The Los Angeles Dodgers have been a man short for most of this month as Gavin Lux last played on Sept. 1. Lux was in the Dodgers lineup to start at shortstop the following night with Trea Turner getting his first game off this season, but got scratched.
Lux’s absence has been due to neck discomfort resurfacing after the Dodgers returned from a road trip. “I don’t know if it was a plane flight or what it was, but as he started to get it loose, the neck started to act up again, get cranky,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said at the beginning of the month.
“It was enough that he couldn’t post. So obviously he’s disappointed.”
Lux subsequently received a cortisone injection and was ruled out through at least this week’s series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Roberts said Lux resumed baseball activities over the weekend and next will report to Camelback Ranch to take at-bats, via SportsNet LA:
“There’s been an uptick, which has been great. Gavin is chomping at the bit. The range of motion is good, he’s been running around, taking swings. Took some more swings [Sunday] in the cage, felt really good. Throwing and catching some grounders. So I think the plan when we go to Arizona, either Tuesday or Wednesday, he’ll take some at-bats at CBR. That will get him some live at-bats, and I said it before, he’s probably not going to be live for that San Francisco series, but it looks very promising now that at some point in that series we can get him in a game.”
Without Lux, the Dodgers have primarily played Chris Taylor at second base. The ripple effect has amounted to more opportunities in left field for Joey Gallo and Trayce Thompson.
Lux is batting .293/.368/.428 with 18 doubles, seven triples, six home runs and 42 RBI over 115 games. He has set career highs in games played, doubles and triples. Lux’s batting average, on-base percentage and slugging are on track to be the best marks of his career as well, along with a .350 wOBA and 127 wRC+.
Why won’t Dodgers put Gavin Lux on injured list?
Lux first dealt with neck pain in late August and it caused him to miss four games over a five-day span. Even with the issue returning, the Dodgers don’t regret deciding against initially putting him on the 15-day injured list last month.
“I just think at that point, you know what you know,” Roberts recently said. “He felt that he was playable, that he could play. And then we got back the other night and showed up and said his neck was just in a worse place. I don’t think it makes a whole lot of sense to say, ‘Could we have? Or should we have?'”
Roberts reiterated the Dodgers do not intend to put Lux on the IL.
After facing the Diamondbacks for three games, the Dodgers are off Thursday before a matchup with the San Francisco Giants for the final leg of their road trip.
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