Dodgers: Justin Turner MRI Reveals Mild Ankle Sprain
Dodgers star third baseman Justin Turner underwent an MRI on Thursday morning and it revealed a mild ankle sprain, according to Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group.
MRI on Justin Turner’s ankle confirmed mild sprain. Day to day. #Dodgers
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) September 12, 2019
The news quite frankly could not have been any better for Turner. He is a veteran at 34 years old so it is always a good thing to exercise caution with him as the Dodgers did.
Turner is an enormous part of the Dodgers offensive attack, posting a stellar .291/.370/.514 slash line across 131 games. The 131 game mark represents the most games played by Turner in a season since 2016 when he played in 151 contests and also the second-most games played for him. At 34, he is not slowing down much.
Turner had been held out of the lineup for four consecutive games prior to this announcement and it was starting to have an ominous aura about the situation. We can all breathe a sigh of relief now that we have confirmation that it is just a mild ankle sprain that he is dealing with and nothing more.
The 34-year-old third baseman figures to be back in the Dodgers lineup soon, but as previously mentioned, it would thoroughly behoove the Dodgers to continue to exercise caution with him.
According to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, Turner has not been ruled out of the weekend series with the New York Mets:
Dave Roberts said an MRI exam revealed a mild ankle sprain for Justin Turner. He hasn’t ruled Turner out of this weekend’s series in New York but his status is TBD.
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) September 12, 2019
All in all, this is better news than most were expecting considering the lack of news regarding Turner this week.
Dave Roberts should just shut down Justin Turner for the rest of the regular season, get him fully healthy for the playoffs. The team needs him in this year’s playoffs more than ever. He’s the only hitter on the team that can work the pitching count – which is vital against teams like the Braves pitchers, when the Dodgers had already shown they couldn’t hit againt Soroka and Fried. Most people forget during the 2017 playoffs, Justin Turner was playing the best baseball of his career, but he got hurt in the World Series was never the same. He’s already 34 there is no need to push his health to squeeze out a couple more wins in the regular season.