The Los Angeles Dodgers offseason officially comes to a close on Friday as they open up Cactus League play against the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch.
As is always the case during Spring Training, the Dodgers have had a few minor nagging injuries to deal with, with Austin Barnes’ elbow issue being the most recent.
Seeing is that it is so early in the spring, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is being extra cautious with Barnes and the other players that are dealing with minor injuries.
Another injury appeared to have popped up Friday morning as right fielder Yasiel Puig was scratched from the lineup with hip soreness, although like Barnes’ it is not believed to be too serious, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
Puig has hip soreness, was scratched from lineup. Roberts said he will play tomorrow. Believed shoe related.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) February 23, 2018
Puig is coming off the best season of his career in which he posted career highs in home runs (28) and RBIs (74) while batting .263/.346/.487 in 152 games. He also demonstrated a tremendous amount of maturity both on and off the field.
Unlike last spring when Puig was trying to win a starting job, he is the unquestioned starting right fielder this spring so he can afford to be more cautious with nagging injuries as he just needs to be ready by Opening Day.
Trayce Thompson will get the start in right field in Puig’s place against his former team. This spring will be a big one for Thompson as he is out of Minor League options but the Dodgers have a plethora of outfielders in the mix to win just a few Major League jobs.
So it will be interesting to see if Thompson forces the Dodgers hand by returning to his 2016 pre-injury form and has a big spring.
