West Injury Notes: Pollock, Tatis, Olson, Holland, Smyly

With center fielder A.J. Pollock having undergone right elbow surgery Thursday, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register and other reporters that adding another righty-hitting outfielder “would be ideal.” However, Friedman noted the Dodgers “have a fairly high bar with our mindset being to giving our current guys more of a runway.” Even without Pollock, the Dodgers have no shortage of quality outfield options at the big league level, though nearly all of them hit from the left side. Pollock could come back later in the season to balance out the group, but there’s still no timetable for his return. For now, Pollock’s “resting and recovering” in the wake of surgery, per manager Dave Roberts.

• Padres manager Andy Green expressed optimism Saturday that shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. will come off the injured list in relatively short order, Dennis Lin of The Athletic tweets. Tatis went down with a hamstring strain Tuesday, meaning he’s eligible to return as early as May 10. When he does come back, the 20-year-old rookie will try to pick up where he left off before the injury sidelined him. Tatis has burst on the scene by slashing .300/.360/.550 with six home runs and six steals in 111 plate appearances.
• Injured first baseman Matt Olson could rejoin the Athletics as early as Tuesday, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle relays. The 25-year-old slugger has only totaled six plate appearances this season as a result of late-March surgery on his right hand, an injury that spurred the A’s to acquire Kendrys Morales from the Blue Jays. Morales has since amassed more appearances at first than any other Athletic, but the 35-year-old switch hitter has batted an uninspiring .200/.310/.271 with just one home run in 100 trips to the plate.
• Giants left-hander Derek Holland will come off the injured list Wednesday for a start in Colorado, according to manager Bruce Bochy (via Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group). It’ll amount to a short stay on the IL for Holland, who landed on the shelf April 29 because of a bruised left index finger. Holland, 32, revived his career with the Giants last season, which convinced the team to re-sign him to a one-year, 7MM guarantee over the winter. The investment hasn’t paid off in the early going for San Francisco, as Holland has only managed a 5.34 ERA/5.15 FIP in 32 frames.
• Texas will activate southpaw Drew Smyly from the IL to start Sunday against Toronto, Rangers executive vice president of communications John Blake announced. The oft-injured Smyly, who missed 2017-18 after undergoing Tommy John surgery, has been on the IL since April 20 because of mid-arm nerve tightness in his left arm. While the 29-year-old seems to have dodged a serious ailment this time, his return from TJ surgery has been a struggle thus far. Smyly has averaged fewer than four innings a start across four tries and posted a 7.80 ERA with six walks per nine and a meager 26.7 percent groundball rate.