The Los Angeles Dodgers have quickly found out this season the luxury that comes with having plenty of depth on their roster. Injuries across the board have left first-year manager Dave Roberts with a depleted group, far from the original group he inherited.
In Saturday’s game against the San Francisco Giants, Scott Van Slyke became the latest to fall victim to an injury. After taking a big swing and miss, he grimaced before regathering himself to continue with the at-bat.
On the next pitch, Van Slyke was hit by Madison Bumgarner. As he walked down the first base line, Roberts emerged from the bench with the training staff and removed Van Slyke from the game.
The 29 year old recently emerged as the stand-in starter in left field. Andre Ethier’s broken tibia has him on the 60-day disabled list, while Carl Crawford was recently placed on the 15-day DL with lower back soreness.
After being given a full day off, Roberts said that Van Slyke made enough progress so that a stint on the DL should be avoided, via Bill Plunkett of the OC Register:
“He’s feeling considerably better than yesterday,” Roberts said. “You talk to the player and you wonder if it’s going to be a couple, two- three-day thing or is it going to be a week thing. At that point, I got complete assurance that with the progress that he made over the night and with the next couple days there’s no need for a DL move.”
With Van Slyke out, Trayce Thompson received the start in left field in Sunday’s series finale. Although Van Slyke feels confident he can return soon, back injuries are ones that can linger and be easily aggravated.
Crawford originally believed his lower back soreness would subside with some time off, only to land on the DL the following day. Van Slyke resides as an instrumental piece in the offense, as his ability to hit southpaw pitching proves to be an advantage off the bench and in spot starts.
After not playing on Sunday, Van Slyke was able to again rest his back for a full day with the Dodgers not playing until Tuesday in their home opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
