Posted on June 12, 2019, by Bryan Zarpentine
Amidst their dominance so far this season, the Los Angeles Dodgers are about to face a little bit of adversity. Shortstop Corey Seager will likely be sidelined for an extended period of time after suffering a hamstring injury during Tuesday’s loss to the Angels. The Dodgers don’t have a timeline on the injury, but they are projecting at least two weeks and as much as four to six weeks.
Seager pulled up lame while rounding 3rd base in the 9th inning. He will undergo an MRI on Wednesday, but the Dodgers believe it to be a Grade 2 strain to Seager’s left hamstring. The club will likely put Seager on the 10-day Injured List prior to their next game on Thursday and hope for a speedy recovery.
“I hesitate to put a number on it, but 2-plus,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts commented on how many weeks of action Seager would miss. “Obviously, very unfortunate, the way that he’s playing and what he means to our ballclub. With what he’s done to overcome two surgeries and get into good playing shape. He’ll get back on the rehab trail and we’ll get him back as soon as we can.”
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The timing of the injury is unfortunate for Seager. He missed most of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery but managed to make it back for opening day this season. Naturally, he got off to a sluggish start offensively but was starting to come around lately. Since the calendar flipped to June, Seager is hitting .425 with an OPS of 1.140. He was once again becoming an important part of a deep and potent Los Angeles lineup.
After Tuesday’s game, Seager said he had no inclination that he was at risk for a muscle injury. He told reports it “came out of nowhere. However, Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner actually blamed Seager’s injury on his recent success at the plate.
“He was swinging the bat well,” Turner explained. “That’s probably part of it — he was swinging the bat so well he was on the bases three, four times a game. Doubles, first-to-thirds. When you have that kind of volume, and you get hot weather like this, it’s almost a recipe for something to come up. Unfortunately, it hit him.”
With Seager sidelined for the foreseeable future, the Dodgers will look to Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez to fill in at shortstop. Taylor is likely to get most of the playing time, as he has more experience at shortstop. However, he hasn’t produced much offensively, hitting .218 with an OPS of .674. Of course, Hernandez hasn’t been much better, hitting just .215 with an identical OPS. Needless to say, the Dodgers should expect a drop-off in the productivity they get out of the shortstop position.
Last year, the Dodgers made a midseason trade for Manny Machado to replace Seager at shortstop. But that’s unlikely to be the case this season. Even if it takes longer than expected for Seager to recover, he should be back sometime in July. On paper, the Dodgers should have enough depth to survive without him. However, given his recent performance, Seager’s absence will be noticeable as they try to maintain their sizable lead atop the NL West.