Injuries have been a major problem for the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2024 season, but the team’s group of position players have been far less affected than their pitching counterparts. However, there’s still plenty of significance with injured position players due to the quality of those lost.
Mookie Betts, Max Muncy and Jason Heyward are the only three position players for the Dodgers that have missed significant time this season due to injury.
That’s compared to Dodgers pitchers Ryan Brasier, Connor Brogdon, Walker Buehler, Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin, Brusdar Graterol, Michael Grove, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, Emmet Sheehan and Yoshinobu Yamamoto all being on the injured list.
The loss of Betts speaks for itself as he is a now eight-time All-Star and was having another excellent season. The presence of Muncy and his career .473 slugging percentage continue to be sorely missed from the Dodgers lineup. And despite Jason Heyward’s production being down from a year ago, he’s key for the outfield platoon.
Dodgers injuries
Jason Heyward
Heyward’s twice has been put on the 10-day injured list this season, with the most recent instance due to a left knee bone bruise that occurred on July 4 while trying to rob a home run. Heyward was actively rehabbing over the All-Star break and is expected back with the club soon.
“Jason is doing fine. He was out there for the lives, running around, throwing, did that over the break. So hopefully we’ll get him activated here in the next few days,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
It has been a welcome change from the lower back injury Heyward suffered in the begging of the season in which he encountered multiple setbacks that kept him inactive far longer than the team had projected.
Max Muncy
Of the three injured Dodgers position players, Muncy has been out the longest as he continues to deal with a stubborn right oblique injury.
He has been shut down from swinging multiple times, which has greatly exacerbated the problem and prevented Muncy’s return to the Dodgers lineup. He recently began some light hitting drills, but the situation is nowhere near being resolved.
“Muncy [Thursday] took two rounds of short toss. So that’s progress, but when that time to come back is, I don’t think anyone still knows that,” Roberts said.
Mookie Betts
Meanwhile, Betts’ recovery from a left hand fracture continues to yield positive results. Despite the severity of the injury, the recovery process has been extremely straightforward.
“Mookie looks good. Physically he looks good. I think he’s going to get another X-ray in the next day or two, just to kind of make sure that the bones are healing properly, which he’s done before,” Roberts said.
“Catching grounders, throwing across the diamond. Like I said, he looks good physically. He’s got to do this grip strength test, and once he gets to 85%, then he can swing the bat. So he’s going to do that (test), and we’ll know more after that.”
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