.
Dodgers pitchers and catchers reported for Spring Training this week, and manager Dave Roberts discussed Seager’s situation, explaining that he is more concerned with him logging defensive innings as opposed to at the plate, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“We’re going to have to create some situations and see how many defensive innings he can log because arguably that’s going to be harder than the at-bats,” Roberts said.
Seager being ready to play shortstop defensively is a valid concern for Roberts considering he is coming off major surgeries. It has been roughly 10 months since he had the Tommy John though, which is right around the necessary recovery time for a non-pitcher.
If Seager winds up not being ready by the start of the season, then Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernandez would be the primary candidates to replace him at shortstop, as was the case when he went down a year ago.
Seager starting the season on the disabled list would not at all be surprising as making sure their 24-year-old star is 100 percent healthy will be the organization’s primary concern.
