The Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed back Brock Stewart ahead of their series opener against the Minnesota Twins on Monday after he missed the previous six weeks while dealing with a bone spur in his left foot.
Stewart began to feel discomfort in the foot after covering first base in just his second appearance of the year on May 8. Stewart’s 2026 season had already been delayed because of his recovery from right shoulder surgery last September.
Stewart completed a brief rehab assignment with Single-A Ontario this time around that consisted of only four appearances. That was due to the Dodgers being more focused on the health of his left foot than the need for a full buildup.
“It feels a lot better and everything around it is much stronger,” Stewart said on SportsNet LA. “It’s related to a major surgery that I had in 2012. I had Lisfranc repair, and the Lisfranc ligament basically holds all your mid-foot bones together. So that kind of flared up, and there’s bone spurs in there, some arthritic cartilage. It just flared up.
“Everything has calmed down, inflammation is down, got everything around it much stronger and we’re back. It sucks every time I have to go on the IL. It never gets any easier, never gets less frustrating. But all I can control is the work I put in every day, and I’m damn proud of that.
“So that’s my mindset. Come to the park, put the work in and put yourself in a good position to help out. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to help out much this year, but there’s a lot of season left so hopefully I’ll be able to help out a lot more.”
The Dodgers hoped that Stewart would only miss three weeks, but his foot initially did not respond to the treatment and rest. The 34-year-old finally began to see some progress and has implemented some changes to his routine to avoid a potential setback in the future.
“Just get everything around it a lot stronger,” Stewart said. “Foot grip strength, my toes, everything in the ankle is much stronger, get some more range of motion in dorsiflexion. Just a bunch of big words that I’m not really totally familiar with.
“Just work on everything around it and treat the area where the pain was with manual therapy and all sorts of stuff. Some anti-inflammatories and stuff like that. Just really get everything around it stronger, more range of motion. Once I did that, everything started to feel a lot better. I’m in a pretty good spot right now and ready to go.”
Dodgers bullpen with Brock Stewart
When Stewart is healthy, the Dodgers view him as one of their options to rely on in high-leverage situations. In his six appearances since last season’s trade with the Twins, he’s allowed two runs and struck out six batters over 5.2 innings.
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