Dodgers News: Dave Roberts Says Corey Seager Will Be ‘Ready’ For Opening Day

Recently, we wondered anxiously about Corey Seager being in the Dodgers’ Opening Day lineup. Now, there is positive and concrete news in regards to Seager. On Sunday, Dave Roberts expressed that Seager (along with Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw) will be ‘ready’ for Opening Day.

Ken Gurnick followed up his MLB.com story with a tweet in regards to Seager.

Corey Seager is progressing as well as expected and the club expects him to be ready for Opening Day.

— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) March 10, 2019

While it’s nice to hear the updates on Kershaw and Buehler working in a positive direction – there’s likely an easier pivot for an Opening Day starting pitcher than a shortstop. Furthermore, if Roberts says Seager will be ready; he’s probably going to be in the lineup.

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However, if he says one of the pitchers are going to be ready, they could still opt to push them back a start or two and let Hyun-Jin Ryu handle the date.

Roberts was quoted recently in the New York Post in regards to Seager’s overall timetable.

“For us, we are definitely on the conservative side,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said “Every player is different. But at shortstop there are a lot of different types of throws you have to make and different arm angles. We are playing the long game to make sure there are no setbacks.”

Andrew Friedman sounded positive in the same article.

”He is doing really well,” Friedman said. “He has passed every individual test we have given him as far as leaving his feet on ground balls and getting up and getting to his arm. Running the bases. Taking a lot of swings. So now it is about doing it in a game and bouncing back and doing it again. That is the point in the progression where we are at right now.”

Still, we must continue to take this as a positive. Every day that there is no relative setback in Seager’s recovery, he’s one step closer to returning to the field and resuming his act as one of the game’s best (and most valuable) players.

Analysis

Really, it’s not about how many plate appearances Corey Seager can log before March 28th arrives. One of our Dodgers Nation staff members and I had this discussion of recent. Simply, it’s about seeing Seager in game action; making plays and taking at-bat’s. During these appearances – does Seager look like he’s ready? That is the question that will need to be answered before the magical date we are all so excited for (and set upon). This could be the week that we start to fill in the unknown blank with an a little bit of an answer.