Dahl goes on 45- day injured list; Oberg has surgery for blood clots

It’s probably safe to say that no Rockies player wants to bid 2020 goodbye more than outfielder David Dahl.

Coming off an all- star season in 2019, hopes were high that Dahl would become a force in Colorado’s lineup, but a left shoulder injury that has bothered him since January finally landed him on the 45- day injured list Wednesday, ending his season with six games to go.

Dahl said that because he’s spent so much of his career being injured, he decided not to report the injury when he began throwing in January.

“I figured that I’d been on the ( IL) a lot, and I needed to figure this thing out on my own and push through this,” Dahl said.

But that plan backfired and now Dahl, who said he feels a sharp pain in his shoulder, especially when he throws, is scheduled to meet with Dr. Jeffery Dugas, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist in Birmingham, Ala. on Monday. Tests will be performed to see what’s causing Dahl’s shoulder pain.

To fill Dahl’s spot on the roster, the Rockies selected the contract of right- handed pitcher Tommy Doyle from their alternate training site.

Dahl, 26, has been plagued by injuries and has never been able to play a full big- league season to showcase his considerable talents.

“I’m really frustrated. Obviously, stuff keeps happening,” he said. “I feel like I put the work in and I work hard. Hopefully, good things will happen eventually. You’ve just got to keep going and get through it.

“Because I know can be a good player. I know I’ve had success while I’ve been up here. It’s a matter of availability and being out there on the field. But I’ve got to really sit down the offseason and kind of figure out what I need to do as far as figuring out my body.”

Dahl appeared in a career- high 100 games last season, hitting .302 with 16 home runs and 61 RBIs but a high- ankle sprain ended his season on Aug. 3. Dahl was excited about 2020 but said that he believes the shoulder pain might have led to two bouts with oblique soreness, one that kept him out of action during summer camp and one that landed him on the injured list on Aug. 19.

“I think with the way my shoulder was feeling I was starting to compensate for it,” he said. “And I started getting some oblique issues.”

When Dahl went on the IL, he told the team about his shoulder injury and he received a cortisone shot, that Dahl said, “didn’t really work.”

“So I just kept trying to play through it, with the playoff push,” he said. “I was really, really trying. But you know, at the end of the day, I was really hurting. I was ( stinking) and I was hurting the team more than helping when I was out there.”

Dahl played in 24 games but had just 99 plate appearances. He hit .183 ( 17- for- 93) with no home runs, two doubles and two triples.

“This has been an unsettling year for David, with the shutdown in March and then the re- start,” manager Bud Black said. “I think so many players were putting initial pressure on themselves to produce numbers, knowing that it was shortened season.”

Dahl’s injury history is, unfortunately, a big part of his resume. He missed the entire 2017 season with a stress reaction in a rib that also created a back issue. In 2018

— before his nine home runs and 27 RBIs in September helped propel Colorado to the postseason — he fractured his right foot when he fouled a pitch off it on May 30 and didn’t return to play until Aug. 5.

The injury bug bit Dahl in the minors, too. He missed most of his 2013 season in Class A with a hamstring injury and had to have his spleen removed in 2015 after he collided with a teammate while chasing a flyball during a DoubleA game.

“It’s just been kind of freaky things, just kind of bad luck,” Dahl said. “I’ve just got to figure this part of it out. Next year, I’ll be 27. You’ve got to be available to play.”

oberg undergoes surgery. Black also announced that right- handed reliever Scott Oberg underwent surgery on Wednesday for thoracic outlet syndrome in hopes of preventing blood clots in his right arm that have shut down his season three times in the last four years. Black said he hopes that Oberg will be able to participate in spring training in 2021.