Seager likely to miss one to two weeks
PHOENIX — Corey Seager might be a rookie, but he also might be the position player the Dodgers can least afford to lose.
On Saturday, they lost him, at least for a chunk of the Cactus League schedule. Seager will sit out one to two weeks because of a sprained left knee.
The season opens in three weeks, and Manager Dave Roberts said that Seager might not be ready for the opener. “That’s pushing it,” Roberts said. “It’s not ideal.”
Seager, a shortstop ranked as the top prospect in baseball, suffered the injury while running the bases Friday.
The Dodgers exhaled Saturday after an MRI examination revealed no tears in the knee.
Roberts did not dispute the notion that the Dodgers did not have much depth at shortstop beyond Seager. “That’s fair,” Roberts said. For now, Enrique Hernandez will be the primary shortstop. Hernandez is a utility man who has played more major league games at second base, left field and center field than shortstop.
The backup is Charlie Culberson, signed as a minor league free agent last winter. Culberson, 26, a former f irst- round pick of the San Francisco Giants, has played 23 of his 146 major league games at shortstop.
Culberson has not played 50 games at shortstop in any professional season since 2008. Hernandez never has.
“I feel good about our depth relative to the industry,” said Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations. “It’s a tough position to have three or four lines of defense. Almost every team is vulnerable if their starting shortstop gets hurt.”
The Dodgers have used their player payroll — the highest in the game — to amass significant depth at pitcher, second base, third base and the outfield.
“There’s a dearth of really good, quality shortstops,” Friedman said, “It’s the same with catcher and center field.”
Would the Dodgers have to pursue a trade for a shortstop if Seager were to have to miss a considerable chunk of the regular season?
“We don’t have to answer that question,” Friedman said. “We’re in a good position with Corey right now.”
Nonstarting f ive
The Dodgers scratched lefthander Alex Wood from his scheduled start Saturday because of what the team called tightness in his left forearm.
The injury gives the Dodgers a complete rotation of ailing starting pitchers. The other four — Brett Anderson ( back surgery), Brandon McCarthy ( elbow surgery), Hyun- Jin Ryu ( shoulder surgery) and Frankie Montas ( rib resection surgery) — will start the season on the disabled list.
Wood said he had what he called “extremely mild” soreness after throwing 50 pitches in his only previous spring start. The Dodgers did not consider the condition serious enough to send him for an MRI exam but scratched him anyway. Wood said he expects to make his next start.
“I would describe this as ‘ overly cautious,’ ” he said.
Forearm tightness can be a precursor to Tommy John surgery — a procedure Wood had in 2009 while playing at the University of Georgia.
“I’m not concerned,” he said. “If I was, I wouldn’t be planning on making my next start.”
If Wood were to undergo that surgery again, he would be unlikely to return until well into the 2017 season. The small track record of pitchers returning from two Tommy John surgeries is not encouraging.
Wood arrived in spring camp without a secure spot in the rotation, but the injury to Anderson and the slow rehabilitation of Ryu had anchored Wood as the Dodgers’ No. 4 starter.
The Dodgers’ rotation now includes Clayton Kershaw, Scott Kazmir and Kenta Maeda. If Wood were to be seriously injured, Mike Bolsinger, Brandon Beachy, Zach Lee and Carlos Frias would compete for the f inal two spots.
The Dodgers also could consider using a young player — most likely Julio Urias or Jose De Leon — for a few starts early in the season, then returning the player to the minor leagues and limiting his innings there.