The Los Angeles Dodgers managed to get through Friday night’s game against the San Francisco Giants without needing to scratch a player from the lineup, which has been a trend this spring. Puig was removed after three innings, however the reasoning was due to the Dodgers playing day-night split-squad games on Saturday.
Puig is coming off a season in which multiple hamstring injuries forced him to spend a considerable amount of time on the disabled list. He appeared in a career-worst 69 games and batted .255/.322/.436 with 11 home runs, 38 RBIs, .328 wOBA and 111 wRC+, and was largely a non-factor.
Dodgers president of baseball operations instructed the dynamic outfielder to lose weight during the offseason with the hope it would free Puig of nagging hamstring issues.
As other Dodgers have fallen victim to the injury bug over recent weeks, Puig managed to remain healthy. The only time he missed — one day — was at the outset of camp and due to lingering effects of having his wisdom teeth removed.
However, Puig’s luck ran out a bit on Saturday as hamstring tightness resulted in hime being scratched from the lineup in the Dodgers’ afternoon affair against the Seattle Mariners, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
Puig tight hamstring scratched today.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) March 26, 2016
The tightness isn’t believed to be serious, however the Dodgers and Puig experienced first hand last season how tricky hamstring issues can be. The 25-year-old outfielder is batting .344/.351/.563 with one home run, four doubles, six RBIs, five strikeouts and two walks in 34 plate appearances over 13 games.
Other Dodgers currently dealing with minor injury include Yasmani Grandal (forearm soreness), Howie Kendrick (left calf tightness) and Corey Seager (left knee sprain). Seager is working his way toward a return, Kendrick is expected to miss the next couple of days, and Grandal appears to be a question mark for Opening Day.
