One of the multiple reasons the Los Angeles Dodgers coveted Tommy Edman well before acquiring as part of a three-team trade last season was the versatility he brings.
While that was on display during the Dodgers’ run to winning the 2024 World Series, Edman has been much more limited this season because of lingering right ankle trouble.
“I think it’s definitely getting better. It didn’t feel great at the end of the year, but having a couple days off in Seattle definitely helped it recover,” Edman said before Game 4 of the National League Division Series. “It’s definitely at a point where it’s manageable now.”
He’s been in the lineup for five of the Dodgers’ six playoff games thus far, and not just because of the circumstances.
“Yeah, I’d still be playing,” Edman said if it were still the regular season with nothing at stake. “It’s at a point where it feels like a normal kind of somewhat sore ankle, but nothing that would keep me out from playing.”
All of Edman’s starts in the playoffs this year have come at second base. When the Dodgers put Edman on the injured list in August, he missed just over five weeks amid a deliberate approach to allow his sprained right ankle an opportunity to fully heal.
The hope was that would allow for Edman to begin playing center field more regularly as the Dodgers faced a need to improved production in left field, and shifting Andy Pages over was a potential solution.
But a setback while the Dodgers were playing at Chase Field during the final week of the season has again limited Edman.
“That’s kind of just a coaching decision, I guess,” Edman answered when asked about the viability of playing center field during the postseason. “But I haven’t really taken any reps out there yet. But maybe as we get farther on in the postseason, as the ankle starts to feel better, I’ll maybe try to get out there.
“But at least for now, probably not.”
Fortunately for Edman, he now has three days off before the Dodger start the NL Championship Series.
Tommy Edman didn’t aggravate ankle on Bryce Harper play
The 30-year-old certainly didn’t appear inhibited by any ankle issue when he greeted Ranger Suárez with a home run to lead off the bottom of the third inning, but there was an injury scare to follow.
When Edman grounded out in the seventh inning of Game 3, he quickly needed to shift to avoid a collision with Bryce Harper, who came off the bag to field a wide throw. Edman limped back to the dugout but remained in the game and later hit an RBI single.
“I just got hit in the stomach, so kind of got the wind knocked out of me a little bit,” he explained. “Just a collision that was just unavoidable. But no, nothing happened with the ankle there.”
Harper was apologetic over the sequence, which further raised concerns Edman re-aggravated his ankle.
“Just, ‘My bad, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you that hard,'” Edman relayed was Harper’s message. “I told him I’d truck him next time — joking obviously.”
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