Gavin Lux had a long road to recovery after tearing the ACL and LCL in his right knee during a 2023 Spring Training game against the San Diego Padres, but he is now back to playing shortstop for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After making his first two Cactus League appearances as the designated hitter, Lux returned to the position earlier this week. It was his first game action at shortstop in nearly a year.
Lux did not get any ground balls or line drives hit to him, but he was happy to clear the last hurdle in his rehab, via SportsNet LA:
“I didn’t get any action, sadly, but just getting off the ball, trying to read swings, all that, like, change direction. Everything felt good. And that’s kind of the last box that I needed to check off. So just getting past all the boring rehab stuff and actually just going out and playing baseball. It’s been like therapeutic, honestly. So it was fun to get back out there and play some defense.”
Lux said his goal is to play every game at shortstop this season and quipped that he may have to annoy Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to stay in the lineup:
“Hopefully Doc runs me out at shortstop as much as I physically can. The whole goal is to try to play every day and be like Freddie out there. Be a pain in the you know what to take out of the lineup, so my whole goal is to try to play as much as I possibly can.”
Lux is on track to be the Dodgers’ starting shortstop for the first time in his career, which was the goal last year before he sustained his season-ending knee injury.
The 26-year-old has gotten off to a good start offensively this spring, reaching base four times in his first nine plate appearances.
Gavin Lux’s knee feeling healthy ‘95% of the days’
While Lux has been fully cleared medically, he recently admitted there are still some days when his knee doesn’t feel quite right. “There’s still some days where it might feel more sore than others, but I would say like 95% of the days, it feels pretty good,” Lux said.
“Just talking to Manny (Machado), we talked about he’s had a couple knee surgeries and it kind of takes a full year for it to feel fully normal, where you don’t think about it at all.
“So yeah, I think it’s at about 95% of the days where it feels pretty dang good.”
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