When Justin Turner suffered a fractured left wrist as a result of being hit by pitch, the Los Angeles Dodgers knew they’d begin the regular season without their All-Star third baseman but not much else.
At minimum, Turner figured to be sidelined for at least four weeks. He was informed by doctors the fracture could take up to 10 weeks to heal. However, Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi said the expectation was Turner would miss weeks and not months.
Like they did with Clayton Kershaw when he recovered from back injuries, the club declined to make any sort of timetable public. Turner recently began taking dry swings and quickly advanced from that to hitting off a tee.
Assuming all continues to go well, he could begin a rehab assignment within the week, per Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I think the next thing is when we can get him on the field for batting practice against a live arm,” Roberts said. “And if he comes out of that okay, I would say the progression should be quicker now that he’s swinging. Hopefully, he feels good tomorrow.
“I would hope sometime next week – end of the week – we could get him out on a rehab assignment. … I think if we could get him out some time next week that would be great.”
Should Turner begin his rehab assignment by Friday or so, it stands to reason he would be prepared to come off the 10-day disabled list by the the end of May. That would amount to roughly a nine-week recovery.
In Turner’s absence the Dodgers have called on Kyle Farmer, Logan Forsythe, Kiké Hernandez and Max Muncy at third base. However, Forsythe himself wound up on the DL earlier this month due to right shoulder inflammation.
Forsythe believes the unexpected need to move to third base led to the shoulder trouble because of making longer throws across the diamond. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts indicated Forsythe would also need to go on a rehab assignment prior to being activated off the disabled list.
