Mookie Betts hasn’t performed since struggling a bone bruise on his left foot on Thursday, although the famous person might be again in motion as early as Monday when the Dodgers open a collection towards the Padres. Within the wake of the preliminary harm, the Dodgers put Betts via a battery of assessments to make sure that his foot hadn’t incurred extra critical harm, and Invoice Plunkett of the Orange County Register writes that Betts was strolling usually across the L.A. clubhouse yesterday.
The membership is of course being as cautious as attainable with the MVP candidate, as it’s laborious to think about Los Angeles making a critical postseason run with out Betts wreaking havoc within the lineup. The league chief in fWAR (7.9), Betts is hitting .314/.411/.609 with 38 homers over 610 plate appearances, and his capacity to play second base and shortstop has been essential for a Dodgers group that has been beset by middle-infield accidents since Spring Coaching. Fortuitously, it appears like Betts will have the ability to resume his dream season briefly order, with a watch in the direction of then serving to the Dodgers seize one other World Sequence championship.
Extra from across the NL West…
- The Diamondbacks had a pair of harm scares in yesterday’s 3-2 win over the Cubs, as Ketel Marte fouled a ball off his proper knee and Jordan Lawlar was hit in the proper hand with a pitch. Marte’s knock occurred within the first inning and he remained within the sport till the seventh, with postgame x-rays coming again destructive. Supervisor Torey Lovullo informed reporters (together with Theo Mackie of the Arizona Republic) that Marte may not miss any time so long as his knee didn’t have continued soreness in a single day. Lawlar’s HBP occurred within the tenth inning, so an replace on his standing received’t come till Lovullo meets with the media at this time.
- A mid-back pressure has saved Ross Stripling from any MLB motion since August 16, however the Giants right-hander informed Evan Webeck of the Bay Space Information Group that he’s wholesome and able to return from the injured listing. Nonetheless, Stripling feels “in limbo” and like he’s on the “phantom IL” because of a roster crunch, in accordance with his conversations with president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and supervisor Gabe Kapler. “It’s unhealthy luck of the timing that I’m wholesome and Farhan likes the roster that he has. And I’m simply sitting right here wholesome with nowhere to go,” Stripling stated. Juggling quite a few arms on the pitching workers, San Francisco has used an opener-heavy technique for the final couple of months, maybe leaving Stripling and not using a clear position with everybody wholesome. Kapler stated the Giants “even have a fairly good plan in place to have [Stripling] again on the roster sooner fairly than later,” however didn’t give any specifics a few timeline. It might be that the group merely prefers its different pitching choices, as Stripling has a 5.29 ERA over 78 1/3 innings whereas battling again issues for a lot of the season.
- The Padres are “considered as a powerful candidate to signal” Jung Hoo Lee this winter, The Athletic’s Dennis Lin writes. Lee has been posting wonderful numbers over seven seasons within the KBO League, and solely simply turned 25 years previous final month. The outfielder’s 2023 season was prematurely ended because of ankle surgical procedure, however Lee remains to be anticipated to be posted to MLB groups by the Kiwoom Heroes, his KBO membership. The Padres have historically been aggressive on the worldwide market, and so they might need an additional recruiting benefit since Ha-Seong Kim is a detailed good friend of Lee’s and a former teammate with the Heroes.
