A virus infected the majority of the Los Angeles Dodgers clubhouse last week, resulting in many players and coaches being sent home for a stretch of days. Among the players affected were Cody Bellinger, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Corey Seager, to name a few.
For Ryu, the illness ultimately postponed his spring debut to Monday, where he logged 2.2 innings in a simulated environment against Minor Leaguers. The bug also prevented Seager from participating in baseball-related activities for nearly a week.
Before his diagnosis was determined, the 22-year-old initially thought he aggravated the back injury that forced him to miss the 2017 National League Championship Series, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“It was bad, really bad,” said Seager, who started the week with unrelated food poisoning. “It was couldn’t-move-for-two-days bad. My neck and back, it felt like I messed my back up again. That’s what I thought, ‘Oh my God, I messed myself up again.’ I was panicking, like, ‘There’s no way that was happening.’ When I found out what it was, it was a bit of relief, I’m not going to lie. That was just a lot of pain.”
Because of the virus, Seager has accumulated just 12 plate appearances in Cactus League play thus far. He was hitless and had three strikeouts in as many at-bats on Monday, still limited to serving as the designated hitter.
Overall this spring, Seager is 3-for-12 with one double, one RBI and four strikeouts. The stomach bug delayed the continuation of his throwing program and return to the field.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts estimated that Seager will only need 10 games at the position to prepare for Opening Day.
