Dodgers Spring Training: Crawford, McCarthy To Play On Back Fields
The Los Angeles Dodgers are playing their 23rd Cactus League of the year Monday and are in line for their first day off Tuesday.
It’s been a rough couple of days for the Dodgers as multiple pitchers are dealing with injury. Most notably, Hyun-Jin Ryu, who is getting his left shoulder evaluated in Los Angeles by Dr. Neal ElAttrache.
Brandon McCarthy is among the pitchers who are healthy, though he didn’t start Monday’s game as initially expected. He instead pitched in a Minor League game, according to Eric Stephen of True Blue LA:
On Monday, Brandon McCarthy will start on the back fields in a minor league game against the Reds instead of the big league game against Arizona.
The reasoning behind the switch is so McCarthy can work on his pitches:
If he wants to throw 10 straight cutters, he can. If he wants to throw all sinkers, he can do that. He wanted to specifically work on anything that he wanted to, knowing he didn’t have to get three outs, or getting up to 30 pitches and coming out of the game,” Mattingly said. “This way we can control the up and downs, get his pitch count to where we wanted to get it, and him being able to do what he wants.”
While the Dodgers have a day off Tuesday, Brett Anderson will start in a Minor League game to keep the rotation aligned:
Brett Anderson will start in a minor league game against Brewers Class-A players on Tuesday’s off day in order to stay on rotation.
Pitchers won’t be the only players taking advantage of Minor League games as Carl Crawford will use the back field to get more plate appearances:
Carl Crawford, who is not in the lineup Monday and is not in Wednesday’s lineup, will play in a minor league game on Wednesday in an effort to get more plate appearances.
Crawford is hitting .188/.212/.219 in 32 at-bats across 13 games this spring. Additional pitchers and position players may make their way to the Minor League side of camp in the coming days as the Dodgers hit the home stretch of Spring Training.
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