After the Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated from the postseason the road to recovery began to for some players.
Included in the group was third baseman Justin Turner, who underwent left knee surgery on Oct. 21. Initially planned for arthroscopic surgery that would clean up loose bodies, Turner also had microfracture surgery on the troublesome knee.
Both procedures were a result of Turner fouling a pitch off his knee in June, which led to lingering soreness.
The Dodgers announced after the operation the 31 year old would fully recover in time for Spring Training.
Position players are expected in camp by Feb. 24, with the first full-squad workout scheduled for the following day.
According to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, Turner said he remains on track in his recovery:
“Right now I’m right on schedule,” said Turner, who had microfracture left knee surgery on Oct. 21. “I don’t think it should be a problem in Spring Training as long as I have no setbacks, and so far I’ve had no setbacks. So knock on wood, I’ll be ready when everybody else is.”
Turner was able to ditch the crutches last week and is building up toward testing the knee with running:
“It feels great,” he said at Friday’s annual children’s holiday party. “I got off crutches beginning this week, started strengthening stuff, doing cardio stuff as low impact as I could. I saw ElAttrache and he was pretty pleased with how it looked. … Running will be the last thing I start doing, running outside full speed, and even when I do get cleared, I’ll keep as low impact, as far as conditioning-wise.”
Despite coming off surgery, the Dodgers’ trust in Turner hasn’t waned as the club passed on the opportunity to trade for All-Star third baseman Todd Frazier. The Cincinnati Reds instead shipped Frazier to the Chicago White Sox in a three-team trade that also included the Dodgers.
Turner .294/.370/.491 with 16 home runs, 26 doubles, 60 RBIs, and a .371 wOBA and 141 wRC+ in a career-high 126 games. He was one of six players tendered a contract by the Dodgers earlier this month.
