Dodgers Analyst Believes Justin Turner’s Groin Injury Will Land Him on the IL
Another week, another injury to a Dodgers star. Third baseman Justin Turner injured his groin on Sunday after fielding a grounder in foul territory. Turner was limping in the dugout after the inning. Manager Dave Roberts pulled him and had this to say after the game about Turner’s status:
“Right now, it’s day-to-day…I don’t want to put a timetable on it, but he’ll be down for a few games and we’ll reevaluate then.”
Hairston Weighs in on the Turner Injury
SportsNet LA analyst and 16-year MLB veteran Jerry Hairston Jr. was not as optimistic about Turner’s injury.
“It depends on the player. I would say he would be [going on the IL] because I rather be safe than sorry with that type of injury. Anytime you can’t move around with your groin, with your hamstring, or the calf…you’re playing a premium position like at third base where you’re using all of your fast twitch muscles.”
Turner is slashing .289/.376/.491 this season and has the second best wRC+ (138) amongst third baseman. Losing Turner for a few games, if not longer, will be a tough pill to swallow for the Dodgers.
Hairston Jr. continued his point by stating that caution is the best course of action for handling this injury.
“This is not April where you could sit back, four, five, six days and let it go. We can’t have Justin Turner miss a month or six weeks if he re-injures it. Hopefully it’s not serious, but if it is, they need to be very cautious.”
Utility-man Chris Taylor might be the first choice to temporarily take over the hot corner while Turner nurses his injury. Taylor, a 2021 All-Star, says he feels comfortable at third and did get some reps in at spring training at the position.
The Dodgers will need to keep the boat afloat without Taylor during their East Coast road trip.
Dodgers: Alex Vesia Quickly Becoming a High Leverage Reliever for LA
SF lost their third baseman for how long?
As I said before, even the best teams in the league can’t continue to survive this amount of significant injuries all year long. Its been one injury after another and while a team can’t use injuries for an excuse for poor play and inconsistency, for the Dodgers it’s now become a reason to some extent. I agree that waiting around for a few days is WRONG. playing short on the roster like Roberts doesn’t seem to mind is not the way to run things. Hairston is correct and JT needs to go on IL so Dodgers can bring someone in to help fill in.
Now that they traded Ruiz, expecting any day now for Smith to get injured, the only starter left on the team who hasn’t been inured this season.
I realize that current minor league options are not ideal, for example Neuse, it’s better than cutting the roster short, especially in late inning tie games or extra innings. And for Dodgers, extra innings equals an automatic loss anyway.
This 2021 Dodger team has been put together with band aids all year. It’s time for the Dodgers to put a chemistry on the field and make this work even if it means guys like Kersh, JT are on the bench come playoffs. Bauer was a clog in the drain and they figured it out by getting Scherzer they all need to step up earn their Millions and make this happen !
We have the players already to cover. Pujols can play 1st against lefties with Max at third. Against righties Muncy to first and Taylor to third. Or Muncy stays at third and Bellinger to first. Taylor as usual plugs in where needed. We still have an All Star at every position. (infield and outfield) The problem would be no good bat off the bench. And Mookie needs set down in lopsided games. And will need a game rest here and there. So we hope for the best with Justin, and our other players need to be more deliberate.
Baseball ranks 7th out of 10 in regard to professional sports injuries. As an essentially “non-contact” sport, it’s amazing how many position players injure themselves running and fielding. Especially surprising given the fact most of them are pretty young individuals and get constant physical training and exercises to minimize injuries. Maybe I am lucky, and not bragging or comparing myself to pros, but I played (2nd, 3rd, outfield) more than 20 years in various baseball leagues until I was 44, with many weeks of 5 day schedules; all that time and I had only one injury – a pinky fingernail torn off when I misplayed a grounder to third.
As a friend of mine likes to say, “Baseball players are fragile.”
These next 2 series on the East against playoff contenders could be a very critical point in the season. As the Dodgers are currently 4 games behind the Giants and the Giants are playing weaklings Dbacks and the Rockies. The Dodgers must play their best baseball w/ whoever they put out there and win the series w/ the Phillies and Mets, and stay on pace w the Giants. Anything less the Dodgers will fall even further behind the Giants and be harder to catch. This is one stretch of this season they must play flawless baseball and get a winning streak going.
And Roberts MUST put the best lineup out there in each game and avoid playing favorites with certain players.
I’m sorry to think this but I just don’t think that Roberts is the right manager to deal with a lineup that unfortunately is plagued by injuries on a daily basis so it seems. Half of the players acquired by Friedman were injured to begin with especially their relievers. Roberts has always had the habit of changing lineup cards when players were not injured, while the Dodgers were on a winning streak, seemingly every game. For each season he has been at the helm. Roberts obviously never played a game of chess either. This season will come down to 1 wildcard game and hopefully not against the Padres although with Bueller starting and Scherzer coming in to relieve if necessary, they will most likely win. The next problems will come in round 2. Fingers crossed that the 2 of them will stay healthy up until this time. All the games that the pen lost will definitely come back to haunt them especially if Jansen is still the ‘closer’, which he sure is not capable of doing w/o giving the rest of the team and the entire Dodger Nation anxiety attacks in the process.
What a bunch of babies. Right when are going down the stretch. It doesn’t look like they can’t go down to the wire without getting a boo boo. The players as it seems just quit, I wonder how we can stop the pain. You guy have a well paid gravy job. A game that’s it
Vesia has come a long way…I hope he stays that way.The same for Bickford!