Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez is headed to the 10-day DL with ongoing forearm tendinitis, the club has announced, with center fielder Joc Pederson being activated from his own stint. Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reported earlier that the move was very likely forthcoming.
Remarkably, this represents the first time he has required a DL stint in his 14 MLB seasons. Gonzalez, who’ll turn 35 in a few days, has played in no fewer than 156 games annually ever since he established himself as a regular back in 2006.
While it’s sad to see that outstanding run of durability come to something of an end, Gonzalez was not looking himself in the early stages of the season. The forearm problem, which limited him this spring, has very likely played a role in his .255/.327/.309 batting line through 105 plate appearances. Gonzalez is also suffering through some lower-back problems, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times adds on Twitter.
Manager Dave Roberts had hinted the DL stint was likely in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (audio link). He had stated previously that the team would need to sit down with the highly respected veteran before making a move. But now that it has been made, the path is cleared for exciting prospect Cody Bellinger to stay on the active roster after his impressive start.
“I had a conversation with Adrian yesterday on our off day,” Roberts said earlier today, “and I think that right now where we’re at, we’re leaning toward putting him on the disabled list. We haven’t made that decision officially but I think that’s where we’re going to go and give Cody a little runway to play some first base.”
While there’s still quite a bit of uncertainty in how things will play out the rest of the way, there is now clearly a path for Bellinger to stake a permanent claim to a roster position — if not the first base job. (He is also capable of playing all over the outfield.) Through 36 plate appearances, the hyped youngster has slashed .303/.361/.576 with two home runs. While his proclivity to go down on strikes was the biggest question about him as a player, Bellinger has only been retired by strikeout six times thus far — though certainly it’s a minuscule sample at this point.
If Bellinger can stick on the active roster the rest of the way, he’d set himself up to qualify for arbitration as a Super Two player, meaning he could reach eligibility in advance of the 2020 season. Though he’d add an extra year of arb earnings, with boosted salaries the rest of the way, Los Angeles would still control him through at least 2023.
Respect to Adrian for the doing the right thing.
Well it wasn’t his decision, but he did say the other day that he felt he should have started the season on the DL, so perhaps his pride was getting in the way of the Dodgers doing the right thing at that point.
This could very well be the end for Adrian as a starter. The offense is going down fast and even the defense is starting to go. Last game he let a routine ground ball cost them the game
That wasn’t a routine ground ball or it would have been ruled an error. What cost them that game was a feeble offense and a wild pitch. As for Gonzo’s future, tendonitis isn’t exactly a crippling disease and usually not chronic. Let him rest it up.
Exactly!
It’s clear he’s injured. It’s not the end to his days as a starter especially with the offensive holes on this team. His offensive presence and his hitting ability is still a needed component to the lineup. Now it might be the end to his plus power. But he will be probably be back next month and Bellinger will eventually transition to an outfield corner again *cough cough* RF.
I really hope your right about the injury affecting his play. Because if he plays like that when healthy he really would be in trouble.
Puig is staying. It will either be Toles or Pederson that goes.
If it comes down to those choices, it will be Toles.
Joc does not impress me. I feel he needs to go figure things out in the minors.
It won’t come to that, once AGon is ready to be activated, Utley will be the one to go. By then Forsyth will probably be back and Chris Taylor is doing better and should be kept as a back up so I think Utley is as good as gone I also wouldn’t be surprised if they let Guti go as well
Only way they release guti is if they get braun. Guti hits leftys too well to get released
I agree. They signed Gutierrez to hit lefties which is why they finally sent Van Slyke down. I feel like it’s between Kike or Utley when Foresyth gets back so that means Kike will go down also
From the DL
They aren’t letting Utley go. He’s too valuable a clubhouse guy in their eyes. They will play the options/roster crunch game. Howell would be your golden example of a well respected club house guy gets the longest leash. You can bring up AJ, but AJ wasn’t an FO guy.
Bet they don’t do any of that.
Don’t forget Kiké. He doesn’t offer much more upside at this point than Utley and has hopefully slipped below Taylor on the depth chart over the last few weeks.
Somebody please explain this upside concept to me. The value of Hernandez always was and continues to be his ability to play any position on the field.
BlueSkyLA, looks like I’m guilty this time of writing “upside” when I really should have just offered my opinion that Kiké is no longer good enough in my mind to be on the roster just because he can backup at positions that Taylor and others can play as well or better.
The career numbers on Taylor and Hernandez are strikingly similar and I might agree with your assessment more if Taylor could also play OF. Don’t get me wrong, Taylor is going to get playing time especially now that the return of Forsythe seems to be further off, but I think it would be shortsighted to assume that Taylor bumps Hernandez off the roster because Taylor is hot right now and Hernandez is cold. More goes into these decisions than just that.
Which revealing pictures of Roberts does Van Slyke have that keeps him on the roster?
He’s not on the active roster right now. He got sent down when Gutierrez came back
If Bellinger keeps playing well, he will force the Dodgers hand. What gets lost in his great start with the bat, is the fact he’s an elite glove at first base. He consistently received plus plus fielding grades – from the scouting community and the saber community. Gonzalez isn’t a hole at first, but having Bellinger there is an upgrade. How they balance Bellingers time between first and the outfield will be interesting.
I try not to get too excited about debut performances. Most of them come with setbacks as the opposing pitchers and catchers find and exploit their weak spots. When that doesn’t happen it’s unusual.
Roster management seems to be a lot about the art of the deferred decision. Placing Gonzo on the DL means they have ten more days to evaluate Bellinger, to see how he handles the need to adjust. Anything short of Seager-like ability will earn him another trip to the minors.
Bellinger has a very long swing like Pederson, with no adjustments made after 2 strikes. The projections right now from 3 different sources are that he’ll hit about .234, and if he played a full season, he’d hit about 30 HRs. So if you like Pederson, you’ll like Bellinger, as things stand now. Shortly, the pitchers will find and exploit Bellinger’s weaknesses, and the real test will be whether or not he can adjust. My guess is that when AGon comes back, Utley is dropped. His value in the clubhouse can’t be denied, but guys can’t play forever, and it’s creating and preventing runs that wins games.
Their swings are actually quite different and Bellinger’s already adjusted back to pitchers adjustment. They essentially came after the Cueto game. Obviously pitchers will continue to make adjustments, but the encouraging aspect is the pitches Bellinger’s is spitting on with 2 strikes.
It’s true that Bellinger has cruel intentions with 2 strikes. Yet he’s managed and hasn’t been afraid to shorten up and go the other way either. Bellinger’s swing is longer through the zone yet quicker to it.
Joc on the other has started to figure it out a bit, but there are still some holes. There’s usually a misconception about longer swings. The problem with Joc at times appears his inability to lay of something down and spinning and swing out of shoes on something straight and elevated.
I’m not sure I trust projections on a rookie, but Bellinger appears to have a better idea of what pitchers are trying to do to him than Joc did at the same stage in their careers. There are swing and miss aspects to both players game, but Bellinger seems like a more advanced hitter. There’s no doubt Bellinger is going to go through his patches, but that comes with the evolution of a young hitter. I just think they are different hitters.